工会承诺、组织承诺和员工绩效——被企业所有制类型跨层次调节的中介模型

基于我国工会维稳与维权的双重角色,要发挥工会预防劳资矛盾激化的功能,并履行集体劳动争议代表的责任,需要研究工人是否对工会有承诺,以及这种承诺与组织承诺和员工绩效的关系。鉴于不同所有制企业工会的差异,文章基于角色理论、认知理论和交换理论,针对员工的工会承诺、组织承诺和绩效之间的关系展开研究,研究中使用了32家企业共709个员工样本的嵌套数据建立了不同所有制企业跨层次被调节的中介模型进行假设验证。研究结果表明：工会承诺正向影响组织承诺,组织承诺在工会承诺和员工绩效关系中起中介作用,并且该中介作用在公有制企业中较强,在非公有制企业中较弱。文章最后对实证分析部分进行了讨论,并指出未来研究方向。     

The Purpose of Trade Union Values: An Analysis of the ACTU1 Statement of Values

This paper uses the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) statement of union values as its point of departure to explore the purpose and role of trade union values. Specifically, the paper questions whether the role of values is purely symbolic, serving as a guide to unions, or whether values have a broader role. Furthermore, the paper questions the scope of the ACTU statement, which is currently based on the public work of unions. In conducting this analysis, union values are compared to the broader human values; moreover, the scope of the document is assessed against the historic activity and behaviour of unions as represented in extant union theory. Subsequently, the paper uses the emerging role of union values to critique the ACTU statement, concluding that while this statement makes a valuable contribution to union practice and debate, it can be extended to encompass other, more private areas of union activity.     

Verbraucherpolitik als gewerkschaftliche Aufgabe

Trade unions and consumer policy. In the first part of his essay, the author discusses the position of the DGB (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund), the largest and most important of the West German trade unions, in the field of consumer policy. Consumer policy has been part of the statute of the DGB since 1971. Trade unions in West Germany regard themselves as consumer organisations because their members are consumers as well as employees, and consumer policy is understood to be part of the general economic policy of the unions. In 1975, the congress of the DGB accepted a programme of consumer policy. The programme demands that consumers rank equal with producers in the market. This goal should be reached by price competition (as a dominant factor of competition), by transparency (Markttransparenz) of prices and quality, and by the appointment of an ombudsman as a legal caretaker of consumer interests. The DGB rejects new consumer organisations, because in its view the trade unions constitute a well organised consumer institution. There is some cooperation, however, with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Verbraucher, the chief German organisation for consumer affairs. The author disagrees with legal writers who deny trade unions a right of claim against unfair competition and against unfair standard contract clauses, according to para. 13 of the German Unfair Competition Act. In the second part of his essay, the author analyses the legitimation of trade union consumer policy. The discussion concerns the question of whether or not employees are the only consumers who are in need of protection, and if there is a conflict between their interests as employees and as consumers. The author suggests that legal consumer protection should shield only individual persons as buyers (not small firms, for example). Furthermore, consumer interests should be defined from the perspective of the consumer who is anemployee. A consumer who is at the same time an employer, does not need protection because he can compensate for the disadvantages sustained in his consumer role by exploiting his position as an employer. Conversely, the employee-consumer has the weaker position in both of his roles. Another important question is whether or not there is a conflict between a high standard of consumer protection and a high level of wages. The author cites some economists who suggest that this conflict may be resolved, and that the real conflict is not between consumers and employees, but between those two on the one side and business on the other. The author draws the conclusion that there exists a theoretical legitimation for trade unions to represent the consumer interest. There is a wide gap, however, between the programmes of the trade unions and their policy as evidenced by their everyday activities. The hope is expressed that this gap will become narrower.     

Credit Union Legislative Frameworks in the United States of America and the United Kingdom – A Flexible Friend or a Step Towards the Dark Side?

This article questions the findings of several studies which have concluded that the Credit Unions Act 1979 was a factor limiting the growth of credit unions in the United Kingdom (UK). The author’s conclusions are based upon an analysis of the amendments to the Credit Unions Act 1979 introduced by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). As a result, the 1979 Act now reciprocates the controversial, yet flexible United States (US) legislative framework. In particular, the article examines the interpretation of the common bond, the provision of financial services and the regulation of credit unions. The article concludes that these three statutory provisions have assisted the growth of credit unions in both countries and not limited their development. However, the growth of credit unions has come, at the expense of their unique status and philosophy. It has made US credit unions, in particular, indistinguishable from banks. This is a problem which may affect credit unions in the UK. The article concludes that the Credit Unions Act 1979 did not limit their development, but acted as a galvanising factor for credit union expansion.     

