Knowledge Capital Accumulations and Employee Involvement Work Systems—Does Workplace Culture Have a Role?

Knowledge capital accumulations are impacted by a variety of workplace factors, including the human resource management work system and the workgroup culture in which it is embedded. Organizations adopting high-involvement work systems stressing employee participation, empowerment, commitment, and accountability have the potential to produce, and to be a beneficiary of, greater stores of employee intellectual capital. The role of workplace culture in this relationship is potentially salient but its operational characteristics require further elucidation. Using a competing values framework to characterize workplace culture, four culture archetypes can be specified: hierarchical, market, entrepreneurial, and clan. Results from step-wise regression analysis show that the four workplace culture archetypes contribute differentially to intellectual capital stores, yet only the clan and entrepreneurial culture archetypes partially mediates this relationship

The Labour-Management Relationship and Organization Outcomes : Some Initial Findings

Depuis quelques années, on réclame plus de relations coopératives entre les travailleurs et la direction comme moyen d'accroître la productivité et d'améliorer la position concurrentielle canadienne dans l'économie globale. Alors que les chercheurs s'attardent de plus en plus sur la coopération patronale-syndicale, très peu d'études ont examiné l'effet des relations du travail sur les résultats organisationnels. On a certes prétendu que la qualité des relations du travail a plus à faire avec la performance de l'organisation que la syndicalisation en soi. Cependant, le débat est sérieux entre chercheurs, dirigeants syndicaux et administrateurs sur les avantages et inconvénients de la coopération patronale-syndicale. Plusieurs observateurs questionnent la légitimité des programmes de coopération et la motivation d'y participer. De plus, les dirigeants syndicaux affichent un scepticisme compréhensible eu égard aux expériences de coopération. Ici, nous examinons la question de savoir si la qualité des relations du travail est associée à un certain nombre de variables de résultats organisationnels.Nous avons obtenu nos données par une enquête auprès des directeurs généraux ou directeurs de ressources humaines de grandes organisations canadiennes comptant au moins 100 employés. Même si nous avons reçu des réponses de 1 282 organisations, les données pour le présent article sont basées sur les réponses obtenues de 752 organisations syndiquées. Les variables dépendantes sont des sujets qui ont trait aux résultats organisationnels. Nos dix énoncés visaient la résistance des employés au changement, le moral, le conflit, le roulement des employés, l'absentéisme, l'insécurité d'emploi, les activités innovatrices, la productivité, la qualité du produit ou du service et la réputation de l'organisation. Il est à noter que ces variables dépendantes sont basées sur des mesures perceptuelles. La variable indépendante primaire était la nature de la relation du travail (mesurée sur une échelle de six points de conflictuelle à coopérative). De plus, nous avons inclus à ce modèle bon nombre de variables de contrôle (demande du marché, implication dans une fusion, introduction d'une technologie réduisant les coûts de main-d’œuvre, pourcentage de main-d'œuvre syndiquée, réduction permanente de main-d’œuvre dans l'unité de négociation, présence ou non d'une grève, concessions syndicales, changement majeur dans la stratégie managériale, taille de l'organisation et secteur industriel).Quant à la variable indépendante primaire, la qualité de la relation, les résultats indiquent que les employeurs déclarent avoir une relation coopérative modérée avec leur syndicat. Un peu plus de 28 % des répondants ont qualifié leur relation de conflictuelle et seulement 5 % l'ont qualifiée de hautement coopérative.L'analyse probit a servi à évaluer différents modèles. Les résultats sont qu'une relation plus coopérative entre les deux parties est associée avec plusieurs résultats organisationnels positifs. Plus spécifiquement, les répondants qui ont précisé que leur relation avec leur plus important syndicat était coopérative, étaient plus susceptibles de ne pas supporter les énoncés à l'effet que la résistance au changement des employés augmentait, que le conflit s'accroissait, que le roulement et l'absentéisme devenaient plus élevés.Ils appuyaient plutôt des énoncés tels l'activité innovatrice s'accroît et la réputation de l'organisation est bonne. Là où les relations n'étaient pas aussi fortes, les participants avec une relation plus coopérative étaient d'accord que la productivité augmentait et étaient moins susceptibles d'indiquer que la qualité du produit baissait.Les syndicats devraient-ils recourir à une plus grande coopération avec les employeurs ? Plusieurs auteurs et syndicalistes sont sceptiques eu égard à la coopération patronale-syndicale et quant aux motifs des employeurs d'établir des programmes de coopération. De plus, il y a preuve qu'un certain nombre d'employeurs ont abusé des programmes de participation.Des entrevues avec des dirigeants syndicaux et patronaux confirment qu'il est extrêmement difficile de développer une relation coopérative (avec implication syndicale réelle dans le processus de décision). Cela requiert un engagement à long terme de part et d'autre, l'établissement de relations de confiance et de la cohérence lorsque l'on traite avec l'autre.Based on responses from 752 unionized organizations in Canada, this study examines the association between the quality of labour-management relations and a number of organization outcomes. The average relationship between an employer and its major bargaining unit was moderately cooperative, with 28% of respondents reporting adversarial relations and 5% indicating a highly cooperative relationship. Results from ordered probit estimation indicated that more favourable organizational outcomes (as measured by management perceptions) were generally associated with a more coopérative relationship between union and management.Basado en las respuestas de 752 organizaciones sindicales canadienses, este estudio examina la asociaciòn entre la calidad de las relaciones empleadopatronales y los resultados de la organizaciòn. La relaciòn promedio entre la empresa y su principal unidad de negociaciòn colectiva es moderadamente cooperativa, con el 28 % de los sindicatos que respondieron indicando una relaciòn de adversarios y un 5 % indicando una relaciòn altamente cooperativa. Los resultados de una estimaciòn ordenada de probit indican que resultados mas favorables (desde el punto de vista patronal) se obtienen generalmente de una relaciòn cooperativa entre empleados y patrones

