Reading Guide - IRL 101 - Introduction to Industrial ...



 

|Reading Guide - IRL 101 |Introduction to Industrial Relations |Spring 2002 |

You need to do all of the required reading on the reading list and you need to read all of the items carefully. I strongly recommend that you take notes. You might try highlighting and then taking notes on the most important of the material that you have highlighted. You will be tested on the readings, both those we have covered in class and those we have not, so make sure you study your reading notes carefully before each exam.

The following list suggests the most important aspects of each required reading. You are responsible for the entire reading but this guide should be useful in terms of your note taking. In some cases the advice will be obvious but in others it will not. I recommend that you look at this list before reading each item, and again when studying for exams.

II. A.- Nature of Work

1. Terkel, WORKING: Don't take notes on this. Just notice what people seem to like and dislike about their work and their jobs

2. Kaufman, "Models of Man in Industrial Relations Research," INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS REVIEW, October 1989: Focus on the differences between behavioral and nonbehavioral research and on the comparisons between economic and behavioral man.

3. Piore, "Identity and Social Movements," PoW, V.1,n. 3: Focus on the key to the revival of labor and on the two sources of error of Marx and other social scientists in their predictions about the evolution of industrial society.

4. Hackman, "What is Happening to Professional Work?" PoW, V.2,n.1: Note the similarities between the occupations of airline pilot and symphony orchestra musicians.  Also note the trends in autonomy for both "rank and file" workers and professional workers.

II. B.- Quality of Worklife

1. Milkman, "Beyond the Factory: Workers in the 'Post-Industrial' Age," PoW, V.1,n.1: Focus on the degree to which workers who are now insecure want restore the old industrial system and whether or not workers are resistant to more participatory forms of factory organization.

2. Comps and Savoie, "The Basic Workplace Promise: Respect and Recognition," PoW, V.1,n.2: Pay special attention to the two interventions that can help improve the practice of respect and recognition.  Focus also on the two different ways in which interpersonal recognition can be achieved.

3. Strauss, "Is Money Enough?  The Early Contributions of the Behavioral Sciences," PoW, V.1,n.3: What were the two related questions of interest to behavioral scientist from the beginning?  Also be familiar with the findings of David McClellan and Douglas McGregor as well as with the "Hawthorne research."

4. Laabs, "Overload," Maidment: Focus on the impact of the "dejobbing" of the economy and on the principal causes of overwork.

5. Aeppel, "Factory Lifts Productivity but Staff Finds It's No Picnic," Wall Street Journal , 1999: Don't take notes on this but come to class prepared to discuss the different perspectives of the workers and managers about work reorganization at Western Electric.

II. C.- Industrial Relations Systems

1. Dunlop, "A Systems Model," KS: Are industrial-relations problems unique to modern society? What are the reasons for the answer? What are the components of the industrial-relations system?

III. A.- Employment Law

1. "Employment Law Packet" (handout): Look at each of the laws and focus on what it is designed to do and how it is designed to do it.

2. Anderson, "Preserving the Social Contract: Workplace Protection in the New Economy," PoW, V.1,n.2: Are workforce protection policies more or less important now than they were two generations ago?  Focus on four vital goals of workplace protection policy.

3. Quinn and Mitchell, "A New Look at Social Security Reform," PoW, V.1,n.1: Focus on how social security is designed to be different from any private insurance or pension plan, on whether, at least until recently, most recipients received more or less in benefits than they paid in contributions, and on the similarities among the three reform proposals that came from the Advisory Committee.

III. B.- Discrimination Law

1. Grossman, "Race in the Workplace," Maidment: Do African-Americans perceive much progress in the workplace over the last twenty years and do the data support their conclusions?  Also focus on what has happened to most African-Americans who have achieved management jobs and whether workers believe that African-Americans have to out-perform whites to get ahead.

