Understanding organising activity among US national unions

It is well known that US aggregate union election activity under the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has fallen for several years. It is also well known that NLRB win rates have increased moderately during the Sweeney era relative to the later part of the Kirkland years. This article sheds new light on organising activity and win rates, by examining these data on a national union basis. The results show that several unions, including most of the largest nationals, experienced both increases in organising activity and increased win rates for the period of 1999 to 2004 compared with the years 1990–95 (the end of the Kirkland era). While explanations of variations in inter‐union organising success remain elusive, understanding and building on the experience of these ‘resurging unions’ holds the promise of union renewal more generally.     

Organizing College Athletes Utilizing the Civil Rights Unionism Model

In January 2014, Northwestern University (NU) football players filed a certification election petition with the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Chicago regional office. After the NLRB ruled that they were employees having the legal right to unionize, the football players voted at the end of April 2014 with NU immediately appealing the regional director’s ruling after the balloting. In mid-August 2015, the Washington D.C. NLRB declined jurisdiction in this case, ending the football players’ unionization attempt. Because of the NLRB’s appellate ruling, however, unionization of college athletes remains a distinct possibility. Since a majority of U.S. collegiate basketball and football players are black, this paper argues that the model of unionism that should be adopted in any unionization attempt of these college athletes is civil rights unionism which represents a continuation of the historic, collective struggle of Black athletes to obtain their rights on athletic fields and in classrooms.     

A non-cooperative approach to the ordinal Shapley–Shubik rule

In bargaining problems, a rule satisfies ordinal invariance if it does not depend on order-preserving transformations of the agents’ utilities. In this paper, a non-cooperative game for three agents, based on bilateral offers, is presented. The ordinal Shapley–Shubik rule arises in subgame perfect equilibrium as the agents have more time to reach an agreement.     

Delay,multiplicity, and non-existence of equilibrium in unanimity bargaining games

We consider a class of perfect information bargaining games with unanimity acceptance rule. The proposer and the order of responding players are determined by the state that evolves stochastically over time. The probability distribution of the state in the next period is determined jointly by the current state and the identity of the player who rejected the current proposal. This protocol encompasses a vast number of special cases studied in the literature. We show that subgame perfect equilibria in pure stationary strategies need not exist. When such equilibria do exist, they may exhibit delay. Limit equilibria as the players become infinitely patient need not be unique.     

The new American way—how changes in labour law are increasing inequality

How have changes in labour law affected income inequality in the United States over the last half century? Curiously, even though employers have increased the degree to which they break labour law, workers have decreased their utilisation of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the strike. How do we understand the unwillingness of labour to utilise the NLRB and the strike when under increasing attack? To answer these interrelated questions, I analyse three central changes in federal labour law and norms from the middle of the 20th century to present: the usage of permanent replacement workers, adjudication of the main federal labour law—the National Labor Relations Act—and change in administration of the NLRB—the body charged with overseeing the National Labor Relations Act.     

Rational Inefficiencies

In this paper, we suggest that inefficiency may be an indirect, on-the-job compensation to agents in an organization. We show how to use actual production data to reveal the trade-offs between different inefficiencies (slacks). Moreover, we discuss how to use this to improve productivity analysis as well as decision making and incentive provisions in organizations.     

What a Mess! Participation as a Simple Managerial Rule to 'Complexify' Organizations

This paper adopts a view of organizations as complex adaptive systems and makes a case for making organizations more complex internally through the use of a fairly simple managerial rule – using participative decision making. Participation in decision making enhances connectivity in organizations, which in turn, gives the organization the opportunity to self-organize and co-evolve in more effective ways than when there is minimal connectivity (i.e., autocracy). The paper uses a specific body of research to support the arguments about why participation can benefit the practice of management in modern organizations.     

Alliances and negotiations: an incomplete information example

We study a bargaining game between an individual and an ‘alliance’ in the sense of Manzini and Mariotti (J Econ Theory 121:128–41, 2005), in which the opponent of the alliance is incompletely informed about the relative strengths of its members. The best equilibrium outcome for the alliance under a unanimity rule is not attainable with a non-unanimity rule. However, unlike in the complete information model, less than optimal outcomes and delays may occur with positive probability even under unanimity, depending on the prior beliefs and the preferences of the agents. We are grateful to a careful referee for comments. We wish to thank Clara Ponsati for useful comments.     

