In social stratification research, the most frequently used social class schema are based on employment relations (EGP and ESEC). These schemes have been propelled to paradigms for research on social mobility and educational inequalities and applied in cross-national research for both genders. Using the European Working Conditions Survey, we…

This monograph complements volume 36, issue number 4 of ASHE Higher Education Report: "Understanding the New Majority of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty," and focuses on theories applied to study non-tenure-track faculty and philosophical and practical tensions represented in the literature. The chapter "Theories Used to Study and…

Labor-management cooperation to improve the quality of products and work life are traced to the early nineteenth century. Government activities in labor relations and experiments in industrial democracy in the United States and abroad are described. (SK)

Reviewed behavioral and industrial relations literature on grievances, and raised serious methodological, theoretical, and ethical questions. Given existing threats to traditional grievance systems, basic research, especially program evaluation, on proposed structural and behavior variants of grievance procedures is necessary. (JAC)

In the 1930s-1940s, personality inventories measuring psychopathology were used to identify job applicants who might be union sympathizers. Some managers believed that engagement in union activity correlated with psychological problems. Industrial psychologists' involvement in this practice raises ethical questions. (Contains 93 references.) (SK)

Reviews the literature on the ways organized labor, management, government, financial institutions, and the mass media respond to worker strikes. Differences in organizational responses to contractual and wildcat strikes are compared. Countermovements, used by management and other supporting organizations, aimed at ending strikes are examined. (AM)

The literature of sociology, international relations, and labor relations explores the impact and nature of conflict, the parties involved, and strategies for resolution. Public administrators could benefit from better understanding of their roles as conflict resolvers, observers, or participants. (SK)

Competency-based training (CBT) policy has contributed to the decline of unions in Britain through focus on individual performance, employer-defined nature of standards, narrow scope, and the centrality of flexibility and transferability. CBT has been supported for its ostensibly rational, neutral aspects despite the clear ideological assumptions…

During the 1980s, the number of local education associations engaging in some type of collaborative bargaining, a problem-solving approach conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect, grew significantly. In exploring the theory and practice of collaborative bargaining, the National Education Association relied on available published materials and…

Compares 1978 survey results to those of 1971 survey on union's job evaluation views. Thirty-nine unions out of 180 American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations and other selected unions responded to questions on job evaluation preferences, practices, origination, problems, and union policies. Results indicated modest trend…

U.S. employers' use of numerical and functional flexibility has created a division between organizational insiders (core) and outsiders (periphery). The latter have nonstandard work arrangements, the consequences of which differ depending on workers' degree of control over skills, autonomy, and transferability. (Contains 39 references.)

The effect of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) on working conditions depends on the way in which the technologies are designed to fit operator requirements, work organization, and organizational objectives. Recent attempts to promote skill-based human-centered approaches to CIM design are aimed at introducing humane working conditions…

Despite the benefits of employee participation in decision making, it is not widespread. Making it work requires commitment, job security, training, access to information, communication channels, goal setting, flat organizational structures, and financial reinforcement. (SK)

Quality Circle (QC) and Quality of Working Life (QWL) in the United States are similar in that both stress participative decision making, preserve management's prerogative to have the final say, and are voluntary. QC and QWL programs differ, however, in that labor unions are more involved in QWLs; QCs deal only with technical problems related to…

An overview is provided of the community college sector of Canadian post-secondary education. The first section points out the characteristics shared by the wide range of institutions termed "community colleges," indicating that: (1) they are public institutions with low or no tuition for conventional full-time students; (2) they are…