Price‐level co‐movements within currency unions: An alternative integration metric

This paper analyses currency union integration by testing whether price levels in member countries possess a common stochastic trend. The trace statistic test for cointegration proposed by (Johansen, 1995) demonstrates the presence of such a trend for most unions. A disaggregated analysis identifies a common stochastic trend for several though fewer than half of country pairs within a union. Some unions such as the Eurozone have small shares of cointegrated country pairs. Yet, the share of cointegrated country pairs is large relative to countries outside currency unions. Comparison to a control group (country pairs where one country belongs to a given union and the other country does not) indicates that the cointegration found within a currency union is a union‐specific trait and not a feature of the individual countries within the union. These results provide an alternative metric to intraunion trade for gauging the extent of currency union integration.     

The role of trade union collective voice in the access to training for workers in New Zealand

This paper explores trade union collective voice as a mechanism for worker participation in training decision making. New Zealand is an example of a liberal market economy (LME) with relatively weak regulatory pressure on employers to engage in training. Consequently, drivers such as trade union collective voice could fill an important role in workers securing support for training from their employers. The paper argues that given the reduced power of unions in many LMEs workers potentially face a twofold challenge: the first to secure an entitlement to training and the second to have any further participation in training decision making. Using the example of New Zealand, the paper examines whether collective bargaining secures entitlement to training. Then, employing the categorization of approaches to workforce development as either expansive or restrictive, it investigates the nature of that entitlement. Following this, the paper reports on dialogue with trade unions through which a more nuanced picture emerges of collective voice and the challenges to worker participation in training decision making. Finally, it reflects on the role collective voice could play in worker access to training.     

Union-Nonunion Gender Wage and Benefit Differentials across Establishment Sizes

Based on data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY), both male and female workers in larger establishments receive not only higher wages but also have a higher probability of receiving benefits than those in smaller establishments. This phenomenon reinforces the well documented size effect. This study also provides evidence of vast gender differences in estimated union effects on the different components of the compensation structure. Hence unions should not treat both genders similarly with respect to wages and benefits. Specifically, unions may be successful in attracting more female workers to join rank and file if unions could play an active role in making available maternity (paternity) leave, and also provided opportunities for women to join large establishments.     

Trade Unions as Agents for Skill Formation: The Case of Singapore

Trade unions can influence the quality and quantity of training provided to workers. This article delineates the role played by unions in Singapore’s skill formation system, during the 1980s and 1990s. This role is framed by the context of the developmental state and of a collaborationist union movement. Singapore unions act to support the state’s drive to upgrade the skills of the workforce. They put pressure on employers to sign up to collective agreements including statements about training, and they act as both agents and providers of training and education for basic and core skills. They also devote considerable resources to persuading their members to take up training opportunities. What evidence there is suggests that these various strategies have had some success. The unions’ role in Singapore is contrasted with their role in some other countries.     

High-involvement human resource practices,affective commitment,and organizational citizenship behaviors

Although understanding the concept of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in a service context is important, very few studies have investigated what motivates frontline service employees to exhibit such behaviors. This study examines how high-involvement human resource (HR) practices influence affective commitment, which contributes to citizenship behaviors in service settings from the employees' point of view. Based on previous studies, this study proposed a conceptual model and hypothesized that five constructs of HR practices (i.e. recognition, empowerment, competence development, fair rewards, and information sharing) facilitate the development of frontline employees' affective commitment. This kind of organizational commitment in turn contributes to OCB (i.e. loyalty, participation, and service delivery). Data were collected from 172 contact employees of Taiwanese restaurants. The result indicated that high-involvement HR practices play an important role in determining contact employees' affective commitment. Moreover, affective commitment was found to be an effective linkage between high-involvement HR practices and contact employees' citizenship behaviors.     