The effective of China's monetary policy: Quantity versus price rules

This paper deduces an open economic DSGE model and explores two monetary policy rules for China, the quantity and price rule. The empirical results indicate that (1) monetary policy with money supply as instrument seems increasingly difficult to conduct in China than before, (2) the linkage between money supply and output becomes weaker over time, and (3) the effects of a price rule on the economy seem to have become more significant than those of a quantity rule. The findings seem to favor the government’s intention of liberalizing interest rates and making a more active use of the price instrument as the economy becomes more market-oriented in recent years.     

Integration of collective bargaining and formal worker participation processes: Boon or barrier to worker rights?

Many employers are extending workplace rights by allowing for more employee voice in decision making. Numerous unionized organizations have established formal worker participation processes to help achieve this end and to improve organizational performance. Based largely on theory, such processes are normally designed to operate independently from the bargaining process. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between participation and bargaining processes, and the effect of this relationship on workplace satisfaction. A total of 712 Midwest union officials were surveyed, and the results indicate that the processes tend to become integrated in the workplace. Further, union officials' workplace satisfaction was greater where formal worker participation is institutionalized within the bargaining process.     

The decollectivisation of trade unions? Ballots and collective bargaining in the 1980s

Balloting has been held to undermine collective decision making within unions. This article, based upon analysis of the rule books of all TUC affiliated unions and case study material, outlines the law on balloting and collective bargaining, and examines the response to legislative changes. The authors argue that although legislation has led to greater formalisation and centralisation in decision-making on collective action, decision-making remains collective.     

The Theory of Socially Embedded Games: The Mathematics of Social Relationships,Rule Complexes,and Action Modalities

In their classic work, Von Neumann and Morgensterndefined a game as simply the totality of the rules which describe it. Theydid not, however, elaborate a theory of rules. Such considerations lead toconceptualizing rules and rule configurations as mathematical objects, specifyingthe principles for combining rules, developing the theory of revising,replacing, and, in general transforming rules and rule complexes. Themathematics is based on contemporary developments at the interface ofmathematics, logic, and computer science. This article, drawing on themathematical theory of rules and rule complexes, extends and generalizes gametheory (GGT). The theory of rule complexes is used to conceptualize andanalyze diverse social relationships, roles, and games as particulartypes of rule complexes. A social role, for instance, is the major basisof an individual's action in a game. It consists of at least four majorcomponents – which are mathematical objects – in the determinationof action: value complex, model of reality (including beliefs and knowledgebases), a repertoire of acts, routines, programs, and strategies, and modalities,role-specific algorithms for determininig or generating action in gamesettings. The article focuses on three types of action modality routineor habitual, normative, andinstrumental modalities. The theory: (1) provides a cultural/institutionalbasis for a theory of gameswhere games, social relationships, and rolesare formalized in terms of rule complexes; (2) explains human action as a formof rule application or rule-following action, which underlies allmodalities of action; (3) formulates the theory that actors construct an action or make choices amongalternative actions by making comparisons and judging similarity (ordissimilarity) between an option or options considered and their norms and values,and, in general, determine whether or not, and to what degree, a value,norm, or goal will be realized or satisfied; (4)reconceptualizes ``game' as a social form and makes a distinction between open and closed games.     

Equity,Fairness and Justice Implications of Land Tenure Formalization in Cameroon

This article examines Cameroon's modern land policy. Initially, it traces the policy's roots to the colonial era. As the only African country that came under the control of three European colonial powers, viz. Germany, Britain and France, Cameroon provides a unique opportunity to understand colonialism's influence on Africa's persistent land problem. This is because the problem is structurally embedded in the historical processes of colonial rule. The heart of the article focuses on the policy's provisions for land tenure formalization, especially the land titling process. Of interest are the implications of this process for questions of equity, fairness and justice as they relate to access to land in the country. It suggests that, contrary to what proponents claim, land tenure formalization is not a panacea enabling capital accumulation for all. The article marshals evidence to show that the land tenure formalization requirements in Cameroon have effectively served to aggravate socioeconomic inequalities in the country. This is especially because the requirements favour societal elites, including bureaucrats, politicians and entrepreneurs. The article concludes that, by making government‐issued land titles the unique testament to landownership, the country's indigenous authorities have aggravated the problem of inequitable, unfair and unjust access to land that they inherited from their colonial predecessors.     

