Barriers to employee rights: Gender,selection, and the labor process

This article applies a labor process analysis to the issue of employment rights in the particular context of gender inequality and unlawful discrimination in the recruitment process. It criticizes conventional perspectives on employee rights for their failure to examine critically managerial power and prerogative and its implications for gender inequality. The article outlines two particular labor process theories of gender divisions and inequality. In exploring the strengths and weaknesses of these more critical perspectives, the article highlights the analytical significance that they ascribe to power asymmetries in the labor process and labor market. Building on this perspective, the analysis then presents empirical data on gender discrimination in the selection practices of contemporary UK organizations. The research material reveals how gender discrimination can be reproduced, rationalized, and resisted. These empirical findings are theorized through a combined labor process analysis of power, knowledge, and identity in recruitment practices. We conclude that labor process analysis facilitates our understanding of the deep-seated barriers that continue to impede the protection of employee rights in workplace practices.     

Employee Rights, Employee Responsibilities and Knowledge Sharing in Intelligent Organization

Much is currently being written about the need to encourage employees to share knowledge in order for companies to maintain a role as an intelligent organization in a technologically sophisticated environment. However, there is little written of the relationship between employee rights to satisfactory employment conditions, employee responsibilities in decision-making, and employee willingness to share their knowledge collaboratively. This paper seeks to redress this gap by discussing the importance of the relationship between employee rights and responsibilities and employee willingness to share knowledge. The reaction of a group of employees (academics) employed in an Intelligent Organization (university) to a reduction in their rights and responsibilities is discussed in order to design a framework of employee rights and responsibilities required for knowledge sharing in intelligent organizations.     

Income Level and the Value of Non-Wage Employee Benefits

With continuing increases in the cost of medical insurance and other “fringe” benefits, payroll cost for monetary and non-monetary aspects of compensation is a significant factor for most organizations. While this is not a new phenomenon, relatively few studies in the empirical literature have examined the role of fringe benefits in employee compensation plans. Especially in under researched areas, it is imperative that researchers utilize ideas and theories from other disciplines to further our knowledge. Accordingly, this paper borrows the concept of elasticity from the economic literature to help explain and understand employee perceptions of two of the most common, costly, and important benefits—medical insurance and retirement plans. Specifically, the relationship between the current income of employees is analyzed in relation to employee perceptions of the value and importance of benefits. Results suggest that employees do not value medical insurance and retirement plans in the same manner. This result is interpreted in terms of the change in the marginal utility of the specific benefit.     

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.     

Legalistic organizational responses to catastrophic illness: The effect of stigmatization on reactions to HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has focused increased attention on catastrophic illnesses in the workplace, and because of the stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS, it raises three primary concerns for organizations: (1) organizational avoidance of legal sanctions and litigation; (2) the maintenance of organizational legitimacy; and (3) organizational protection of employee rights. Although many organizations adopt legalistic responses to cope with these concerns, the analysis presented in this article suggests that while legalistic approaches function well to protect organizational interests in terms of both legal liability and legitimacy, the are only partially able to protect employee rights. Drawing upon the limited literature on HIV/AIDS in the workplace, this article presents an agenda for future research on organizational responses to HIV/AIDS.     

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.     

High performance work practice implementation and employee impressions of line manager leadership

Human resource management (HRM) research has documented the importance of high performance work practices (HPWPs) to organizations, and recent efforts have argued for increasing attention to the role of line manager implementation of HPWPs. To date, research in this area has focused largely on the organizational or employee implications of HPWP implementation, ignoring the process through which implementation affects outcomes. In this article, we use theory on impression formation to describe the perceptual process through which line manager implementation of HPWPs facilitates the formation of different employee impressions of manager leadership styles. We argue that this process is contingent upon employee attributions of implementation intent, which are influenced by the interaction of employee affective and attributional tendencies with line manager implementation style (i.e., political skill). Our conceptualization of this process contributes to HRM research by demonstrating the benefits of integrating it with leadership theory, as well as identifying the role of interpersonal perceptual processes in the effects of HPWPs.     