Decent Work: The Moral Status of Labor in Human Resource Management

Historically, whistleblowing research has predominantly focused on psychological and organisational conditions of raising concerns about alleged wrongdoing. Today, however, policy makers increasingly start to look at institutional frameworks for protecting whistleblowers and responding to their concerns. This article focuses on the latter by exploring the roles that trade unions might adopt in order to improve responsiveness in the whistleblowing process. Research has consistently demonstrated that the two main reasons that deter people from reporting perceived wrongdoing are fear of retaliation and a belief that the wrongdoing is unlikely to be rectified. In this article, we argue that trade unions have an important part to play in dealing with both these inhibiting factors but this requires them to be appropriately engaged in the whistleblowing process and willing to take a more proactive approach to negotiations. We use Vandekerckhove’s 3-tiered whistleblowing model and Kaine’s model of union voice level to structure our speculative analysis of the various ways in which trade unions can interact with whistleblowers and organisations they raise concerns about alleged wrongdoing in, as well as agents at a regulatory level. Our articulation of specific roles trade unions can play in the whistleblowing process uses examples from the UK as to how these trade union roles are currently linked to and embedded in employment law and whistleblowing regulation.     

Exploring the Boundaries of Human Resource Managers’ Responsibilities

This article addresses two longstanding challenges for human resource (HR) managers; how far they can and should represent the interests of both management and workers and how they can gain the power to do so. Adopting a Kantian perspective, it is argued that to pursue an ethical human resource management (HRM), HR managers need to go some way to resolving both. Three possible avenues are considered. Contemporary approaches to organisation of the HR role associated with the work of Ulrich are explored as a means of enhancing power, but rejected on the basis of research evidence as unlikely to succeed. Promotion of worker outcomes in the context of developing the link between HRM and performance offers the potential for a more ethical HRM but has not been seized by most HR managers. Finally, implementation of legislative and moral requirements to promote quality of working life is explored through the case of bullying at work. This highlights the boundaries of the HR role in a context of limited power and leads to the conclusion that it is unrealistic to look to HR managers, or at least HR managers alone, to achieve an ethical HRM.     

Globalization,non-standard employment and Australian trade unions

This article explores the impact of the growing non-standard workforce on trade union membership and union policy in Australia in the context of neoliberal policy responses to globalization. It is no coincidence that trade union density has rapidly declined in Australia as the non-standard employment share has rapidly increased. The characteristics of the jobs and the workers filling non-standard jobs are largely outside of the traditional domain of trade unions. While trade unions are faced with an increasingly hostile political environment in Australia, one of the real challenges they confront is to make themselves more relevant for non-standard employees and to increase their recruitment among non-standard employees.     

Individual pay for performance and commitment HR practices in South Korea

Despite the rapid growth of the use of pay-for-individual-performance systems in collectivistic societies including Korea, there are very few empirical studies regarding their effects on employee attitudes. With a data-set of 37 companies and 959 employees from South Korea, this research examines whether the new compensation system influences Korean employees’ organizational commitment and work effort and how these effects are moderated by HR practices. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, we found that pay-for-individual performance and commitment to HR practices did not have effects on organizational commitment, but a positive interaction effect was found. Regarding work effort, positive effects of pay-for-individual performance and the commitment HR were found as well as a significant interaction effect between them. Implications of the results are included.     

Britain's best kept secret? An analysis of the credit union as an alternative source of credit

At any time, the significance of a new device which facilitates saving and borrowing and encourages the prudent management of credit and debt is clear. Given the present credit market, in which certain categories of borrowers either cannot purchase credit or can only do so on disadvantageous terms, then the importance of such an alternative only increases. The credit union is such a device. It has an established and proven record of success in many countries but, outside of Northern Ireland, credit unions are in their infancy in the United Kingdom. This article examines the possibilities credit unions afford, against the background of the increasing problem of debt in the United Kingdom. We contend that credit unions can afford a partial solution to the debt problem, but that attention should also be placed on their limitations.     

When union strategy meets business strategy: The union voucher at Axa

In the 1980s, the French reformist union CFDT and insurance company Axa tested the union voucher. This was a novel solution for the union branch inside the company to address financial difficulties, broaden its membership base and generate new resources. The union voucher is a tool that provides unions with company funding: the company distributes vouchers to employees on an annual basis; employees then allocate the voucher (or not) to the union branch of their choice. The voucher system thus combines company financing and individual employee choice. Axa adopted the system in the early 1990s. Axa’s decision can ultimately be explained by its external growth strategy and because it needed to preserve a favourable climate during a period of intense restructuring. This article traces the history of the union voucher and assesses Axa’s experience.     

