December 06 - January 07 (17)
Editor: Terence K. Huwe
Contributors: Elizabeth del Rocío Camacho, Janice Kimball


IRLE News & Events
IRLE (formerly IIR) 60th Anniversary Celebration:  A Huge Success
New Research by David Levine and Jonathan Leonard featured by the UC Berkeley Newscenter
New Sponsored Research
Industrial Relations:  A Journal of Economy and Society:  October 2006 articles and abstracts


IRLE Unit News
Labor Center News
California Public Employee Relations News
Center for the Study of Child Care Employment News
Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Library
Labor Project for Working Families


Campus News and Events
Economics Department
Haas School of Business




IRLE NEWS & EVENTS


IRLE (formerly IIR) 60th Anniversary Celebration:  A Huge Success

IRLE’s day-long event attracted hundreds of people and many of them stayed throughout the day to listen to four panel discussions-- on globalization, immigration, the state of the labor movement, and public policy to improve California’s labor markets-- as well as a “poster” session featuring the work of many faculty and staff affiliated with IIT. The lunchtime address was by Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. Breakfast and lunch were provided, and a wine and cheese reception finished the day.  Associate Chancellor John Cummins officially thanked IRLE, and conferred Chancellor Robert J. Biregenau’s appreciation of IRLE’s activities. He presented past Directors Lloyd Ulman, George Strauss and Clair Brown with plaques in recognition of their service to the University. IRLE received a certificate of appreciation for our 60 years of contributions from the California Legislature.

The 60th Anniversary was Webcast, and is available for viewing at:
http://www.irle.berkeley.edu/events/anniversary.html


David I. Levine and Jonathan Leonard Feature on the UC  Berkeley NewsCenter

IRLE affiliates David Levine and Jonathan Leonard received front-and-center attention for their recent study of employee turnover.  David and Jonathan studied over 70,000 “front line” employees in more than 800 workplaces. They find interesting and provocative links between employee turnover and workplace diversity.  The full story may be found at:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2006/11/29_diversity.shtml


New Sponsored Research

Marcy Whitebook

Marcy has been awarded two grants from First 5 Alameda County to assist with the research and development of a new undergraduate Minor program and Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Childhood, housed in U.C. Berkeley's School of Education.  This is a joint effort of the School of Education, School of Social Welfare and the Department of Psychology.

Carol Zabin

Carol has received a grant from the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO is to study the contributions of unions to workforce development programs. This project will report on four to five labor-management partnerships and focus on the role of the union in initiating, designing and implementing the training programs and the specific added value that union involvement has brought.  Workforce Learning Strategies will subcontract with the Labor Center to set up the interviews and assist with conducting the analysis and writing the final report.


Industrial Relations:  A Journal of Economy and Society: October 2006 articles and abstracts

SPECIAL ISSUE: Organizational Participation

Volume 45 Issue 4 - October 2006

Abstracts

The Diffusion of Calculative and Collaborative HRM Practices in European Firms

ERIK POUTSMA, PAUL E. M. LIGTHART, ULKE VEERSMA
The aim of this paper is to trace and explain variations in calculative and collaborative human resource management (HRM) practices between companies and across national borders. Variations and similarities are explained in terms of the convergence and divergence of HRM practices determined by national institutions, and the increasing influence of multinational companies (MNCs). We explore the diffusion of HRM practices in Europe over time, using data sets from two surveys conducted in several European countries in 1995 and 2000. We use institutional explanations for the development of three selected bundles of HRM practices: individual, calculative performance-oriented practices; collective incentive schemes for the alignment of interests; and collaborative practices that seek to enhance the commitment of employees. We found substantial effects of country-specific institutions and of the country of origin of MNCs, which clearly support the institutional duality thesis. Foreign-owned MNCs, especially those that are US-based, appear to moderate country-specific institutional effects on the diffusion of the three HRM bundles.

U.S. High-Performance Work Practices at Century's End

JOSEPH R. BLASI, DOUGLAS L. KRUSE
This study examines the incidence, industry differences, and economic environment of work practices in the United States in 1994 and 1997 using census data from a nationally representative random sample of establishments. Self-managed work teams were used by a majority of workers in some sites. Work-related meetings had higher incidence. A high-performance work organization is used in about 1 percent of establishments. There were significant industry differences associated with globalization, namely, imports and exports.

Determinants of the Extent of Participatory Employment Practices: Evidence from Japan

TAKAO KATO
Prior studies on the effects of participatory employment practices often assume that once introduced, participatory employment practices change little in their nature and scope over time. Using unique micro data that provide detailed information on various attributes of participatory employment practices of Japanese firms as well as the age of such practices, we provide the first direct and systematic evidence that such practices expand significantly in their scope and nature as they age.

