Beliefs about unions and what they should do: a survey of employed Canadians

Article Abstract:

I use IR theory to identify five roles that have been associated with unions in North America and then report the findings from a 1995 survey of employed Canadians, asking them their beliefs about the amount of effort unions place on each of twenty-four activities associated with these roles, the amount of effort unions should place on each, and the amount of success unions have on each. Basically, Canadians want unions to continue to perform their traditional activities, and they view unions as having an important conflict role, but they also want unions to place more effort into more consensual workplace democratization and participation activities. These results are consistent with the notion of "adversary participation," and are interpreted as suggesting a new "model" of unions, one which enables workers to have greater control over their working lives. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Labor organizations, Labor Unions, Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations, Research, Industrial research, Surveys, Public opinion, Canadians

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Unions, incentive systems, and job design

Article Abstract:

I model the relationship between incentive systems and job design and how unions influence both. The basic idea is that it is easier to monitor worker effort for jobs designed to be routine and inflexible. Pay based on monitoring is used in this scenario rather than incentive pay based on production. Jobs with worker flexibility and autonomy call for incentives based more on output. Unions typically oppose this view and shows that incentive pay is much less likely for union workers and unions have a clear negative effect on job characteristics that lead to the use of incentive pay. In particular, union jobs are more repetitive, have more measurable criteria, and involve less judgmental criteria and less data analysis. (Reprinted with permission by author.)

Social aspects, Analysis, Economic aspects, Employee incentives, Work design, Job analysis

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