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Managing conflicts between employees and supervisors is a critical issue in maintaining productive labor‐management relations. This study uses the theory of cooperation and competition to specify the nature of the relationship and the flexible strategies that facilitate mutually beneficial solutions to employee complaints. Results based on interviews of supervisors and union employees in a remote site in British Columbia support the hypotheses that cooperative, compared to competitive and independent, goals promote open‐minded discussions of complaints that result in efficient resolutions which benefit both supervisors and employees. Results suggested that developing cooperative goals and open‐minded negotiation skills can help supervisors and employees to create integrative solutions to shopfloor conflicts.

Many health care workplaces are adopting more cooperative labour‐management relations, spurred in part by sweeping changes in the economic environment that have occurred over the last decade. Labour‐management cooperation is seen as essential if health care organizations are to achieve their valued performance objectives. Joint labour‐management committees (LMCs) have been adopted in many health care workplaces as a means of achieving better industrial relations. Using data from a sample of Canadian union leaders in the health care sector, this paper examines the impact of labour‐management forums and labour climate on employee and organizational outcomes. Research results suggest that labour climate is less important in predicting workplace performance (and change in workplace performance) than is the number of LMCs in operation. However, labour climate is found to be at least as important in predicting union member satisfaction (and change in member satisfaction) as is the wide adoption of LMCs in operation. These findings are consistent with the notion that the greater use of LMCs is associated with augmented workplace performance (and a positive change in workplace performance), notwithstanding the contribution of the labour climate in the workplace.

This paper aims to present an analysis of the nature and drivers of company‐level concession bargaining during the financial crisis 2008‐10 in Germany.

The paper is based on five company case studies. Data collection methods include document analysis and semi‐structured interviews.

Using the five cases, it was possible to identify different ways in which companies were affected by the financial crisis itself, by various company‐level adjustment strategies, and by various implications of the crisis and the collective agreements resulting from it. The author found that company‐level social partners, supported by public policies, were able to avoid redundancies and keep employees in work, while helping the company to survive.

The findings show that social partners at company level are able to agree on cooperative solutions to reduce labour costs in order to ensure the company's viability.

The findings are important for understanding key aspects of the German “job miracle” both during and after the global financial crisis.

This chapter presents an institutional analysis of two organizations established by union members to give labor a voice in regional economic development in western New York (WNY), one that emerged in the 1970s another created in the 1990s. Employing the institutionalist comparative case method, the analysis highlights the organizations' similarities and differences. Then, drawing attention to key “limiting” factors, a theory is outlined, offering three scenarios for future labor involvement in WNY economic development. Central to those scenarios is the finding that labor needs not only a voice but also a suitable message.

This chapter examines the rise and fall of the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations (Dunlop Commission) in the early 1990s. It uses the events surrounding the Commission to provide an insight into the dynamics of the struggle over federal labor law reform. The inability of the Dunlop Commission to get labor and management representatives to agree on proposals for labor law reform demonstrated, yet again, that employer opposition is the greatest obstacle to the protection of organizing rights and modernization of labor law. For the nation's major management associations, labor law reform is a life and death issue, and nothing is more important to them than defeating revisions to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) intended to strengthen organizing rights. The failure of labor law reform in the 1990s also demonstrated that the labor movement would never win reform by means of an “inside the beltway” legislative campaign – designed to push reform through the US Senate – because the principal employer organizations would always exercise more influence in Congress. Instead, unions must engage with public opinion, and convince union and nonunion members about the importance of reform. Thus far, however, they lack an effective language with which to do this.

Since the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935, American labor law has prohibited certain forms of workplace organization in nonunion firms. Congress routinely considers legislation to overturn that prohibition and allow employers more flexibility in creating workplace teams. Systems of employee representation were a prominent feature in American firms after World War I, and in the early 1930s, employers used them extensively as a union substitution technique. At United States Steel, ironically, employee representation provided the means for unionization of the firm. The company’s experience offers insight in the contemporary debate.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between high commitment human resource practices (HCHRPs), conceptualized at the workplace level and employees’ attitudes, including affective commitment (AC) and turnover intention (TI). The study also tests the moderating role of cooperative labor–management relations (CLMR) between HCHRPs and organizational trust (OT).

