Towards an assertion perspective for empowerment: Blending employee rights and labor process theories

Employee Rights Theory (ERT) and Labor Process Theory (LPT) are two major bodies of knowledge in contemporary social science committed to empowering employees in the workplace. Despite their seemingly common goals, the two have emerged almost independently of each other. The current article compares and contrasts these perspectives and suggests that empowerment can be better understood and fostered by drawing on ERT and LPT simultaneously. Specifically, a synergistic view suggests that empowerment occurs when individuals are willing and able to assert their interests and rights in a given situation. This assertion perspective to empowerment emphasizes the interaction of micro- and macro-level processes, a combination of conflict and cooperative strategies, use of the rights rhetoric to incite action, and the role of emotions in stimulating and/or preventing change.     

Employee rights and capital mobility

In this article I analyze the impact that capital mobility has on employee rights in the workplace by studying the effects of the relocation of General Motor’s Corvette plant from St. Louis to Bowling Green, Kentucky. This relocation not only afforded GM an opportunity to increase its control over its hourly work force, but it also set in motion a process in which the rights’ claims of management and workers were redefined. Through a number of planned and unplanned mechanisms, management invaded spaces created by workers, and, as a result, workers’ ability to pursue their interests was diminished. In the concluding section, I discuss the implications of this for research on employee rights and for combining the concern for rights with labor process theory.     

Workers,communities, and industrial property: An emerging language of rights

Out of recent national debates and local struggles over plant closings, an alternative language of industrial property rights has emerged. This language places the rights of workers and communities above, or on a par with, those of owners and managers. While this new language of rights coexists with more traditional conceptions of owner/manager prerogatives, its emergence suggests that rights of property ownership, which are often seen as relatively immutable structural constraints upon the capitalist labor process, may themselves be contested and subject to change.     

The practical view of employee rights

Advocates of employee rights, relying upon moral and legal perspectives, have used moral appeals and the threat of legal sanctions to persuade managers to act responsibly. Drawing on a behavioral perspective and analyzing interviews and literature about employee complaints, this paper develops the practical view. This view emphasizes employees' perceptions of their rights, as represented by eight broad categories of asserted rights, and the subtle costs that employees can impose when their standards of proper treatment are violated. While important differences between the behavioral, legal, and moral perspectives are identified, a general standards-setting framework is presented that indicates the complementarity of the three perspectives and the advantages of a multidisciplinary combination.     

Labor education as a method of enhancing employee rights and responsibilities

University-based labor education programs conduct classes designed to provide union members with the skills necessary to perform their organizational and civic responsibilities and to provide union members with opportunities for personal growth and development. In conducting these programs, university labor educators enhance the protection of employee rights and the fulfillment of employee responsibilities. This article describes the manner in which labor education enhances collective and individual rights and responsibilities within unions, vis-à-vis employers and within the larger society.     

Employee rights and organizational forms: An integrative framework for research

The goal of this study is to stimulate thought and provide initial direction for theory development and empirical investigation in regard to proposed linkages between employee rights concerns in the work environment and organizational forms. A review of pertinent literature on the subjects of organizational forms and employee rights is presented, in which a summary and critique of the current state of theory and research is emphasized in relation to those components of the two subject areas that are most relevant to the aims of the study. Following this review, the article undertakes a synthesis and integration of existing work, bringing together two scholarly fields of inquiry that have not been incorporated previously, and providing suggestions to establish critical associations and fill conceptual gaps. In this respect, the study constitutes a “first step” in the development of an orientation that accentuates the complementarity of perspectives concerning employee rights and organizational forms.     

The family and medical leave act of 1993: Employee rights and responsibilities,employer rights and responsibilities

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law on February 5, 1993 after approximately eight years of controversial discussion in Congress. The FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for eligible employees for the birth or placement for adoption or foster care of a child, to care for a child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition, or for the employee’s own serious health condition. The Act is intended to help individuals balance their home obligations with their work obligations. This article highlights both employee rights and responsibilities afforded by the FMLA and employer rights and responsibilities under the Act.     

