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Work and Employment Relations Theory

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Interactive reading and discussion subject focused on work and employment relations. Students draw upon and integrate research and theory from various disciplines, primarily the industrial relations tradition and the sociology of work. Addresses trends in employment relations, systems of power and control within workplaces, the replication or remediation of inequalities within organizations, and various proposed strategies for improving work. Focus is on the contemporary US, with a grounding in recent history and institutions.

Spring 2008 · Work, Employment, and Industrial Relations Theory

This seminar will cover the multi-disciplinary theoretical and empirical foundations of research on work, employment, labor markets, and industrial relations. We begin by tracing the historical development of theory and research in the field, paying special attention to how the normative premises, concepts, and methodological traditions of industrial relations compare to those of other disciplines that contribute to the study of work and employment relations. Then we will review a number of current theoretical and policy debates shaping the field. This will be followed by a series of modules introducing different disciplinary perspectives used to study work and employment issues today. Emphasis will be given to recent research from different industries that illustrate the mix of methods—field work, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, etc.—we encourage in this field of study.

Readings

  • Whitfield, Keith, and George Strauss, eds. Researching the World of Work . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780801485497.
    Required
  • Kaufman, Bruce. The Origins & Evolution of Industrial Relations in the United States . Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780875461922.
    Required
  • Buy at MIT Press Osterman, Paul, Thomas Kochan, Richard Locke, and Michael Piore. Working in America: A Blueprint for the New Labor Market . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780262650625. ↗
    Required
  • Budd, John. Employment with a Human Face . Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780801472602.
    Required
  • Kochan, Thomas. “What is Distinctive about Industrial Relations Research?” In Researching the World of Work . Edited by Keith Whitfield and George Strauss. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998, pp. 31-50. ISBN: 9780801485497.
    Required
  • Kaufman, Introduction and chapter 1.
    Required
  • Kochan, Thomas. “Historical Development of Industrial Relations.” In Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations . 1st ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1980, pp. 1-23. ISBN: 9780256023534.
    Required
  • Hyman, Richard. “Comment on Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations.” Industrial Relations 21 (Winter 1982): 100-113.
    Required
  • Locke, Richard, and Kathleen Thelen. “Apples and Oranges Revisited: Contextualized Comparisons and the Study of Comparative Labor Politics.” Politics & Society 23 (Sep 1995): 337-367.
    Required
  • Osterman, et al., chapter 1.
    Required
  • Piore, Michael. “Revitalizing Industrial Relations.” In New Directions in the Study of Work and Employment . Edited by Charles Whalen. Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton, MA: 2008 (forthcoming). ISBN: 9781847204523.
    Required
  • Kochan, Thomas. “Conclusion: The Future of Industrial Relations aka Work and Employment Relations.” In New Directions in the Study of Work and Employment . Edited by Charles Whalen. Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton, MA: 2008 (forthcoming). ISBN: 9781847204523.
    Required
  • Commons, John. “Introduction.” In History of Labour in the United States . Vol. 1. Frederick, MD: Beard Books, 1918. ISBN: 9781893122741.
    Required
  • ———. “American Shoemakers: 1648-1895.” Reprinted in Readings in Labor Economics and Labor Relations . 4th ed. Edited by Richard Rowan. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1976. ISBN: 9780256018295.
    Required
  • Parsons, Kenneth. “The Basis of Commons’ Progressive Approach to Public Policy.” In Labor Management and Social Policy: Essays in the John R. Commons Tradition . Edited by Gerald Somers. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1963, pp. 3-24.
    Required
  • Webb, Sidney, and Beatrice Webb. Industrial Democracy . London, UK: Longmans, 1902.
    Required
  • Perlman, Selig. A Theory of the Labor Movement . New York: MacMillan, 1928.
    Required
  • Barbash, Jack. The Elements of Industrial Relations . Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, selections. ISBN: 9780299096144.
    Required
