Workers need to question whether right to work laws arepromoting their rights or stripping them away

In March, Wisconsin controversially became the 25th state to adopt ‘right to work’ legislation which bans unions from collecting dues from non-unionized workers. Jonathan E. Booth looks at the history and background of right to work laws, which are often framed by those who support them as being pro-job and pro-growth. He argues that the evidence to support these claims is largely spurious, and that politicians, such as Wisconsin’s Governor, Scott Walker, have tended to use right to work laws in order to further their own political aspirations by weakening unions’ political power

Listen carefully: The voice of transgender employees is not being heard

Jonathan Booth, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, discusses why transgender voices in the workplace are not being heard and proposes solutions for fixing this issue

The Supreme Court's 'fair share' case is an existential threat to public sector unions. But it may force them to engage and embrace choice

The US Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 case, which maintains that mandatory public sector union dues violate workers' First Amendment rights. Jonathan E. Booth argues that despite the case's free speech claims, such 'fair share' fees actually enhance the voice and representation of workers. He writes that if the Court finds against these fees, public sector unions may face declining memberships and falling incomes, which they could counter by increasing engagement with their members in order to prove their value

Union members are more likely to give to charity, and to give more when they do

While union membership has benefits to workers themselves, could these benefits have spill over effects that are also a boon to society? Jonathan Booth and Mark Williams look at the effects that union membership has on charitable giving, and find that being a union member makes people 5 percent more likely to give to charity, and also to give 30 percent more than non-union members. These findings, they argue, may have important implications for society in a time of declining union membership

Benefitting or suffering from a paradoxical leader? A self-regulation perspective

Why do followers’ reactions to perceived paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) differ? To answer this question, we draw from self-regulation theory and argue that making sense of a paradoxical leader’s seemingly contradictory behavior can pose a challenge for followers and requires specific cognitive traits and abilities that enable them to navigate such complex and dynamic environments. We propose that followers who lack these cognitive traits and related abilities find it more difficult to make sense of and navigate their paradoxical leader’s behavior, thereby perceiving them as behaviorally unpredictable. This, in turn, impairs followers’ self-regulation when working with such leaders, and leads to lower well-being. Conversely, followers endowed with appropriate cognitive traits can make sense of PLB and thrive in these environments. To test our propositions, we conducted two multi-wave field studies. In Study 1, we examine the role of followers’ trait cognitive flexibility in interpreting PLB; whereas Study 2 explores the role of followers’ trait self-regulation. The findings from these studies support our hypotheses, with an important implication: the efficacy of PLB may not only solely depend on a leader’s ability to enact these behaviors but also on their followers’ ability to interpret and make sense of them

How organisations can help their LGBTQI+ employees as they face divided experiences

LGBTQI+ people face divided experiences. They’re increasingly represented in media, and have more accessible information and wider access to legal marriage. At the same time, unprecedented criminalisation is excluding trans people from specific spaces and vital services. Jordana Moser, Jonathan E Booth and T Alexandra Beauregard describe the current state of play for LGBTQI+ inclusion and outline further steps that organisations can take to support their LGBTQI+ employees

Corporate volunteering climate: mobilizing employee passion for societal causes and inspiring future charitable action

As a society, we grapple with a host of national and global social issues — ranging from hunger and poverty to education to financial stability. Today’s corporations are playing an increasing role in efforts to address such concerns, predominantly through corporate volunteering. Yet, because research on corporate volunteering has been primarily focused on the individual volunteer experience, we still know relatively little about how corporate volunteering can help address grand challenges. In this study, we introduce the concept of corporate volunteering climate in order to examine the broader, more system-level functioning of corporate volunteering in workplaces. Drawing on the sensemaking process, we theorize about how a corporate volunteering climate develops — to what extent is it driven by company-level policies versus employee convictions for a cause? We also explore the potential influence of corporate volunteering climate for volunteers and non-volunteers, both in terms of the workplace (through employee affective commitment) and in terms of the broader community (through employee intentions to volunteer, both in corporate opportunities and on personal time). The results of a study conducted with United Way Worldwide suggest that corporate volunteering climate not only arises through either employees’ belief in the cause or corporate policies, but also that these forces act as substitutes for one another. Moreover, by fostering a sense of collective pride among employees, this climate is related to affective commitment, as well as both corporate and personal volunteering intentions

