Job Anxiety,Work‐Related Psychological Illness and Workplace Performance

This article uses matched employee–employer data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey to examine the relationship between employee psychological health and workplace performance in 2004 and 2011. Using two measures of work‐related psychological health — namely employee‐reported job anxiety and manager‐reported workforce stress, depression and anxiety — we find a positive relationship between psychological ill‐health and absence, but not quits. The association between psychological ill‐health and labour productivity is less clear, with estimates sensitive to sector, time period and the measure of psychological health. The 2004–2011 panel is further used to explore the extent to which change in psychological health is related to change in performance.     

The Relationships of Informal High Performance Work Practices to Job Satisfaction and Workplace Profitability

Recent empirical evidence reveals considerable divergence between management reports and employee reports regarding organizational high performance work practices (HPWPs). This divergence implies that employees may not participate in some HPWPs that are formally present in their organizations, but also, that employees may participate in HPWPs that are not formally present in their organizations. In this study, we examine the implication of the latter case (i.e., employee participation in “informal” HPWPs) for employee‐level and organization‐level outcomes. Our analyses, using data from the Statistics Canada Workplace and Employee Survey, suggest that employee participation in informal HPWPs is associated with enhanced job satisfaction and workplace profitability in a similar way as employee participation in formal HPWPs is associated with these outcomes.     

Workplace Transformation and the Disposable Workplace: Employee Involvement in Australia

Employee involvement (EI) programs should mainly appear either where "workplace transformation" occurs or where managers create a "disposable workplace." Cluster analysis of Australian workplace data supports the notion that transformed and disposable workplaces are distinct from one another and from traditional workplaces. These workplace categories are related to the reported incidence of EI programs as hypothesized. (JEL J41, J51, 553)     

Updating the Determinants of Firm Performance: Estimation using the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey

We examine the determinants of establishment performance in the UK, using cross‐sectional data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to replicate research by Fernie and Metcalf (1995) who used data from the 1990 Workplace Employee Relations Survey; specifically, we test whether employee representation, contingent pay and efforts to boost employee participation affect a set of economic and industrial relations outcome indicators in the manner they suggest. We also re‐estimate the influential WERS90‐based study of Machin and Stewart (1996) on the links between union status and financial performance. In both cases we report very different results.     

Restructuring and Workplace Unionism at Manchester Airport

This paper provides evidence from empirical case-study research into the impact of compulsory competitive tendering on workplace union organization among the baggage-handling workforce at Manchester Airport. It documents the main processes of development within an historical context, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of workplace unionism during the 1980s, the recent challenge posed by managerial restructuring in the early 1990s, and the wider implications for debates about the 'state' of workplace unionism in Britain today.
Compared with the union resilience displayed by the baggage handlers during the 1980s, the nature of shop-stewards' organization appears to have changed drastically to managemenťs advantage during the last few years. However, continuing underlying tensions in worker-management relations suggest that this situation may not necessarily amount to a fundamental and irreversible transformation in the nature of workplace unionism in the manner in which those who use the vocabulary of the 'New Industrial Relations' would suggest.     

Unions, Safety Committees and Workplace Injuries

This paper exploits the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey from 1990 (WIRS3) to examine the determinants of workplace injuries for a sample of manufacturing establishments in the UK. A key focus of this paper is an assessment of the role played by union-appointed safety representatives and joint health and safety consultative committees in reducing the frequency of workplace accidents. We find that joint consultative committees, with all employee representatives appointed by unions, significantly reduce workplace injuries relative to those establishments where the management alone determine health and safety arrangements. However, an important role is also found for those joint consultative commitees where no employee representatives are appointed by unions.     

Workplace Risk, Establishment Size and Union Density

The health and safety risk faced by individual employees can be treated as an unobservable latent variable which manifests itself at workplace level through reported counts of work‐related injuries and illnesses over a given interval. This paper presents results from count data regressions using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. The findings strongly support the view that employees in larger establishments have a lower probability of being injured or falling ill. In addition, establishments with a higher proportion of unionized employees, and with health and safety committees, were associated with higher numbers of reported injuries and illnesses.     

建设工程项目中信任与成本、法制监督的关系研究

建设工程项目中业主方和承包商普遍存在对立关系的重要原因之一就是缺乏信任.文章运用交易费用理论,对建设工程项目中存在的交易成本进行分析,并将项目交易成本与信任建立关系,最终确定使总交易成本最少的最优信任水平;运用博弈论,分析建设工程项目中信任的产生与法制监督的关系.只有当法制监督水平达到一定程度时,业主和承包商才能互相信任.     

Workplace Innovations and Employee Outcomes: Evidence from Finland

In the recent literature on workplace innovations, two competing views stand out. One strand of literature emphasizes positive outcomes for employees in the form of increased discretion, improved job security, and enhanced job satisfaction. In turn, critics argue that workplace innovations lead to increased job intensity and mental strain, and compromise job security. We address these issues by using a representative data set on individual employees from Finland. Our results indicate that workplace innovations are mainly associated with beneficial outcomes for employees. They are consistent with the view that institutional features of the Finnish labor market may mediate the outcomes.     

Workplace Europe: new forms of bargaining and participation

There are conflicting tendencies among recent developments in bargaining and participation at the workplace level in Europe. While there is an emphasis on decentralisation of bargaining structures in many countries, there is considerable variance. Similarly, there is a diversity of approaches to both direct and indirect forms of participation. Despite attempts by the European Community to integrate policies on these matters among member countries, external influences such as the globalisation of economies and technologies are leading to diverse outcomes.     

Workplace implications of FMS and CIM in Denmark and Sweden

Drawing on experiences from the introduction of FMS and CIM in Denmark and Sweden this article deals with the impact on social relations between management and employees and the new challenges faced by the unions. The authors call for a stronger profile in union policy concerning technology and work.     

The Dual Transformation of Workplace Dispute Resolution

This study examines the impact on grievance rates of variation in the structure of nonunion dispute resolution procedures and in systems of work organization. Nonunion dispute resolution procedures that feature nonmanagerial decision makers had higher grievance rates than nonunion procedures with managerial decision makers. Grievance rates also were lower in workplaces that had adopted self-managed teams.