The emergence and prevalence of employee management rhetorics: the effects of long waves, labor unions, and turnover, 1875 to 1992

Article Abstract:

Five employee management rhetorics have swept U.S. managerial discourse over the last century: welfare work, scientific management, human relations and personnel management, systems rationalism, and organization culture and quality. I tested two competing theses: the performance-gap thesis, according to which the popularity of rhetorics that promise to narrow organizational performance gaps fluctuates with the magnitude of these gaps across organizations, and the pendulum thesis, according to which the popularity of these rhetorics has been related to upswings and downswings in long waves of macroeconomic activity. I measured rhetorics' popularity between 1875 and 1992 using yearly counts of articles. Results suggest that the two theses are in fact complementary. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Rhetoric, Long waves (Economics), Kondratieff cycles

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Associate membership programs: innovation and diversification in national unions

Article Abstract:

This article examines the establishment of associate membership programs by national private sector unions. We used theories of innovation and diversification to develop hypotheses relating organizational and environmental characteristics to union decisions to establish such programs. Data from a variety of sources, including a telephone survey, were used to develop measures, and the hypotheses were tested with logistic regression analysis procedures. Predictions involving the scope of union strategies, the jurisdiction of construction unions, the organizing of "knowledge workers," and representation on a key American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) policy committee received the strongest support. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Membership

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A structural contingency approach to bureaucracy and democracy in U.S. national unions

Article Abstract:

Drawing on industrial relations and organizational science concepts, in this article we apply elements of contingency theory to national unions' representative and administrative structures. We argue that these structures are distinct and develop in response to different organizational and environmental imperatives. These ideas were tested with a unique set of data on unions' characteristics and environments. The results provide broad support for our approach and suggest that greater collaboration among industrial relations and organizational science scholars would benefit both literatures. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Management, Labor relations

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