Neutrality agreements: How unions organize new hotels without an employee ballot

Hoteliers who have a project under development increasingly are being asked by labor-union organizers to sign so-called neutrality agreements—sometimes under duress. While labor unions do not operate in all hotel markets, this organizing tactic seems to be gaining currency where unions are present. By signing a neutrality agreement, the hotelier agrees not to oppose the union's organizing efforts, to allow the union to contact employees during work hours, and to allow the union access to employee directories. Without the agreement, the union would not be allowed any of those things, and the hotelier would be allowed to state its case publicly for why employees might not want to be represented by a union. The duress comes from the union's potential threat to use political connections to hamper the project's permits and to invoke the activity of other labor unions. The key element missing in the neutrality agreement is the employees' consent to the arrangement. Given that workers are legally given the right by U.S. labor law to decide via a secret ballot whether they do or do not want to be represented by a union, a neutrality agreement that allows for employers to recognize a union via a “card check” provision appears to abrogate that right to a secret vote by effectively sealing the matter before the hotel even begins hiring. Recent court rulings point to the likelihood that if workers formally complain to the National Labor Relations Board about such agreements, those agreements could be set aside.     

Employee representation plans at the Minnequa Steelworks,Pueblo, Colorado, 1915–1942

There has been revival of interest in employment representation plans as an alternative way of giving employees a ‘voice’ in a period of declining trade union density. J.D. Rockefeller Jr. played a crucial role in establishing the movement for employee representation plans in the United States before the Second World War, which at one stage may have covered more workers than unions. He established his employee representation plan at the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CFI) in the wake of the Ludlow massacre of 1914 and it served as a model for other employers. This article examines his Plan at the CFI's Pueblo steelworks, which survived for 26 years. It examines to what degree the Plan gave voice to the steelworks employees and to what extent the Plan was a union avoidance strategy. It also highlights union efforts to destroy the Plan in the 1919 Steel Strike and the impact of resistance from supervisors, who resented the undermining of their authority by the Plan.     

刍议企业在新时期践行科学发展观充分发挥工会组织的作用

在当前举国上下,贯彻、学习胡锦涛总书记的科学发展观精神中,作为企业工会组织,如何在新时期里,带领广大工人群众,自觉地投入到生产建设当中,充分发挥工会组织的作用.从而,不断地拓宽工会组织的工作新的思路,提升工会组织的地位,使工会组织赢得广大职工群众的信任和拥护,在服从和服务于全党全国大局中更好地发挥作用.     

Grenzen gewerkschaftlicher Verbraucherpolitik Anmerkungen zu Tonners Beitrag

The limits of trade union consumer policy — Remarks on the preceding paper by Tonner. In this contribution, the author discusses the limits that are set for trade unions when entering the consumer policy arena. Three levels of varying intensity with respect to the engagement in consumer politics are distinguished. The trade union movement can act as (a) the occasional representative of consumer interests; (b) the chief representative of specific consumer groups; (c) the chief representative of the general consumer interest. Arguments are stated in support of the view that the aspiration of trade unions to represent the general consumer interest cannot, within a democratically, pluralistically ruled society, be legitimated. To guard the specific consumer interests of their membership is a perfectly legitimate task for trade unions. Because of the interpersonal conflicts that arise it is, however, not in the interest of either employees or consumers that trade unions act as chief consumer advocates even for these specific interests. There is reason to believe that all sides are best served if trade unions devote themselves primarily to the representation of employee interests and only occasionally concern themselves with consumer affairs.     

A reluctant stakeholder? On the perception of corporate social responsibility among European trade unions

Seen from a national business system perspective, the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerges as a specifically US‐American response to challenges regarding the corporate place in society. With the spread of American capitalism, however, CSR is bound to come into contact – and conflict – with other approaches to the role of business in society that have been shaped by different national cultures. Within Europe, one such area of potential conflict concerns the role of organised labour in representing employee interests. Studying the perceptions held by European trade unions on stakeholding, as one of the important concepts in the CSR discourse, does indeed reveal a considerable degree of union scepticism of CSR and its terminology. There is, however, also embryonic evidence of at least some unions attempting to link the CSR discourse to traditional union goals. Furthermore, national differences in union responses to CSR are beginning to emerge, which may, in turn, further shape the evolution of national business systems in Europe.