The conventional wisdom of discharge arbitration outcomes and remedies: fact or fiction

This study examines some of the arbitration community’s commonly accepted beliefs about arbitration outcomes and remedies in employee discharge cases, with the findings revealing that some beliefs are likely fact, while others, perhaps, are fiction. With data from 1432 Minnesota discharge awards and 74 arbitrators who decided them, eight truisms are examined pertaining to the following: the frequency that arbitrators use Daugherty’s Seven Tests rubric to analyze case evidence and whether its use affects award outcomes; the distribution of varying quanta of required proof by arbitrators and how different quanta affects award outcomes; and the effect of employee job tenure and “last chance agreement” status on award outcomes. Using a subsample of “reinstatement with back pay” awards, we additionally examine the prevalence of arbitrators ordering how back pay should be computed and “retaining jurisdiction” over back pay cases

MOLECULAR APPROACHES FOR IN SITU IDENTIFCIATION OF NITRATE UTILIZATION BY MARINE BACTERIA AND PHYTOPLANKTON

Traditionally, the importance of inorganic nitrogen (N) for the nutrition and growth of marine phytoplankton has been recognized, while inorganic N utilization by bacteria has received less attention. Likewise, organic N has been thought to be important for heterotrophic organisms but not for phytoplankton. However, accumulating evidence suggests that bacteria compete with phytoplankton for nitrate (NO3-) and other N species. The consequences of this competition may have a profound effect on the flux of N, and therefore carbon (C), in ocean margins. Because it has been difficult to differentiate between N uptake by heterotrophic bacterioplankton versus autotrophic phytoplankton, the processes that control N utilization, and the consequences of these competitive interactions, have traditionally been difficult to study. Significant bacterial utilization of DIN may have a profound effect on the flux of N and C in the water column because sinks for dissolved N that do not incorporate inorganic C represent mechanisms that reduce the atmospheric CO2 drawdown via the ?biological pump? and limit the flux of POC from the euphotic zone. This project was active over the period of 1998-2007 with support from the DOE Biotechnology Investigations ? Ocean Margins Program (BI-OMP). Over this period we developed a tool kit of molecular methods (PCR, RT-PCR, Q-PCR, QRT-PCR, and TRFLP) and combined isotope mass spectrometry and flow-cytometric approaches that allow selective isolation, characterization, and study of the diversity and genetic expression (mRNA) of the structural gene responsible for the assimilation of NO3- by heterotrophic bacteria (nasA). As a result of these studies we discovered that bacteria capable of assimilating NO3- are ubiquitous in marine waters, that the nasA gene is expressed in these environments, that heterotrophic bacteria can account for a significant fraction of total DIN uptake in different ocean margin systems, that the expression of nasA is differentially regulated in genetically distinct NO3- assimilating bacteria, and that the best predictors of nasA gene expression are either NO3- concentration or NO3- uptake rates. These studies provide convincing evidence of the importance of bacterial utilization of NO3-, insight into controlling processes, and provide a rich dataset that are being used to develop linked C and N modeling components necessary to evaluate the significance of bacterial DIN utilization to global C cycling. Furthermore, as a result of BI-OMP funding we made exciting strides towards institutionalizing a research and education based collaboration between the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography (SkIO) and Savannah State University (SSU), an historically black university within the University System of Georgia with undergraduate and now graduate programs in marine science. The BI-OMP program, in addition to supporting undergraduate (24) graduate (10) and postdoctoral (2) students, contributed to the development of a new graduate program in Marine Sciences at SSU that remains an important legacy of this project. The long-term goals of these collaborations are to increase the capacity for marine biotechnology research and to increase representation of minorities in marine, environmental and biotechnological sciences