This study examines how a transformation in patterns of conflict and cooperation affected economic performance in 25 work areas of a large, unionized manufacturing facility in the period 1984–87. Unlike most studies of industrial relations and economic performance, this study clearly distinguishes conflict from cooperation but evaluates the two together, rather than focusing on only one. An analysis of data collected from union and employer records and interviews strongly suggests that work areas with “traditional” labor-management relations, rooted in adversarial assumptions, had higher costs, more scrap, lower productivity, and a lower return to direct labor hours worked than work areas with “transformational” relations, characterized by increased cooperation and improved dispute resolution.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbowdJohn. 1985. “Collective Bargaining and the Division of the Value of the Enterprise.” Presented at the MIT Industrial Relations Seminar.
2.
AllisonGrahm. 1971. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Boston: Little, Brown.
3.
BlockRichardKleinerMorrisRoomkinMyron, and SalsburgSidney. 1987. “Industrial Relations and the Performance of the Firm: An Overview.” In KleinerMorris M., eds., Human Resources and the Performance of the Firm. Madison, Wis.: Industrial Relations Research Association Series.
4.
CameronKim, and WhettenDavid, eds. 1983. Organizational Effectiveness: A Comparison of Multiple Models. New York: Academic Press.
5.
ClarkKim. 1980. “The Impact of Unionization on Productivity: A Case Study.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 33, No. 4 (July), pp. 451–69.
6.
Cutcher-GershenfeldJoel. 1987. “The Collective Governance of Industrial Relations.” Ph.D. diss., M.I.T.
7.
Cutcher-GershenfeldJoel. 1988. The Institutionalization of Organizational Change: A Case Study of Xerox and ACTWU. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor. (Reprinted in FolkesFred, ed., Human Resource Management: Text and Cases, Second Edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1989.)
8.
Cutcher-GershenfeldJoelKochanThomas A., and VermaAnil. 1990. “Recent Developments in U.S. Employee Involvement Initiatives: Erosion or Transformation?” In Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Volume 5. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs.
9.
Cutcher-GershenfeldJoelMcKersieRobert B., and WaltonRichard. 1989. “Negotiating Transformation: Negotiations Lessons from Current Developments in Industrial Relations.” In JanchLawrence R. and WallsJerry L., eds., Academy of Management Best Papers Proceedings. Washington, D.C.: Academy of Management.
10.
Cutcher-GershenfeldJoelMcKersieRobert B., and WeverKirstin R.. 1988. The Changing Role of Union Leaders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.
11.
DavisLou, and TristEric. 1974. “Improving the Quality of Work Life: Sociotechnical Case Studies.” In O'TooleJ., ed., Work and the Quality of Life: Resource Papers for Work in America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
12.
DelaneyJohn ThomasIchniowskiCasey, and LewinDavid. “Employment Involvement Programs and Firm Performance.”Proceedings of the Forty-First Annual Meeting.Madison, Wis.: IRRA, pp. 148–58.
13.
DoughertyDeborah. 1988. “Toward an Integrating Perspective on Product Innovation in Large Firms.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Anaheim, Calif.).
14.
DouglasMary. 1986. How Institutions Think. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press.
15.
DunlopJohn. 1958. Industrial Relations Systems. New York: Henry Holt.
16.
DunlopJohn, and SaltzerM.. 1987. “Forums and Governance.”Mimeo, Harvard University.
17.
AlanFox. 1974. Beyond Contract: Work, Power and Trust Relations. London: Faber & Faber.
18.
FreemanRichard, and MedoffJames. 1984. What Do Unions Do?New York: Basic Books.
19.
GershenfeldWalter. 1987. “Employee Participation in Firm Decisions.” In KleinerMorris M., eds., Human Resources and the Performance of the Firm. Madison, Wis.: IRRA.
20.
GeussRichard. 1981. The Idea of Critical Theory: Habermas and the Frankfurt School. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21.
GilbertBeth. 1987. “Quality of Working Life and Productivity: An Examination of the Empirical Findings.”Mimeo, Division of Administration, University of New Brunswick.
22.
