IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v39y1986i4p487-501.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Corporate Strategy and Workplace Innovations on Union Representation

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas A. Kochan
  • Robert B. McKersie
  • John Chalykoff

Abstract

This paper explores the decline of union membership within partially organized firms. Using data from two Conference Board surveys of labor relations practices (1977 and 1983), the authors test a series of propositions concerning the effects of corporate industrial relations values and strategies and workplace innovations on union representation and membership. The results show that whereas the average firm reduced the number of workers represented by unions by approximately 977 from 1977 to 1983, firms that placed a high priority on union avoidance reduced union representation by an average of 2,647 workers over the same period. Moreover, the typical firm that emphasized union avoidance reduced the probability that its new facilities would be organized from approximately 15 percent to less than 1 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Kochan & Robert B. McKersie & John Chalykoff, 1986. "The Effects of Corporate Strategy and Workplace Innovations on Union Representation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 39(4), pages 487-501, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:39:y:1986:i:4:p:487-501
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ilr.sagepub.com/content/39/4/487.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richard B. Freeman, 1987. "Contraction and Expansion: The Divergence of Private Sector and Public Sector Unionism in tht U.S," NBER Working Papers 2399, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Huiskamp, R., 1989. "Company strategy and the (re)design of industrial relations : some case-studies in the Netherlands," Serie Research Memoranda 0038, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    3. Rebitzer, James B., 1994. "Structural, Microeconomic and Institutional Explanations for Union Decline in the United States," Economic Review, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 45(1), pages 41-52, January.
    4. McKersie, Robert B. & Kochan, Thomas A., 1987. "The changing role of union leaders," Working papers 1964-87., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    5. Thomas Kochan & Marc Weinstein, 1994. "Recent Developments in US Industrial Relations," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 483-504, December.
    6. Richard B. Freeman & Morris M. Kleiner, 1990. "Employer Behavior in the Face of Union Organizing Drives," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 43(4), pages 351-365, July.
    7. Strauss, George, 1991. "HRM in the USA," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt64v588z3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    8. Motohiro Morishima, 1992. "Use of Joint Consultation Committees by Large Japanese Firms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 30(3), pages 405-423, September.
    9. Strauss, George, 1987. "The Future of Human Resources Management," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt3vm5x2m4, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    10. John E. McCarthy, 2021. "Labor‐Management Partnerships' Effects On Unionists' Interaction Networks: Evidence From Us Public Schools," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 277-306, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:39:y:1986:i:4:p:487-501. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.