Twin Tracks­Employee Representation at Eurotunnel Revisited

PAUL J. GOLLAN
The introduction of the European Directive on Information and Consultation and the recent implementation of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations into United Kingdom (UK) law have increased the focus on workplace representation arrangements. This paper examines the interplay between nonunion and union representative arrangements at Eurotunnel (UK) and assesses their effectiveness in representing the needs of employees over a 5-year period. Importantly, the paper also examines the opportunities and challenges of both nonunion representation (NER) and union voice arrangements. The findings show that the effectiveness of nonunion structures as bodies representing the interests of employees in filling the lack of representation is questionable. However, union recognition through an employer–union partnership agreement has also raised important issues regarding the effectiveness, impact, and legitimacy of unions at Eurotunnel. The main implication of this research is that the existence of a mechanism­union or nonunion­for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be a sufficient condition for effective representation of employee interests. In addition, while trade unions may provide greater voice than nonunion arrangements (thus the reluctance of management to accept such voice arrangements), the strength of voice is dependent on the legitimacy and effectiveness of trade unions in representing employees' interests at the workplace. And that in turn depends on the union being perceived by the workforce as both representative and able to act independently. If the union cannot, it will not meet the needs of either employees or management­and could run the risk of being supplanted under the provisions of the new EU Directive on Information and Consultation with tougher requirements for compliance in terms of procedures for consultation and information disclosure.

What Factors Lead Management to Support or Oppose Employee Participation­With and Without Works Councils? Hypotheses and Evidence from Germany

UWE JIRJAHN, STEPHEN C. SMITH
This paper provides the first econometric analysis to distinguish between works councils in establishments where managers have a positive or negative view toward employee involvement in decision making. We similarly distinguish between establishments where no council is present in which management supports or does not support worker participation. We stress the potential role of works councils and participation in motivating employees. Our theoretical analysis and empirical results from German manufacturing establishment data show that the structure of the workforce, principal-agent problems between owners and managers, collective bargaining, direct employee involvement, human resource management practices, and market strategy and innovativeness all play important roles. Some conflicting conclusions in the works council literature may be due to the failure to distinguish among industrial relations participation regimes characterized by cooperative or uncooperative relationships between works councils and management.

The Performance of European Works Councils in Engineering: Perspectives of the Employee Representatives

JEREMY WADDINGTON
Drawing on a structured survey of European works council representatives within the engineering industry, this paper identifies a number of shortfalls in the performance of European works councils. In particular, it shows that European works council representatives retain a national rather than a European point of reference and are critical of the integration of European works councils with other aspects of trade union organization and activity. In contrast, European works council representatives welcome the transparency within multinational companies introduced by the directive. The paper concludes in terms of a range of revisions that might usefully be introduced to improve the performance of the directive.

Unions and Employee Ownership: A Road to Economic Democracy?

JACQUELYN YATES
In the relationship between unions and employee share ownership, neither threatened the other, and their combination led to benefits for employees, particularly where unionized employees were majority owners. Companies adding communication, training, and participation reported performance gains. These practices were more common among majority-owned companies and in companies facing economic threats. Economic performance and benefits were comparable, whether unionized employees owned a majority of the stock, a minority, or none at all.

Intellectual Capital, Monitoring, and Risk: What Predicts the Adoption of Employee Stock Options?

MAYA K. KROUMOVA, JAMES C. SESIL
We use empirical analysis to analyze company characteristics associated with the adoption and maintenance of broad-based stock option plans. First, a cross-sectional analysis evaluates what company characteristics are now associated the incidence of such plans. Second, a longitudinal analysis examines the company characteristics that predict the adoption of such plans. Our results show that firms with higher levels of intellectual capital and capital intensity are more likely to adopt and maintain employee stock option plans.

Incentives, Monitoring, and Employee Stock Ownership Plans: New Evidence and Interpretations

ANDREW PENDLETON
This paper reviews the theory and evidence for agency theory-based explanations for employee stock ownership plans found in the financial participation literature. The UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 is used to test whether share plans substitute for direct monitoring and individual incentives. Contrary to some predictions in the literature, individual incentives are found to be complements of share plans, while other measures of monitoring costs provide mixed results. However, it is found that monitoring costs and a wide range of performance targets explain the conjunction of stock plans and individual incentives. It is suggested that share plans are used to mitigate dysfunctional effects of individual incentives by engendering cooperation and trust, and by broadening the range and time frame of desired performance outcomes.

Worker Participation­Some Under-Considered Issues

GEORGE STRAUSS
This paper deals with a variety of issues regarding participation that may have received too little attention or that may be viewed from a different perspective. These include the sometimes faddist interest in the topic, participation as a form of bargaining, and alternate research strategies. It also reports on the current status of several once-publicized participation sites.