GoldenClinton, and ParkerVirginia. 1955. Causes of Industrial Peace Under Collective Bargaining. Washington, D.C.: National Planning Association.
23.
GombergWilliam. 1967. “Special Study Committees.” In DunlopJohn and ChamberlainNeil, eds., Frontiers of Collective Bargaining. New York: Harper & Row.
24.
GoodmanPaul. 1979. Assessing Organizational Change: The Rushton Quality of Work Experiment. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
25.
GreenhalghLen. 1986. “Negotiated Outcomes of Interpersonal Conflicts in Organizations.”Mimeo, Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Dartmouth College.
26.
HymanRichard. 1975. Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction. London: MacMillan.
27.
IchniowskiCasey. 1984. “Micro-Production Functions Aren't Pretty: Firm-Level and Industry-Level Specification for Inputs and Outputs.” Sloan Working Paper, M.I.T., June.
28.
IchniowskiCasey. 1986. “The Effects of Grievance Activity on Productivity.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 40, No. 1 (October), pp. 75–89.
29.
JacobsonGary, and HillkirkJohn. 1986. Xerox: American Samurai. New York: MacMillan.
30.
KatzHarryKochanThomas, and GobeilleKenneth. 1983. “Industrial Relations Performance, Economic Performance, and QWL Programs: An Interplant Analysis.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 37, No. 1 (October), pp. 3–17.
31.
KatzHarryKochanThomas, and KeefeJeffrey. 1988. “The Impact of Industrial Relations on Productivity: Evidence from the Automobile Industry.”Brooking Papers on Economic Activity, Vol. 3, pp. 685–715.
32.
KochanThomas, and Cutcher-GershenfeldJoel. 1988. Institutionalizing and Diffusing Innovations in Industrial Relations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor.
33.
KochanThomasDyerLee, and LipskyDavid. 1976. The Effectiveness of Union-Management Safety and Health Committees. Kalamazoo, Mich.: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
34.
KochanThomasKatzHarry, and McKersieRobert. 1986. The Transformation of American Industrial Relations. New York: Basic Books.
35.
KochanThomasKatzHarry, and WeberMark. 1985. “Assessing the Effects of Industrial Relations and Quality of Working Life Efforts on Organizational Effectiveness.”Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 509–27.
36.
KolbDeborah, and CoolidgeGloria. 1988. “Her Place at the Table: Gender Issues in Negotiations.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Anaheim, Calif.).
37.
KuhnThomas. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38.
MarrowAlfredBowersD., and SeashoreStanley. 1967. Management by Participation: Creating a Climate for Personal and Organizational Development. New York: Harper & Row.
39.
NisbettRichard, and RossLee. 1984. Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
40.
NorthrupHerbert, and YoungH.. 1968. “The Causes of Industrial Peace Revisited.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 22, No. 1 (October), pp. 31–47.
41.
PioreMichael. 1987. Comment at Conference on New Developments in Labor Markets and Human Resource Policies. Endicott House, Dedham, Mass.
42.
PioreMichael, and SabelCharles. 1984. The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. New York: Basic Books.
43.
RosenbergR., and RosensteinE.. 1980. “Participation and Productivity: An Empirical Study.”Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 33, No. 3 (April), pp. 355–67.
44.
RubackR., and ZimmermanM.. 1984. “Unionization and Profitability: Evidence from the Capital Market.”Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 92, No. 6 (December), pp. 1134–57.
45.
SavoieErnest, and Cutcher-GershenfeldJoel. 1990. “Reflections on the Governance of Joint Training Initiatives.” In Joint Programs for the Training and Personal Development of Workers: New Initiatives in Union-Management Relations. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press.
46.
TristEric, and BamforthKen. 1951. “Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting.”Human Relations, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 6–38.
47.
WaltonRichard, and McKersieRobert. 1965. A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations. New York: McGraw-Hill.
48.
WebbSidney, and WebbBeatrice. 1897. Industrial Democracy. London: Longmans.
49.
WongAnthony, and LaneT.. 1987. “A Kth Nearest Neighbor Clustering Procedure.”Mimeo, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, M.I.T.