  • Dunlop, John. Industrial Relations Systems . Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780875843346.
    Required
  • Kerr, Clark, John Dunlop, Frederick Harbison, and Charles Myers. Industrialism and Industrial Man . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
    Required
  • Piore, Michael, and Charles Sabel. The Second Industrial Divide . New York, NY: Basic Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780465075614.
    Required
  • Kochan, Thomas, Harry Katz, and Robert McKersie. The Transformation of American Industrial Relations . Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780875463209.
    Required
  • Osterman, et al., chapters 6-7.
    Required
  • Engels, Frederick. “The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State.” In The Marx-Engels Reader . Edited by Robert Tucker. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1978. ISBN: 9780393090406.
    Listed reading
  • Braverman, Harry. Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century . New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, selections, 1998. ISBN: 9780853459408.
    Listed reading
  • Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks . New York, NY: International Publishers, 1971. ISBN: 9780717803972.
    Listed reading
  • Boyer, Robert, ed. The Search for Labor Market Flexibility . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, selections. ISBN: 9780198285601.
    Listed reading
  • Hyman, Richard. Industrial Relations . New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 1975, chapter 1. ISBN: 9780333186671.
    Listed reading
  • Stone, Katherine. “The Origins of Job Structures in the Steel Industry.” Review of Radical Political Economics 6, no. 2 (1974): 113-173.
    Listed reading
  • Fox, Alan. Beyond Contract: Work, Authority and Trust Relations . London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1974, chapter 2. ISBN: 9780571104697.
    Listed reading
  • Reynolds, Lloyd. “Labor Economics, Institutions, and the Market.” In Labor Economics and Labor Relations . 11th ed. Edited by Lloyd Reynolds, Stanley Masters, and Colletta Moser. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN: 9780132633109.
    Listed reading
  • Kerr, Clark. “The Social Economics Revisionists: The ‘Real World’ Study of Labor Markets and Institutions.” In Labor Economics and Industrial Relations: Markets and Institutions . Edited by Clark Kerr and Paul Staudohar. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780674011403.
    Listed reading
  • Doeringer, Peter, and Michael Piore. Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis . Lexington, MA: Heath Lexington Books, 1971, selections.
    Listed reading
  • Osterman, Paul. “Choice Among Alternative Internal Labor Markets.” Industrial Relations 26 (1987): 46-67.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Securing Prosperity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, chapters 1-2. ISBN: 9780691086880.
    Listed reading
  • ———. Gathering Power . Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003, chapters 1 and 5. ISBN: 9780807043387.
    Listed reading
  • Freeman, Richard, and Joel Rogers. What Workers Want . Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780801485633.
    Listed reading
  • Freeman, Richard, and James Medoff. What Do Unions Do ? New York: Basic Books, 1986, selections. ISBN: 9780465091348.
    Listed reading
  • Rebitzer, James. “Radical Political Economy and the Economics of Labor Markets.” Journal of Economic Literature 31 (September 1993): 1394-1434.
    Listed reading
  • Kaufman, chapter 2 and pp. 76-84, 95-99, 118-121.
    Listed reading
  • Jacoby, Sanford. Employing Bureaucracy . Philadelphia, PA: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004, selections. ISBN: 9780805844092.
    Listed reading
  • Roethlisberger, F. J. “The Hawthorne Experiments.” In Management and Morale . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941. ISBN: 9780674546509.
    Listed reading
  • Coch, L., and J. R. P. French. “Overcoming Resistance to Change.” Human Relations 1 (1948): 512-33.
    Listed reading
  • McGregor, Douglas. The Human Side of the Enterprise . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1960, selections. ISBN: 9780070450929.
    Listed reading
  • Rousseau, Denise, and Judi Parks. “The Contracts of Individuals and Organizations.” In Research in Organizational Behavior . Vol. 15. Edited by L. L. Cummings and Barry Staw. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1993. ISBN: 9781559385220.
    Listed reading
  • Stone, Katherine. “The New Psychological Contract: Implications of the Changing Workplace of Labor and Employment Law.” UCLA Law Review 48 (2001): 519-661.
    Listed reading
  • Jacoby, Sanford. “Are Career Jobs Headed for Extinction?” California Management Review 42 (1999): 123-145.
    Listed reading
