How High Performance Human Resource Practices and Workforce Unionization Affect Managerial Pay

Using data from a nationally representative sample of telecommunications establishments, this study finds that HR practices and workforce unionization influence managerial pay levels and the ratio of manager-to-worker pay. High performance HR practices, including investment in the skills of the workforce, in computer-based technologies, and in performance-based worker pay practices, are all positively related to managerial pay; but the use of workforce teams, which shift some managerial responsibilities to workers, has the opposite association. High performance HR practices also are associated with lower manager to- worker pay differentials. In addition, workforce unionization is positively associated with managerial pay levels, with worker base pay mediating the relationship between managers\u27 pay and unionization

Texas: Round 1 - State-Level Field network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, Texas has reviewed and debated the different policy directives of the legislation. In 2011, Texas decided against administering a state-run health insurance exchange and opted in to a federally run exchange. This decision occurred prior to the Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of ACA provisions. In 2013, after the 2012 Supreme Court decision allowed states to decide whether to expand Medicaid, Texas chose not to expand Medicaid eligibility and enrollment

Labor, Management, and Government Interactions

[Excerpt] Labor, management, and government engage in complex interactions in emerging countries, and these interactions strongly influence the evolution of labor relations in those countries. For example, unions and other workers’ movements in some countries have aligned with a particular political party or in some cases are the core constituents of a labor party that is active in the political arena. This chapter will discuss cases where particular unions were aligned with the governing leaders or party. Another way unions and workers have influenced governments is through their involvement in protests or other political actions that are part of democratization campaigns or movements. As will be discussed in this chapter, some of these efforts to promote democracy have succeeded in recent years and have led to major political transformations in particular countries

An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations

[Excerpt] This comprehensive textbook provides an introduction to collective bargaining and labor relations with a focus on developments in the United States. It is appropriate for students, policy analysts, and labor relations professionals including unionists, managers, and neutrals. A three-tiered strategic choice framework unifies the text, and the authors’ thorough grounding in labor history and labor law assists students in learning the basics. In addition to traditional labor relations, the authors address emerging forms of collective representation and movements that address income inequality in novel ways. Harry C. Katz, Thomas A. Kochan, and Alexander J. S. Colvin provide numerous contemporary illustrations of business and union strategies. They consider the processes of contract negotiation and contract administration with frequent comparisons to nonunion practices and developments, and a full chapter is devoted to special aspects of the public sector. An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations has an international scope, covering labor rights issues associated with the global supply chain as well as the growing influence of NGOs and cross-national unionism. The authors also compare how labor relations systems in Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa compare to practices in the United States

Global Pressures: Multinational Corporations, International Unionism, and NGOs

[Excerpt] The globalization of product, financial, and labor markets has made it easier for companies to produce many of the goods and services they sell wherever in the world the right skills can be found at the lowest cost. The desire to sell products worldwide has also created incentives for firms to have a presence in multiple countries. Together these facts have made labor relations in many industries global in scope. Globalization is of particular importance to emerging countries. Nearly 50 percent of the world’s manufacturing employment is now located in emerging countries. Globalization poses significant challenges to labor relations practices. Historically the laws, markets, institutions, norms, and practices of labor relations have developed on a national basis. Globalization has weakened, though not eliminated, the role of national systems of labor relations and given rise to a number of new institutions, structures, and processes for dealing with all of the labor relations functions discussed in previous chapters. In this chapter we will discuss these new arrangements and the challenges globalization poses to labor relations. To do so we will use the framework laid out in chapter 1 for analyzing labor relations

The Negotiations Process and Structures

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the process by which unions and employers negotiate collective agreements and the structures they use for those negotiations, continuing the analysis of the middle (functional) level of labor relations activity. It explains the dynamics of negotiations and the factors that lead to strikes and then goes on to discuss the different bargaining structures used in negotiations

How High Performance Human Resource Practices and Workforce Unionization Affect Managerial Pay

Using data from a nationally representative sample of telecommunications establishments, this study finds that HR practices and workforce unionization influence managerial pay levels and the ratio of manager-to-worker pay. High performance HR practices, including investment in the skills of the workforce, in computer-based technologies, and in performance-based worker pay practices, are all positively related to managerial pay; but the use of workforce teams, which shift some managerial responsibilities to workers, has the opposite association. High performance HR practices also are associated with lower manager-to-worker pay differentials. In addition, workforce unionization is positively associated with managerial pay levels, with worker base pay mediating the relationship between managers\u27 pay and unionization

The Role of the Economic, Technological, and Demographic Environments

[Excerpt] This chapter examines how various forces in the environment influence labor relations in emerging countries. We focus in particular on how factors in the economic, technological, and demographic environments influence the bargaining power of both labor and management. In doing so we are moving downward in our three-tiered framework by examining how external environmental factors influence the functional level of labor relations

Telecommunications 2000 Strategy, HR Practices & Performance

This report constitutes the first benchmarking survey of business and human resource practices among a nationally representative sample of workplaces in the broadly defined telecommunications industry that includes wireline, wireless, cable, and internet providers. It grows out of a multi-year study of organizational change in the industry, and is based on extensive field study, site visits, interviews, and surveys conducted by research teams at Cornell and Rutgers Universities. Managers at 577 establishments across the country gave generously of their time during a lengthy telephone survey. The study was made possible through a generous grant by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. While this report is based on data collected among workplaces in the U.S., it has implications for the restructuring of the global telecommunications industry. In other research, we have found that the United States has been at the forefront of market deregulation and technology change, but many other countries have followed a similar path and look to the United States as a model for organizational restructuring (Katz 1997). Thus, at least some of the patterns we find here are likely to occur in other countries undergoing similar patterns of deregulation

Telecommunications 2004: Business Strategy, HR Practices, and Performance

This national benchmarking report of the U.S. telecommunications services industry traces the tumultuous changes in management and workforce practices and performance in the sector over the last 5 years. This is a follow-up report to our 1998 study. At that time, when the industry was booming, we conducted a national survey of establishments in the industry. In 2003, we returned to do a second national survey of the industry, this time in a sector that was recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history