Temporary workers: Employee rights and employer responsibilities

As the number of temporary workers in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the past ten years, so, too, has social policy concent over the rights of temporary employees in the workplace and the responsibilities of employing organizations to them. This article first reviews the extent to which temporary workers can be considered “employees” of organizations and thereby be extended the same rights and protections as permanent, full-time employees. Then, the article reviews the current state of case law on the most salient legal issues pertaining to the treatment of temporary workers: discrimination, pay and fringe benefits, worker’s compensation, occupational safety and health, and union activity. The article concludes with the managerial implications of current labor law for compliance with legislative and judicial mandates.     

Employee benefits: A growing source of psychological contract violations

Since the 1940s, the number of employee benefits provided by employers and costs related to these benefits have increased dramatically. However, in the face of intensified product market competition, more and more organizations are decreasing their benefits packages as part of broader efforts to decrease labor costs. At the same time, many employees have become dependent on employer-provided benefits to help satisfy basic security needs. This article examines the evolution of this predicament and the associated consequences that are likely to arise as a result of this conflict between worker expectations and employer practices. Ideas for resolution of this employee–employer conflict are also discussed.     

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.     

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.     

组织政治氛围对员工离职倾向的影响:有调节的中介模型

组织政治氛围是员工离职倾向的重要前因变量,但现有文献还未对这种关系及作用机制进行系统研究。基于资源保存理论,引入员工沉默作为中介变量,以政治技能作为调节变量,构建被调节的中介模型,探讨组织政治氛围对员工离职倾向的影响机制。通过线性回归、Bootstrap等方法对328份样本进行实证分析,结果表明:组织政治氛围正向影响员工离职倾向,员工沉默在该过程中起部分中介作用;政治技能负向调节组织政治氛围与员工沉默之间的关系,政治技能负向调节了员工沉默在组织政治氛围与离职倾向之间的中介效应。     

Historical Significance of Labor’s Increased Precariousness in Germany,the United Kingdom,and Spain

This article addresses the historical significance of the increasing precariousness of labor, even in the most advanced economies. Given the sterility of the mainstream approach, based on methodological individualism, we start from a Marxist critique of political economy, focusing on the laws that govern the process of capitalist accumulation and its contradictions. Within the framework of these laws, we analyze the tendency of labor exploitation to increase in a capitalist economy, linked to the exigencies of profitability due to the increasing difficulties of the valorization of capital. The precariousness of labor is studied around some of the main forms it adopts in three European economies: mini‐jobs in Germany, “zero‐hours contracts” in the United Kingdom, and false self‐employment, together with internship and training contracts, in Spain. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, several conclusions are proposed to understand the extension and deepening of labor precariousness, built on the notions of overexploitation and destruction of productive forces, linked to current demands of capitalist accumulation.     

Contingent workers' impact on standard employee withdrawal behaviors: Does what you use them for matter?

Previous research has suggested that workforce mixing—simultaneously using contingent workers and standard employees—can negatively affect standard employee attitudes and behaviors. In this study, we consider the impact of two reasons employers choose to use contingent workers (to enhance standard employee employment stability and to reduce labor costs) on standard employee withdrawal behaviors (absenteeism and turnover). We posit that when the aim of using contingent labor is to enhance standard employee employment stability (employment stability contingent labor strategy or ESCLS), the effects on standard employee withdrawal behaviors will differ from when the aim is to reduce labor costs (labor cost contingent labor strategy, or LCCLS). Using a sample of 90 firms that employ a mixed workforce, we examine the influence of ESCLS, LCCLS, and high investment HR systems (HIHRS) on standard employee withdrawal behaviors at the firm level. In addition to supporting the hypothesized direct (positive) effect of LCCLS on standard employee withdrawal behaviors, this study's results support the hypothesized moderating effects of HIHRS on the negative relationship between ESCLS and standard employee withdrawal behaviors and the positive relationship between LCCLS and standard employee withdrawal behaviors. Implications for research and practice and suggestions for further research are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Giving to get loyalty: How organizations signal their loyalty to employees