2. Bland, "ADA: The Law Meets Medicine," Maidment: Focus on the implications of whether disability is defined in the medicated or unmedicated state.  Which of these approaches have the courts taken?  Look for definitions of "major life activity" and "substantial impairment."

3. Cole, "Sexual Harassment: New Rules, New Behavior," Maidment: You should know if an employee can sue if that employee suffered no adverse consequences or if the employer did not know about the harassment.  Focus on the defenses available to the employer.

4. Toobin, "The Trouble with Sex," New Yorker, February 9, 1998: What are the two basic types of sexual harassment and how do they differ? What confusion in the law of Sexual Harassment does the Paula Jones case illustrate? What was decided in the 1982 Rhode Island case and what change does Vicki Schultz argue in her article should be made in the law regarding sexual harassment?

5. Knight and Blue, "The Supreme Court's New Approach to Analyzing Sexual Harassment Cases," PoW, V.2,n.2: Be familiar with the difference between the court's traditional approach and its new approach.

III. C.- Labor Relations Law

1. Deeds and Gould, "50 Years of U.S. Labor Law and Industrial Relations Developments," PoW, V.1,n.2: Focus on the impact of permanent striker replacement on the collective bargaining process.  Also note the authors' reform proposals.

2. Gross, "A Human Rights Perspective on US Labor Relations Law," Proceedings V.2, Industrial Relations Research Association Annual Meeting, January 1999, Does the U.S. government see any inconsistencies between U.S. labor relations law and the right of freedom of association?  Note which aspects of the law the author finds to "violate the freedom of association in fundamental ways."

IV. A- Recruitment and Staffing

1. Markels, "Is Anybody Out There?" Maidment: What action have employers been unwilling to take to fill empty jobs?

2. Grossman, "Is Diversity Working?" Maidment: Focus on the differences between diversity and affirmative action as concepts, on the impact of the diversity movement on efforts to promote racial equality and on why some employers do diversity training but fail to evaluate its effectiveness.

3. Perry, "Use the Web to Check Out Those Job Applications," Maidment: Focus on the risks of using employment screening services improperly and on the laws you are most likely to violate.  Also note the reason many employers are reluctant to disclose anything except the dates of employment.

4. Grensing-Pophal, "Hiring to Fit Your Corporate Culture," Maidment: Be able to identify the risks of focusing too keenly on cultural fit and the risk of groupthink.

IV. B- Performance Appraisal

1. Mavis, "Painless Performance Evaluations," photocopy: Focus on the three key principles and the four key elements by which the principles are implemented.

IV. C- Compensation

1. Hays, "Pros and Cons of Pay for Performance," Maidment: What is one of the "most thoroughly replicated" findings in social psychology and what are its implications for performance related pay?  What are the reasons rewards may damage quality and productivity and cause employees to lose interest in their work?

2. Raff, "Looking Back on the Five-Dollar Day," photocopy: Why was the $5 day introduced and what results did it produce?

IV. D- Improving Quality of Work Life

1. Bailyn, "Transforming Work: How Do We Live with It?" PoW, V.1,n.1: In what way does the use of the Family and Medical Leave Act actually reinforce existing inequities?  What should we do instead of assisting employees with family responsibilities to tailor their lives to meet traditional work structures?  Focus on the need to change the traditional meaning of "work and family," and on the "recurrent themes."

2. Bennett, "Constructing the Employment Relationship with Total Organizational Quality," PoW, V.1,n.2: Focus on the partnership principles at Saturn.  Pay particular attention to the role of the union in the management of Saturn.

3. Laabs, "Show Them Where You Are Headed," Maidment: Focus on the critical questions that affect commitment.

V. A- Development of Unions

1. Gitelman, "Adolph Strasser and the Origins of Pure and Simple Trade Unionism," Leab, THE LABOR HISTORY READER: Focus on the two crucial problems of U.S. unions in the Nineteenth Century, the definition of "pure and simple unionism" and on the reforms Strasser made in the Cigar Makers Union.

