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Book part
Publication date: 24 March 2005

James D. Tripp, Peppi M. Kenny and Don T. Johnson

As of 1982, federal credit unions were allowed to add select employee groups and thus create institutions with multiple-group common bonds. We examine the efficiency of single…

Abstract

As of 1982, federal credit unions were allowed to add select employee groups and thus create institutions with multiple-group common bonds. We examine the efficiency of single bond and multiple bond federal-chartered credit unions by using data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric, linear programming methodology. Results indicate that multiple bond credit unions have better pure technical efficiency than single bond credit unions. However, single bond credit unions appear to be more scale efficient than the multiple bond credit unions. Our results also indicate that members of multiple bond credit unions may derive greater wealth gains than members of single bond credit unions.

Details

Research in Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-161-3

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 March 2024

Thanduxolo Elford Fana and Jane Goudge

In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.

Findings

Management in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.

Originality/value

Finding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 38 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2024

Helene Langbein

This study aims to analyze the effect the liberalization of industrial relations in Germany has had on trade unions’ influence on companies’ decisions. Particular attention is…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to analyze the effect the liberalization of industrial relations in Germany has had on trade unions’ influence on companies’ decisions. Particular attention is given to European measures of flexibilizing company law and how they affect industrial relations in Germany.

Design/methodology/approach

After presenting a theoretical basis regarding industrial relations and corporate governance, the paper then demonstrates, via a case study, the effects of the flexible European company law. It examines the strategic avoidance of trade union activity at SAP, a case that ended up before the European Court of Justice.

Findings

The flexibility of European company law allows companies to limit the influence of trade unions on company decisions. Limiting trade unions' internal participation weakens their position overall. Precautionary measures to protect employees’ rights help to reduce the dangers of this process.

Originality/value

The influence of European law brings a new perspective to the transformation of the German industrial relations model. The analysis of the strategy of using the legal type of the European company (Societas Europaea) to limit the internal activity of trade unions demonstrates the connection between institutional settings and corporate governance.

Details

Critical Perspectives on International Business, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 January 2024

Eun Hye Jo and Jung Wha Lee

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines how the presence of labor unions affects a firm’s pay disparity between executives and employees and its financial statement comparability.

Design/methodology/approach

It uses firm-level labor union data in Korea and applies regression analyses to a sample of 1,776 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2008.

Findings

The authors find that unionized firms have a smaller pay disparity between executives and employees than non-unionized firms, suggesting that labor unions place pressure on the pay structure. Unionization also lowers financial statement comparability, which helps managers of unionized firms maintain information asymmetry. Further, this negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is stronger in non-chaebol firms, implying that they are more motivated than chaebol firms to reduce their financial statement comparability in response to the presence of labor unions. In addition, the negative relationship between unionization and financial statement comparability is pronounced in profit-making firms, firms with less analyst following, firms with fewer foreign investors and firms in more competitive product markets.

Research limitations/implications

The finding that firms adjust comparability in response to labor unions interests regulators and policymakers, who emphasize the role of comparability in providing usefulness to information users.

Originality/value

The findings add to the existing literature on the effect of labor unions on firms' pay structures and accounting choices.

Details

International Journal of Managerial Finance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1743-9132

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1984

Terry E. Ashforth and Geoffrey N. Soutar

Research among credit unions in Western Australia is reported in which directors and managers of credit unions expressed their attitudes with regard to the corporate objectives of…

Abstract

Research among credit unions in Western Australia is reported in which directors and managers of credit unions expressed their attitudes with regard to the corporate objectives of their organisation, and future directions of development for the credit union movement are suggested.

