There continues to be widespread anxiety about the future of work. I recently proposed a labor studies perspective on how to understand and meet undeniable challenges. This follow-up paper explores the implications of my analysis for the contemporary American academy, reflecting on how labor studies can help enlist public research universities in…

This article focuses on a particular group in capitalist society that is disabled, demeaned and denied by capitalism itself, through processes of economic exploitation, systematic and systemic class exclusion, and discrimination/ prejudice- that is- the working class. In doing so I recognise that the working class (defined as all those who sell…

This article reviews the documentary film "American Factory" as a resource for undergraduate management courses, especially those with a global emphasis. The film illustrates several themes, including overcoming cross-cultural challenges with cultural intelligence; international labor relations; employee health, safety, and well-being;…

In recent years, issues pertaining to graduate student union organizing have been at the center of several political battles and court cases. This attention is, at least in part, due to the growth of graduate student unions at a time when organized labor's influence is receding in other, more traditionally unionized sectors of the labor force. As…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to review two accounts of the history of workplace learning and training in the USA that emphasize issues of power and control in the determination of what training occurs, and place these issues at the center of their analyses. Design/methodology/approach: The two texts are reviewed and a constructivist paradigm…

Examines effects of Harry Braverman's (1974) "Labor and Monopoly Capital" in terms of workers' participation and resistance; gendered outcomes; and changes in skill levels and control strategies. Suggests that Braverman's key premises have been overturned by research and events of the last 20 years. (SK)

Applies the concept of control to organizations. Argues that organizations have been constructed over time on the basis of different modes of control of the labor process. The modes of control become specialized for different socioeconomic classes within organizations in reaction to historical cycles of capitalist development. (Author/RW)

Researchers interviewed 83 subordinate employees and 70 supervisory employees to investigate the ways subordinates try to influence their supervisors. Supervisors and subordinates reported similar agents and methods of influence, causes of success, and outcomes of attempts at upward influence, but different causes of failure. (Author/RW)

Analyzed two programs in a public agency: Investors in Management (a British government initiative) and employee-led development. Found that both programs exposed tensions between individual growth and traditional values constraining growth. Concluded that effective organizational learning in the public sector must be collective and aware of…

Authoritarian management from above can no longer impose controls on subordinates. Participative management is now essential to improve organizational efficiency, release individual and group initiative, and make a fundamental improvement in the climate of British industrial relations. (MS)

Government legislation influences management styles. When the power is generated from below instead of above, a completely new philosophy is necessitated to cope with the systems of informal and formal power. (MS)

Portrays a (British) sixth-form college's experiences while preparing for incorporation. Analyzes recent developments of interest to education managers facing externally imposed change. Focuses on communication and consultation structures, the changing balance of power as institutions become independent entities, and industrial relations in a new…

A survey was conducted of 102 active quality circle members drawn from five organizations to determine how quality circle participation affected communication, as perceived by members themselves. The survey consisted of two parts. The first part contained ten open-ended questions inquiring about the respondent's personal experience in quality…

Intended primarily for educators, legislators, and the general public in the state of Pennsylvania, this public affairs brochure addresses the question of whether binding arbitration should be legislated in that state as a means of resolving labor disputes between a local school district and its employees. The brochure reviews the history of…

Beginning with a historical review of the evolution of the superintendency in public education, this article focuses on mistakes made by superintendents in the early days of collective bargaining. Their attempts to act as intermediaries between boards and unions resulted in unions taking advantage of them to erode management prerogatives. (TE)