  • Cappelli, Peter. “Career Jobs Are Dead.” California Management Review 42 (1999): 146-167.
    Listed reading
  • Jacoby, Sanford. “Reply: Premature Reports of a Demise.” California Management Review 42 (1999): 168-179.
    Listed reading
  • Gilliland, Stephen, and Layne Paddock. “Organizational Justice Across Human Resource Management Decisions.” In International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology . Vol. 20. Edited by Gerard Hodgkinson and J. Kevin Ford. Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons, 2005, pp. 149-175. ISBN: 9780470867105.
    Listed reading
  • Latham, G. P., and M-H. Budworth. “The Study of Work Motivation in the 20th Century.” In Historical Perspectives in Industrial and Organizational Psychology . Edited by Laura Koppes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2006. ISBN: 9780805844405.
    Listed reading
  • Schmidt, F., and J. Hunter. “The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings.” Psychological Bulletin 124 (1998): 262-274.
    Listed reading
  • Van Knippenberg, D., C. K. W. De Dreu, and A. C. Homan. “Work Group Diversity and Group Performance: An Integrative Model and Research Agenda.” Journal of Applied Psychology 89 (2004): 1008-1022.
    Listed reading
  • Chadwick, Clint, and Peter Cappelli. “Alternatives to Generic Strategy Typologies in Strategic Human Resource Management.” In Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management: Strategic Human Resources Management in the Twenty-First Century, Supplement 4 . Edited by Patrick Wright, Lee Dyer, John Boudreau, and George Milkovich. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780762305254.
    Listed reading
  • MacDuffie, John Paul. “Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Production Systems in the World Auto Industry.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48 (1995): 197-221.
    Listed reading
  • Ichniowski, Casey, Kathryn Saw, and Giovanna Prennushi. “The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines.” American Economic Review 87 (1997): 291-313.
    Listed reading
  • Stiglitz, Joseph. “Democratic Development as the Fruits of Labor.” Perspectives on Work 4 (2000): 31-37.
    Listed reading
  • Weil, David. “Public Enforcement/Private Monitoring: Evaluating a New Approach to Regulating the Minimum Wage.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 58 (2005): 238-257.
    Listed reading
  • Weil, David, and Carlos Mallo. “Regulating Labour Standards via Supply Chains: Combining Public/Private Interventions to Improve Workplace Compliance.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 45 (2007): 785-814.
    Listed reading
  • Locke, Richard, Thomas Kochan, Monica Romis, and Fei Qin. “Beyond Corporate Codes of Conduct: Work Organization and Labour Standards in Nike’s Suppliers.” International Labour Review 146 (2007): 21-37.
    Listed reading
  • Walton, Richard, and Robert McKersie. A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991, selections. ISBN: 9780875461793.
    Listed reading
  • Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Joel, Robert McKersie, and Richard Walton. Strategic Negotiations . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000, chapters 1-3. ISBN: 9780801486975.
    Listed reading
  • Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Joel, and Thomas Kochan. “Taking Stock: Collective Bargaining at the Turn of the Century.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 58 (October 2004): 3-26.
    Listed reading
  • van Jaarsveld, Danielle, Hyunji Kwon, and Ann C. Frost. “The Effects of ‘Small Differences’ on Numerical Flexibility: Evidence from U.S. and Canadian Call Centers.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (2007), under review.
    Listed reading
  • Doellgast, Virginia. “Collective Bargaining and High Involvement Management in Comparative Perspective: Evidence from U.S. and German Call Centers.” Industrial Relations 47, no. 2 (2008): 284-319.
    Listed reading
  • Holman, David, Rosemary Batt, and Ursula Holtgrewe. The Global Call Center Report: International Perspectives on Management and Employment, 2007. This is a practitioner report that survey respondents received. Review the executive summary and technical note; skim the content.
    Listed reading
  • Batt, Rosemary, and Hiro Nohara. “How Institutions and Business Strategies Affect Wages: A Cross National Study of Call Centers.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (2007), under review.
    Listed reading
  • Holman, David, Stephen Frenkel, Ole Sørensen, and Stephen Wood. “Work Design Variation and Outcomes in Call Centers: Strategic Choice and Institutional Explanations.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review , under review.
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Fall) 3-0-9 units

Sources