Exchange Rates and Fundamentals: Evidence from Long‐Horizon Regression Tests*

This article considers the long‐run relationship between nominal exchange rates and fundamentals from a different perspective. We apply a long‐horizon regression approach proposed by Fisher and Seater (1993) and find evidence supporting the explanatory power of exchange rate models. In particular, the Taylor‐rule model outperforms other conventional models. We then use the inverse power function (IPF) proposed by Andrews (1989) to investigate the power of the Fisher–Seater test. The IPF analysis provides additional evidence supporting exchange rate models.     

Confronting stylized facts with reality

The article focuses on the role of interest groups in policy making under conditions of globalisation. Building on the Stolper–Samuelson theorem from international trade theory, it has been argued in the literature that interest groups’ domestic political negotiation power varies with the mobility of their factor of production, and that therefore a policy shift towards the interests of capital owners (i.e. liberalisation of domestic regulations) should be observable. Drawing on empirical evidence from detailed case studies in the area of state banking regulation in the United States, Switzerland, and Spain, the article presents examples for bank associations and other representatives of the capital side to blocking or considerably delaying government-initiated attempts at liberalisation. It also demonstrates that the role of interest groups in policy making varies considerably between countries, and that therefore highly specific patterns of interaction exist between interest groups and national political systems. The article concludes therefore that the consideration of situation-specific context, rather than the use of generalising assumptions on a highly aggregated level, is called for in the analysis of interest group influence on policy making.     

加强科技情报研究 推动企业技术创新

文章阐述了科技情报研究提升技术创新能力的作用,对理顺情报研究体制的思路和创建情报研究的激励机制进行研究,提出了在科技情报研究机构与企业之间建立情报产品价值的评价体系和议价模式。     

Explaining greater test use for selection: the role of HR professionals in a world of expanding regulation

In recent decades there has been a well‐documented increase in organisations' use of formal tests for selection purposes. This article investigates whether tests' technical qualities and predictive validity are the critical determinants of take‐up, or whether other organisational and contextual factors are more important. Case studies of organisations were used to identify the factors driving change and Workplace Employee Relations Survey data were analysed to determine the consistency of the findings with national data. The single most important factor appears to be the regulatory environment, with tests used as a precautionary measure to protect selection decisions from challenge. The growing formal professionalisation of HR departments is also important, and the influence of both factors is consistent with current theories of organisational decision‐making. Continued growth in test use is likely, but the implications for efficiency in selection are less clear.     

Competitive strategy and skills: working out the fit in the fitness industry

It is widely accepted that creating quality products and services requires a well‐trained and skilled workforce. This article seeks to contribute to unpicking the relationship between business strategy and skills in the service sector by presenting research findings from the UK fitness industry. This sector has grown quickly and includes companies that compete on the basis of high‐quality services, alongside those competing largely on cost. If the route to a high‐skills economy is to shift more firms towards the higher‐quality end of the market, we would expect to find employers in these companies making use of a workforce with higher levels of skill. The research from the fitness industry questions this simple relationship, finding that there is no clear link between competitive strategy and skills. As market position is not necessarily the impetus for improving the skills of the workforce, the article then briefly explores what other factors may also be required.     

大众媒体制造明星的新思考

发掘潜在的文化市场,发现未来的明星,寻找有潜质的艺人和作品,然后精心策划、包装;推介,主动影响公众的审美趣味和关注对象,塑造明星,推出明星,这是现代娱乐传媒的基本规则。然而,在电视媒体多元化和频道能源极大丰富的今天,大众媒体如何使得造星计划顺利进行,这毫无疑问是每一个电视媒体关注的问题,本文就将关注媒体的造星行为并通过一些案例对造星手段做一探讨。     

Macroeconomic and financial stability in a monetary union: The case of Lithuania

In this paper, we study the implications of macroprudential policies in a monetary union for macroeconomic and financial stability. For this purpose, we develop a two-country monetary union new Keynesian general equilibrium model with housing and collateral constraints, to be calibrated for Lithuania and the rest of the euro area. We consider two different scenarios for macroprudential policies: one in which the ECB extends its goals to also include financial stability and a second one in which a national macroprudential authority uses the loan-to-value ratio (LTV) as an instrument. The results show that both rules are effective in making the financial system more stable in both countries, and especially in Lithuania. This is because the financial sector in this country is more sensitive to shocks. We find that an extended Taylor rule is indeed effective in reducing the volatility of credit, but comes with a cost in terms of higher inflation volatility. The simple LTV rule, on the other hand, does not compromise the objective of monetary policy. This reinforces the “Tinbergen principle”, which argues that there should be two different instruments when there are two different policy goals.