Details

International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 2 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-2323

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1993

P.B. Beaumont and R.I.D. Harris

As the overall level of union membership and density has fallen in Britain throughout the 1980s (and into the 1990s), researchers have begun to pay more attention to the non‐union…

Abstract

As the overall level of union membership and density has fallen in Britain throughout the 1980s (and into the 1990s), researchers have begun to pay more attention to the non‐union employment sector. For instance, considerable use has been made of the second national Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (1984) to investigate the determinants of non‐union status. The major limitation of such work, however, is that it treats the non‐union sector as essentially homogeneous in nature. Such an approach sits rather awkwardly with the following facts and findings:

Details

Management Research News, vol. 16 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1981

Paul Blyton

“Managerial unionism” commented one writer recently “consititutes an emergent industrial relations phenomenon of major significance”. Long established in the public sector the…

Abstract

“Managerial unionism” commented one writer recently “consititutes an emergent industrial relations phenomenon of major significance”. Long established in the public sector the movement of junior and middle managers into trade unions is indeed becoming increasingly evident throughout private industry. Rising job insecurity, dissatisfaction with salary levels and a decline in the individual treatment of managers by employers are some of the factors encouraging this development. New unions have been created and existing ones adapted to meet the demand. There are now more than a dozen unions catering exclusively for managerial and executive grades, as well as the more general white‐collar unions which recruit managers, notably Clive Jenkins' Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2005

Examines union and non‐union consultation and representation arrangements at South West Water, UK.

Abstract

Purpose

Examines union and non‐union consultation and representation arrangements at South West Water, UK.

Design/methodology/approach

Constitutes a briefing that is prepared by an independent writer who adds his own impartial comments.

Findings

Demonstrates that perceptions of trade union membership change over time and between people. Shows that South West Water has generally diluted trade union influence in recent years. Argues, however, that adopting a strategy of substituting unions at the workplace by individualizing the employment relationship and derecognizing the union may not always produce positive industrial‐relations outcomes.

Practical implications

Highlights that new European Union directives which seek to make sure employees are informed and consulted in employment matters, may mean that a mechanism for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be enough, and that the right to be heard and have a say over important workplace issues, and at times an acknowledgement of differing interests, may be essential for achieving greater employee satisfaction and commitment.

Originality/value

Contains plenty to interest employer and trade union representatives involved in the ongoing debate over trade union influence.

Details

Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-0734

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2001

Rajinder Garcha and John C. Phillips

This study was conducted to learn about the involvement of US academic librarians in local as well as national faculty union activities; their reasons for joining unions; and the…

593

Abstract

This study was conducted to learn about the involvement of US academic librarians in local as well as national faculty union activities; their reasons for joining unions; and the benefits they have gained because of their memberships in their unions. It was concluded that librarians who were members of unions generally earned higher salaries than those who were not. Since librarians had on several occasions worked closely with the teaching faculty on various union activities, several close bonds and relationships among them had occurred. Moreover, librarians viewed union membership as a vehicle to become more involved in decision‐making processes at their institutions.

Details

Library Review, vol. 50 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1993

Francis Green and Jean Soper

At the start of the 1990s trade unions were reeling from a decade of Thatcherism, in which their density amongst employees had been whittled down to 35% by 1990. Several…

Abstract

At the start of the 1990s trade unions were reeling from a decade of Thatcherism, in which their density amongst employees had been whittled down to 35% by 1990. Several explanations for the decline have vied for attention: the changing composition of industry and of the economy generally, with more part‐time work, fewer large‐scale establishments, the collapse of manufacturing industries and so on; the changing legal environment; the distinctly uncongenial macroeconomic environment, which with lowish inflation and mass unemployment was a discouragement to membership (see for example Disney, 1990; Green, 1991). Such explanations have varying implications for unions' future prospects. For example, if the changed level environment were the key factor, one would predict a further decline of union membership in the 1990s, unless there were a change of government and a wholesale repeal of Thatcherite trade union laws (which is not to be expected). A distinction has been drawn in the literature between the structural factors that determine the social context in which individual employees make their decisions with regard to union membership, and the varying preferences that individuals may have in favour of or against unions. Attempts have been made to show that despite years of attacks from Thatcherism, it is not so much the attitudes and commitment of workers to unions that has changed, as the opportunities that they face. Thus it is said that for many the reason that they left unions is because unions simply were not available at the new workplaces (Gallie, 1989).

Details

Management Research News, vol. 16 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

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