Organizations are currently struggling to attract and retain human capital. The Pandemic and economy have a fueled reduction in numbers of participants in the workforce. The effect has been many employers struggling with fewer employees then they would like and need to successfully execute their business strategy. Most observers believe that a combination of low pay, a lack of workplace flexibility, poor opportunities, and benefits, have led to this large-scale labor unrest. Understanding how organizations can earn employee loyalty is more critical than ever. This article presents practical ideas for how organizations can earn employee loyalty from reviewing responses from 54 working graduate students and a review of loyalty research to provide actions organizations can take within jobs, co-workers, supervisors, and organizational policy to earn employee loyalty. As well this article provides checklists that organizational leaders can use as starting points for thinking about what they might do to signal their loyalty to employees. These checklists can also be used to engage employees in conversations about what is most important to them and discover what employees expect from their organizations as a fair trade for their loyalty.     

Union Mergers: The New Interest and Some Old Questions

When the merged union UNITE HERE was recently torn apart by internal dissent, the labor movement’s attention turned to some longstanding questions about how union mergers are negotiated, why some fail and others succeed, how members are affected by merger, and how the big, diverse unions created by mergers—the super-unions—manage to stay intact. This article addresses these questions, arguing throughout that little is actually known about the union merger process and outcomes. In doing so, it also suggests that some union mergers, such as the one forming UNITE HERE, may not always make sense and that bigger unions created by mergers are not necessarily better unions.     

A stakeholder perspective of employee responsibilities and rights

This article offers a perspective that serves as an alternative to dealing with workplace issues within the framework of managerial capitalism. In accomplishing this, the article questions managerial capitalism by drawing from some of the same arguments used to justify it—such as those based on corporate morality, the law, notions of bureaucracy, and social construction of reality. Introducing and applying a strategy of inquiry known as deconstruction helps fulfill the underlying analysis. The result is an articulation of a stakeholder perspective of employee responsibilities and rights. This is an extended version of an Invited/Guest Paper presented to the Study Group on Employee Rights and Industrial Justice of the International Industrial Relations Research Association, at the 43rd IRRA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., December 27, 1990.     

The Dirty Dozen: Common Problem Areas in Principal–Agent Relationships

The main purpose of the article is to educate managers about potential difficulties caused by breach of fiduciary duties on the part of agents/employees within their organization. Managers will learn how to recognize common problem situations so they can take steps to avoid, or at least mitigate, any resulting damage. This article highlights 12 frequent situations—the “dirty dozen”—that pose dangers for business organizations.     

Who is an Employer in the Triangular Employment Relationship? Sorting Through the Definitional Confusion

Employers in the United States are increasingly utilizing staffing firms, employee leasing firms, temporary employment agencies and other third parties to help manage contingent labor in their organizations. The use of such triangular relationships creates complexities in the rights and responsibilities of each party, partially due to the variation in how U.S. employment law defines employers and employees across statutes. We analyze the various definitions of employee and employer across key U.S. employment statutes (e.g., Civil Rights Act of 1964, ADA, FMLA, FLSA), tests used by the courts in their decision making, and IRS regulations and evaluate the impact of these definitions on the use of contingent employees in triangular relationships. We review existing case law relevant to discrimination and non-discrimination statutes and identify key areas of risk and responsibility for both the individuals employed as contingent workers and firms that use contingent labor. Finally, we offer recommendations for strategically managing contingent labor in the current legal context.     

简论事业单位的人事与劳动纠纷

事业单位人事纠纷与劳动纠纷自成立之日起便以有之。工作中存在与发生的矛盾、分歧与争议无时不在。上级与下级之间、员工与领导之间、人与机构之间、单位与人事机构之间存在与发生的纠纷、矛盾基本上通过党组织、行政命令、政策、甚至个人权利威望与影响力来解决。这些人事矛盾基本上在内部消化,几乎从未没有公开。而到了21世纪的今天,由于政治与民主法制进程加快,以及人事制度的悄然进行,这种矛盾日益公开。那么化解这种矛盾究竟是适用劳动仲裁还是人事仲裁仍然存在很多问题。文中对事业单位人事纠纷和劳动纠纷的危害及产生的问题根源进行较为深刻的剖析,针对事业单位的性质以及与企业的区别,提出了事业单位所适用的相关法律及相关建议。