Union Presence and Corporate Productivity Practices: Evidence from Singapore

This paper explores the influences that unionisation may have on managerial processes to improve productivity. Unionisation is cast as a contextual variable, along with sector, size and culture. A recently established Singapore data base of employees' perceptions of corporate productivity practices is used to detect such possible influences. Regression analysis, with productivity practice as a dependent variable, suggests that unionisation explains some of the variations in such practices.     

Trade Union Growth and Decline in Asia

We examine trends in union density and union influence in several Asian countries. Though we find variation in union density, all countries experienced union decline in the 1990s. Asian countries also vary on our new union influence measure. We use a logics of action framework to examine the institutional context surrounding union growth, decline and influence in each country. Based on our examination of how these institutional contexts are changing, and what we know about the strategies of unions, we are not hopeful regarding the near term prospects for reversing union decline.     

Deliberation Councils, Government-Business-Citizen Partnerships, and Public Policy-Making: Cases from Singapore, Malaysia, and Canada

The authors assert that one of the least appreciated but important institutional factors underlying the remarkable growth in the East Asian miracle economies is the deliberation council: a consultative arrangement linking government, business and civil society. They describe three such councils, two in Southeast Asia and one in North America, and reveal the critical features of effective councils which can be found regardless of the political, social and economic contexts in which they operate. Efforts to adapt and apply successful councils in other contexts should consider the following common features: focus on clear and specific mandates; staffing by credible individuals who represent a broad cross section of stakeholders; process and procedures for collaboration which are transparent, systematic, and straightforward; decision making via unanimity rule; and communication of council decisions through one voice, the chairperson. The authors contend that councils of this nature are helpful, if not critical, in stabilizing the policy environment, and promoting business development in the Asia-Pacific region especially in periods of fiscal crisis.     

Trade Union Decline and Union Wage Effects in Australia

Union density in Australia fell precipitously in the 1990s. This study investigates how union wage effects may have changed as a result. The findings from 1993 data suggest that union/nonunion wage differentials were very small, especially among workers in high-density industries. By 2001 the overall union wage effect had increased significantly; however, the union/nonunion wage differential was no longer correlated with union density at the industry level.     

Member–Union Relations and Union Satisfaction

This paper examines the importance of various facets of satisfaction with union representation in determining overall satisfaction with the union. Samples of union members from Iowa and Sweden are used in the analysis. The results clearly support the view that member–union relations is a major determinant of overall satisfaction with union representation.     

The Growth of Union Decertification: A Test of Two Nonnested Theories

This article tests two rival theories of the growth of union decertification: a neoclassical and an institutionalist. Both perform well when they are independently tested against the data. However, Cox nonnested hypothesis tests indicate that when these two theories are tested against each other, the institutionalist theory is superior to (i.e., variance encompasses) the neoclassical theory.     

Telecommunications and economic development in Singapore

The existing research of aggregate statistical analysis on the relationship between telecommunications and economic development is largely organized around the hypothesis that telephone growth fosters economic development. Although considerable evidence supports that hypothesis, there is also a growing realization that the growth of telecommunications, in turn, requires a sound economy. The existing research, however, ignores the reciprocal relationship between these two variables. Employing Singapore data, this article formulates a simultaneous equation model to assess the reciprocal relationship between telecommunications and economic development. These data support the reciprocal relationship hypothesis. Policy implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Union Presence, Union Service and Membership Participation

Much of the literature on the determinants of union activism has focused on biographical and attitudinal precursors or correlates of several measures of union participation. Although interactionist theory emphasizes the importance of social context, little attention has been paid to union presence. The argument of this paper is that union presence, defined by certain structural arrangements, and the quality of union service, influences measures of workplace and non-workplace union participation through the mediating influence of union orientation. The paper begins by reviewing the literature on union presence and participation, before presenting a model of the joint impact of union service and union presence on both on- and off-the job union participation. Data are drawn from a study of membership involvement within the Irish-based Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU). The main findings are that there are significant relationships between presence and service level variables and measures of union participation. In particular, service variables appear to affect workplace union participation largely through the mediating influence of union orientation. Presence variables, by contrast, have both direct and indirect influence on participation in union activities within and outside the workplace.     

Information Technology, US Union Organizing and Union Effectiveness

This paper examines the effects of information technology (IT) on organizing and union effectiveness in US national unions. Original survey data and data from government and independent sources are combined to model outcomes including membership growth, success in representation elections, and union leaders' assessments of effectiveness as a product of environmental and organizational characteristics. The results suggest that the practical impact of IT use on organizing outcomes can be quite important. Evidence regarding the impact of IT on overall effectiveness (i.e. organizational or union effectiveness) is more mixed.     

Some determinants and effects of FDI in Singapore

This article analyses the microeconomic determinants of effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Singapore by seven propositions, using the available secondary data. Variables discussed are related to the areas of industrial structure, economic growth, trade, international competitiveness, productivity and skill intensity. It attempts to draw a pattern on the determinants and effects of inward and outward FDI in Singapore.The research for this paper was partially funded by the Centre for International Business Studies, The University of Western Ontario. This paper is a revised version of a paper presented in Bellagio, Italy in October 1983 which will appear in Dunning (1985).The author is a Professor at the School of Business Administration, The University of Western Ontario.     

Linking Union Density and Union Effectiveness: The North American Experience

This study considers how union performance in terms of organizing, bargaining, and political activity are related to severely declining union density (the percentage of the workforce in unions) in the United States and the higher and stable union density in Canada. Canadian unions have remained active in recruiting new members and assign a high priority to organizing, while American unions have shown diminished organizing effort and ability. Canadian unions have demonstrated superior performance in collective bargaining as measured by resistance to concession bargaining and negotiated wage gains, among other factors. Finally, although Canadian unions experienced some political setbacks, they wielded more political influence than their American counterparts in promoting union-specific as well as broad social legislation. Density is examined as both a consequence and determinant of the divergence in union performance.     

Institutional Change and Union Membership: A Longitudinal Analysis of Union Membership Determinants in Israel

We examine the degree to which factors associated with workers' union membership decisions are sensitive to shifts in the institutional environment of unions. Comparative logit analyses of the relationship between potential determinants of membership and actual union membership over time suggestthat the factors associated with membership are elastic and may reflect shifts in the institutional context of unions.     

Union Structures and Pension Outcomes in Greece

Even though Greek pensions are particularly unsustainable and inequitable, recent attempts at significant reform have ended in failure, mostly because of union opposition. The article draws on research into the competing role of narrow versus encompassing interests, in order to analyse union policy on pensions in the light of membership composition. It finds evidence of a severe bias of representation in terms of gender, age/cohort, ethnic origin and, in particular, social insurance affiliation and sector of the economy. It concludes that when legitimate interests are imperfectly represented, negotiated reform will tend to reproduce the inegalitarian tendencies latent in Bismarckian pension systems.