2. Higgins, "Organized Labor and Collective Bargaining at the Cross Roads," PoW, V.1,n.2: What is economic citizenship and how must it be protected?  What has been happening to economic citizenship?

3. Overman, "Unions: New Activisim or Old Adversarial Approach?" Maidment: Focus on how management can best develop a strategy to combat unions.

4. Williams, "Facing Tomorrow: A Union Perspective," PoW, V.1,n.1: Focus on the two broad strategies that have emerged in industrial relations.  What is among "the most egregious" crises facing working people today?

5. Lerner, "It is an Exciting Time to be a Union Organizer," PoW, V.1,n.2: Focus on the things that campaigns to build union power must do.

V. B.- Union Structure and Operations

1. Freeman and Medoff, WHAT DO UNIONS DO, Chap. 1: Pay careful attention to the two faces of unionism and also to the overall impact of unionism on society.

2. Horowitz, "A New Labor Structure for a Transient and Mobil Workforce," PoW, V.1,n.1: Note carefully the nature of the two-tiered workforce, the central problem for those in the second tier who are not doing well, and the model suggested by professional associations.

3. Taylor, "New Unionism in an Age of Globalization," PoW, V.1,n.3: Focus on the reasons for union decline and on the ways some successful unions in a variety of countries are changing.

V. C.- The Bargaining Process

1. Stepp and Schneider, "A Model for Union-Management Partnerships," PoW, V.1,n.2: Note the minimum conditions for union-management partnerships and the two "quid pro quos" necessary for unions to enter such partnerships.

2. "Lessons from a Current Affair: The UPS/Teamsters Strike," PoW, V.1,n.3: Focus on the different lessons emphasized by the different authors who hold different positions.

3. Mosle, "Letter from Las Vegas: How the Maids Fought Back," The New Yorker, February 26, 1996: Don't take notes on this. Read it and come to class prepared to discuss it.

4. Overman, "Unions Demand a Voice," HRMagazine, July 1997: Focus on the issue which is particularly agitating unions and given them something to negotiate.  Also look at the mechanisms other than collective bargaining unions are attempting to use to exert influence, and focus on the two management goals which almost inevitably lead to conflict.

V. D.- Dispute Resolution

1. Jacobsen, "Mediation, the Process and the People," PoW, V.1,n.3: Focus on the essential beliefs and personal characteristics of mediators as well as on differences in mediation under different statutes.

2. Dunlop, "The Joint Labor-Management Committee Approach to Dispute Resolution," PoW, V.1,n.3: Focus on the process, principles and philosophy of the JLMC.

VI. A.- Industrial Relations in Japan

1. Taira, "Japan," Rothman et al., Industrial Relations Around the World: Be able to explain whether the constitution and labor laws of Japan are pro-labor or pro-management and how?  What is "a major advantage" of the Japanese system of enterprise unions?  Focus on the two major developments in Japanese industrial relations which require careful evaluation.

VI. B.- Industrial Relations in Britain

1. Hollinshead, "Great Britain, " Rothman et al., Industrial Relations Around the World: What are the three main ways in which British statute law impinges on the employment relationship?  Be able to identify and explain the principal current trends in British industrial relations.

VI. C.- Industrial Relations in Germany

1. Streek, "Federal Republic of Germany," Rothman et al., Industrial Relations Around the World : Focus on the institutional settings of industrial self-government in Germany.  Be able to explain what has been the pattern of strikes in Germany.  What has been the principal problem faced by German trade unions since 1974?

VII. Summary and Conclusions

1. The Editors, "Celebrating Our Past and Future: Work and Employment Relations for the 21st Century," PoW, V.1,n.1: In what very old form of work were the boundaries between work and personal space and time blurred as they are becoming today?  What was the "social contract" at work for much of the period from 1947 to the present?  What are the "obvious" critical issues confronting people at work today?

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