Based on social exchange theory and trust commitment theory, the authors build a research model that explains employee behavior and empirically prove the model by using samples of 407 employees from South Korea. This study uses hierarchical linear regression and cross-level hypotheses based on hierarchical linear modeling.

The results demonstrate the positive impact of HCHRPs on an AC and TI, through OT. However, no moderating effect of CLMR between human resource management (HRM) practices and OT is observed.

Few theory-based studies test the direct linkage between HRM practices and outcomes. This study is designed with a multi-level research method to provide a conceptually comprehensive and deeper understanding of how HRM practices work in an organization by testing the relationship between organizational practices and employees’ outcomes.

This paper investigates the role of arbitration panels in German employment relations. It is the main aim of the analysis to improve our knowledge of the ways through which employment related conflict is formalized within a transparent procedure.

Hypotheses are generated from a review of relevant publications on German arbitration panels. To test the hypotheses with evidence, the paper uses data from the 2006 WSI works council survey and applies binary logistical regression analysis.

The statistical analysis reveals that works councils oppose management hostility by way of making more frequent use of arbitration panels. While in a multivariate model the use of arbitration panels could be positively associated with certain attitudes of works councils and management, results for a number of institutional variables were other than expected. While foreign ownership of a particular establishment did not have a significant impact on the use of arbitration panels, firm‐level agreements, as negotiated by unions without the direct involvement of works councils, are associated with a more frequent use of such panels.

The model applied in the article could not verify establishment age because data on this subject was not available. Future surveys should fill this void.

The findings of this paper suggest that arbitration panels are a valuable tool in the process of conflict resolution. Because there is little evidence for an excessive use of such panels, future debates on the reform of the Works Constitution Act should consider strengthening this instrument rather than restricting it.

While data on the use of arbitration panels had already been documented about 20 years ago, the author presents a unique set of data, which for the first time allows the analysis of the use of arbitration panels in all industries within the private sector and is also significant in making it possible to statistically test relevant hypotheses on the usage of such panels.

In an economy where firms compete for limited resources, focusing internally to boost efficiency and reduce waste is critical. In particular, the kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement in small sustainable increments has spread in the manufacturing industry with mixed results. However, the knowledge management requirements of kaizen have not yet been formalized for practitioners to easily check the necessary pre‐conditions of their organization. The objective of this paper is to explore the successful implementation of kaizen in terms of its organizational design and knowledge management preconditions.

Using a case‐study approach building on previous in‐depth research of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) in Fremont, California, this study assesses the organizational and knowledge preconditions of kaizen.

The results show that the success of NUMMI may reside as much in Toyota's production system as in the alignment of kaizen and the organizational characteristics that support suitable knowledge management practices.

The findings highlight the need for practitioners who plan to implement kaizen to review their firm's organizational characteristics and knowledge management practices and ensure their congruence with the requirements of kaizen.

The paper shows how kaizen cannot be reduced to an add‐on grafted onto existing processes and aimed at temporarily fixing the bottom line. Instead, kaizen is deeply rooted in, and therefore strongly dependent on, the processes it intends to improve.

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship of different dimensions of employment relation (ER) with perceived organizational performance. The study also attempts to analyze the role of technological intensity in determining the employment approaches adopted by the firm.

Data were gathered through the survey method and in-depth personal interviews were conducted in Indian manufacturing firms based in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The findings confirm that all dimensions of employment relation have profound and significant relationship with perceived organizational performance. It also revealed that technology intensity of the industry determines the way people are managed in the organization.

The study has contributed to the existing body of knowledge by understanding the impact of unique framework of ER (industrial relations and HRM) on organizational performance. The study represents the one of the fewest attempts to measure technology intensity as moderating variable in ER & Performance.