Expedited Arbitration: The View from Canadian Lawyers

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Human resource management, workplace restructuring and grievance rates: some preliminary findings

Despite the growing interest in dispute resolution approaches and outcomes (Lewicki et al., 2011), relatively few studies have focused on the factors associated with grievance rates. Using two samples (one from Canada and the other from New Zealand), we found that investment in human resource management was associated with a lower grievance rate. However, workplace restructuring was related to a higher rate of grievances

The U.S./Canada Convergence Thesis: Contrary Evidence from Nova Scotia

Cet article veut situer le C.P. 1003 dans son avant et son après: sur quoi cet arrêté se fondait-il ? en quoi innovait-il vraiment ? comment a-t-il influencé les lois qui l'ont suivi ? La présente étude procède selon la méthode historique et comparative.The impact of P.C. 1003 on labour relations legislation in the various Canadian provinces can be both overestimated and underestimated. Many other elements and factors came together to produce a Canadian System of industrial relations in 1944. P.C. 1003 was both a result and a beginning.The American Wagner Act of 1935 and the pressure exerted in Canada by union leaders to obtain similar legislation in this country were two major factors. Some provincial legislations had established Systems of conciliation, through the federal and/or provincial Departments of Labour.A few previous laws prepared the way for P.C. 1003. The Quebec Trade Disputes Act of 1901 introduced mediation, conciliation and arbitration. Although the services were offered on a voluntary basis to interested parties, a certain number did use them, and that very fact contributed to the view that state intervention was normal. The federal legislation adopted in the first decade of the century had a similar impact, at least until its constitutionality was successfully attacked in 1925.After the Snider case, all Canadian provinces but one moved to "provincialize" the effect of the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act by adopting similar legislation. The 1937 Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of British Columbia provoked much interest; and the 1943 Ontario Collective Bargaining Act was an important experimental prelude to P.C. 1003. The provisions of these acts were in most cases voluntary, but their application, whether mandatory or voluntary, helped to foster the belief that government intervention in labour disputes was normal, if not desirable. The first federal-provincial conference held on the subject in 1943 also helped to pave the way to the acceptance of the main elements of P.C. 1003.Because of the war situation and the urgency of keeping conflicts from becoming too disruptive, steps that could not have been taken in other circumstances became acceptable at that time. Thus the administrative machinery for certification and conciliation services was put in place. The "cost-plus" system of granting government contracts played a major role. Because P.C. 1003 was mandatory for all war industries, it applied to most of the unionized industries. The rest of the economy was covered by provincial laws, many of them simply extending P.C. 1003 provisions to labour disputes in provincial jurisdiction. These provisions were continued after the war under the National Emergency Transitional Powers Act. By 1948, all of the provinces had adopted a Labour Relations Act, under that name or another, containing the major features of P.C. 1003 and of the 1948 federal Industrial Relations and Disputes Investigation Act. In a sense, P.C. 1003 owed a lot to previous provincial laws, but subsequent legislation also owes a lot to P.C. 1003, especially with regard to the technical aspects of certification and the creation of labour boards

Examining bullying in Canadian workplaces: preliminary findings from a content analysis study using arbitration case decisions

In the U.S., it is estimated that employees leaving the workplace due to bullying costs in the vicinity of $64 billion a year. From a Canadian perspective, less research has been done to understand the impact of bullying in the workplace. In this study, 20 Canadian arbitration cases over a 17 year period are examined for trends and directions. The preliminary findings suggest that employees dismissed for bullying usually go through a progressive discipline process before being dismissed. In 80% of these cases, the bullying is co-worker to co-worker. Overall, arbitrators are upholding dismissals (80% of the 20 cases), stating that appropriate steps to dismiss the bullying employees were followed and integration of the dismissed back into the workplace was not possible or desirable

Malaria and other vector-borne infection surveillance in the U.S. Department of Defense Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center-Global Emerging Infections Surveillance program: review of 2009 accomplishments

Vector-borne infections (VBI) are defined as infectious diseases transmitted by the bite or mechanical transfer of arthropod vectors. They constitute a significant proportion of the global infectious disease burden. United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) personnel are especially vulnerable to VBIs due to occupational contact with arthropod vectors, immunological naiveté to previously unencountered pathogens, and limited diagnostic and treatment options available in the austere and unstable environments sometimes associated with military operations. In addition to the risk uniquely encountered by military populations, other factors have driven the worldwide emergence of VBIs. Unprecedented levels of global travel, tourism and trade, and blurred lines of demarcation between zoonotic VBI reservoirs and human populations increase vector exposure. Urban growth in previously undeveloped regions and perturbations in global weather patterns also contribute to the rise of VBIs. The Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center-Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (AFHSC-GEIS) and its partners at DoD overseas laboratories form a network to better characterize the nature, emergence and growth of VBIs globally. In 2009 the network tested 19,730 specimens from 25 sites for Plasmodium species and malaria drug resistance phenotypes and nearly another 10,000 samples to determine the etiologies of non-Plasmodium species VBIs from regions spanning from Oceania to Africa, South America, and northeast, south and Southeast Asia. This review describes recent VBI-related epidemiological studies conducted by AFHSC-GEIS partner laboratories within the OCONUS DoD laboratory network emphasizing their impact on human populations