A principal's level of involvement in collective bargaining can range from being a member of the negotiating team to merely being the recipient of the signed negotiated contract. This paper considers four possible roles for principals: (1) as a member of the negotiating team, (2) as part of a steering committee working with the negotiating team,…

Recent research and theory on collective bargaining focuses on bargaining attitudes and behaviors. Walton and McKersie divided all bargaining into distributive and integrative. Distributive bargaining is competitive and based on an assumption of conflict of interest. Integrative bargaining is cooperative and based on the theory that power can be…

School districts in Texas have used the same grievance procedure for approximately 20 years. In response to general dissatisfaction throughout the Socorro Independent School District (SISD) in El Paso, Texas, the district developed a new, user-friendly grievance procedure. This paper describes the use of peer mediation and arbitration to resolve…

A study examined behaviors of participants trained in a nonadversarial model of contract negotiation, focusing on possible influences of formal and informal power structures, written and unwritten rules, and firmly entrenched adversarial behavior on the bargaining process. Participants were representatives of a district's teacher union and board…

Collective bargaining is a bilateral decision-making process where representatives of the faculty and of the college must come to some mutual agreement on items that are listed in the body of the contract. Typically, the adversarial or competitive bargaining approach is used to resolve differences between the two sides, but there are some mutually…

Use of a mediator to facilitate voluntary agreements between disputants is becoming a widely used method of conflict resolution in a variety of contexts. This study simulated a dispute to examine the influence of mediator and negotiator gender on mediator behavior. Male (N=94) and female (N=94) college students mediated a computer-simulated…

This paper details the efforts of four organizations that have been able to negotiate their environments effectively, in the hopes that the analysis provides insights into how organizations are able to establish valuable learning environments for youth in nonschool hours. The negotiation, the process of dealing with various layers of environments…

After attaining a collective bargaining contract with New York City in 1960, the United Federation of Teachers worked successfully to improve salaries and working conditions. But in the aftermath of the 1975 fiscal crisis, the more equitable participation of teachers in policymaking has emerged as a clear goal. (KH)

The most frequently used mediator techniques in complex negotiations, suggestion of agreement points and reward of concessions, have received some investigation. To further assess the effects of these two techniques, 80 college students participated in simulated union management negotiations. Students were randomly assigned to represent union or…

This paper examines the Newspaper Guild's efforts to secure three types of contractual rights for newsroom employees: employee voice in news content and quality; protection of employee integrity; and employee privileges when protecting news sources. Specific incidents of the guild's contractual negotiations are discussed as they relate to a…

Growing problems in education demand practical systems for the peaceful resolution of grievances without hindering the educational process. The American Arbitration Association (AAA), a private nonprofit organization, can provide effective methods for the solution of many different types of disputes. It can administer representation elections for…

Citizen groups seeking active participation in school decision-making often discover that collective bargaining limits such efforts. Many important decisions are made behind closed doors during school board-teacher negotiations. In many areas, citizens are effectively excluded from having access to or adequately influencing the collective…

Arbitration cases involving journalism ethics can be grouped into three major categories: outside activities that lead to conflicts of interest, acceptance of gifts that compromise journalistic objectivity, and writing false or misleading information or failing to check facts or correct errors. In most instances, failure to adhere to ethical…

Attitudes of principals and assistant principals before, during, and after a teacher strike that occurred in mid-1988 in Louisiana's "A" parish school system are examined in this study. A second focus is on differences between principals and assistant principals in levels of experience and attitudes. Questionnaires mailed to 23…

Based on the assumption that a strong teacher contract can restrict the latitude of school administrators, this study tested the following hypothesis: School principals who participate fully in board-teacher collective bargaining as negotiators or active consultants will perceive themselves to have greater on-the-job discretion than principals who…