Management rights: A topological survey of the terrain

Dramatic changes in both the business environment and practitioner attitudes have made many of the traditional views of management rights moribund. Based on an analysis of the pertinent literature and a series of field interviews, this article sketches the rough dimensions of a managerial perspective of the parties' respective rights that is far more specific, pragmatic, and reciprocal in nature than the erstwhile global normative views were. In the future, management rights researchers should strive for the following goals: (1) conducting both inductive and deductive studies, (2) considering both positive and normative elements, (3) achieving a better balance between global, middle range, and particularitstic theories, and (4) recognizing the diverse disciplinary approaches that can be brought to bear on the subject.     

The fusion of privilege and power: ESOPs in theory and practice

The heart of this paper is an examination of the rights of employees, owners, and the corporation. The modern corporation is characterized by the conflict that ensues when ownership and control are independent. Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), in theory, serve to realign these disparate interests between the owners and managers of the firm. This article will explore the mechanisms by which ESOPs serve to empower those who possess ownership rights in the corporation. The application of trusteeship theory serves to explain the agency problem that may arise when managers serve as both trustee and beneficiary. Workplace, ownership, and corporate rights are integrated into a stakeholder perspective of rights conflicts.     

民工荒与我国劳动力优势

我国劳动力优势丰富,这使得中国在国际竞争和国际贸易中劳动力的比较优势更加突出,这促成中国成为世界上吸引外资最多的国家。但令人不可思议的是,“民工潮”仿佛一夜之间变成了“民工荒”。于是,有些便认为中国的劳动力优势已经一去不复返了。本人将对所谓的“民工荒”原因进行深入地分析,并得出中国仍然具有劳动力比较优势。     

Protecting the Rights of Alleged Sexual Harassment Perpetrators: Guidance from the Decisions of Labor Arbitrators

Recent evidence indicates that sexual harassment in the workplace continues to pose a problem for organizations. Using published arbitration awards, the current study examines the critical issues involved in discipline decisions of alleged sexual harassment perpetrators. Content analysis of 92 cases enabled the examination of critical judgment factors considered by arbitrators examining the disciplinary penalties imposed by management. Elements of the arbitrator's judgment including the just cause standards, mitigating circumstances, severity of harassment, and length of harassment were examined. The results of the analyses are discussed with an emphasis on the lessons provided for effective management practices.     

产权理论对企业年金管理的启示

企业年金基金资产属私人产权,具有可分割性;从企业年金基金自身的特点出发,结合我国的制度环境,我国企业年金产权制度应选择俱乐部产权,具体为信托型的运行模式。要实现企业年金的产权制度的目标,我国信托型企业年金的运行机制有待进一步优化。     

SA8000标准的运作机制与劳动者权益保护

SA8000社会责任标准是欧美国家发起和推广的一项国际劳工标准,其宗旨是保护劳动者权益,最终实现全球体面劳动,因此具有一定的时代特征和积极意义,值得我国借鉴。本文在分析SA8000社会责任标准的内容体系与运作机制基础上,从保护劳动者视角对该标准进行了理性思考,并结合我国当前劳动者权益保护中存在的问题提出了具体的措施建议。     

实习大学生的劳动权益保护——以《广东省高等学校学生实习与毕业生就业见习条例》为视角

随着高校扩招和就业压力的增大,大学生在实习期间的劳动权益保护问题成为社会关注的焦点。作为全国首发的《广东省高等学校学生实习与毕业生就业见习条例》在立法上的突破毋庸置疑。本文主要探讨《条例》实施后,实习大学生在劳动权益保护方面仍旧面临的问题,并针对相关问题提出了笔者一些看法。     

企业职工安全素质灰关联评价的研究

文章建立了职工安全素质的指标体系,采用改进后的层次分析法确定各指标的权重,运用灰关联综合评价法对企业职工的安全素质进行评价,并通过实证分析说明此方法的可行性。     

An essay on organizational citizenship behavior

This article advocates a more comprehensive understanding of job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) than that employed by earlier researchers on those topics. Using the intellectual heritage of the word citizenship from political philosophy and related disciplines, OCB is positioned as the organizational equivalent of citizen responsibilities, of which there are three categories: obedience, loyalty, and political participation. Two other key citizenship concepts, relational ties and citizen rights, are described, and a set of ten research propositions is offered relating the citizenship concepts to one another. Suggestions for other areas of investigation are also provided. Finally, the advantages of using OCB as a global measure of individual behavior at work are defended.