IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/buseco/v46y2011i2p111-124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Regional Competitiveness: Labor-Management Relations, Workplace Practices, and Workforce Quality

Author

Listed:
  • Jack Kleinhenz
  • Russ Smith

Abstract

This paper examines regional competitiveness as it relates to regional labor-management relations. A survey of recent literature provides perspective and secondary evidence regarding labor-management relations, workplace practices, and workforce quality. It does not answer the question, “Are unions good or bad?” Rather, it investigates the themes of productivity, wage premium, job security, innovation, communication, and economic development—the larger picture to consider when evaluating the impact of unions. The information, issues, and data gained from the literature survey provided a background for several case studies that took the form of structured, group interviews that included both selected management and union representatives. Interview findings provide evidence that union-management cooperation in the workplace is both feasible and productive, supporting findings in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Jack Kleinhenz & Russ Smith, 2011. "Regional Competitiveness: Labor-Management Relations, Workplace Practices, and Workforce Quality," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 46(2), pages 111-124, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:buseco:v:46:y:2011:i:2:p:111-124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/be/journal/v46/n2/pdf/be20116a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/be/journal/v46/n2/full/be20116a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Justus Haucap & Christian Wey, 2004. "Unionisation structures and innovation incentives," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 149-165, March.
    2. repec:adr:anecst:y:1996:i:41-42:p:07 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Constantine Manasakis & Vasileios Zikos, 2007. "Unions’ and Firms’ Attitudes Towards Research Joint Ventures: When Will the Incentives Be Aligned?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 21(1), pages 135-156, March.
    4. Richard B. Freeman & Morris M. Kleiner, 1999. "Do Unions Make Enterprises Insolvent?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 52(4), pages 510-527, July.
    5. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2005. "What Do Unions Do?--Evaluation and Commentary," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 26(4), pages 555-596, November.
    6. Sandra E. Black & Lisa M. Lynch, 2001. "How To Compete: The Impact Of Workplace Practices And Information Technology On Productivity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 434-445, August.
    7. John DiNardo & David S. Lee, 2004. "Economic Impacts of Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984-2001," NBER Working Papers 10598, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Richard Vedder & Lowell Gallaway, 2002. "The Economic Effects of Labor Unions Revisited," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 23(1), pages 105-130, January.
    9. John DiNardo & David S. Lee, 2004. "Economic Impacts of New Unionization on Private Sector Employers: 1984–2001," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(4), pages 1383-1441.
    10. Merwin W. Mitchell & Joe A. Stone, 1992. "Union Effects on Productivity: Evidence from Western U.S. Sawmills," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(1), pages 135-145, October.
    11. Robert J. Lalonde & Gérard Marschke & Kenneth Troske, 1996. "Using Longitudinal Data on Establishments to Analyze the Effects of Union Organizing Campaigns in the United States," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 41-42, pages 155-185.
    12. Barry T. Hirsch, 2004. "What Do Unions Do for Economic Performance?," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(3), pages 415-456, July.
    13. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2004. "What Unions Do: Insights from Economic Theory," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(3), pages 351-382, July.
    14. Brown, Clair & Reich, Michael & Stern, David, 1992. "Becoming a High-Performance Work Organization: The Role of Security, Employee Involvement, and Training," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt0pj25436, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    15. Brown, Clair & Reich, Michael & Stern, David, 1992. "Becoming a High-Performance Work Organization: The Role of Security, Employee Involvement, and Training," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt0pj25436, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    16. KENNETH McLENNAN, 2005. "What Do Unions Do?--A Management Perspective," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 26(4), pages 597-621, November.
    17. Lou Pantuosco & Darrell Parker & Gary Stone, 2001. "The Effect of Unions on Labor Markets and Economic Growth: An Analysis of State Data," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 22(1), pages 195-205, January.
    18. Elisabetta Magnani & David Prentice, 2006. "Unionization and Input Flexibility in U.S. Manufacturing, 1973 – 1996," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(3), pages 386-407, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aaron J. Sojourner & Brigham R. Frandsen & Robert J. Town & David C. Grabowski & Min M. Chen, 2015. "Impacts of Unionization on Quality and Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(4), pages 771-806, August.
    2. Fernando Rios-Avila, 2017. "Unions and Economic Performance in Developing Countries: Case Studies from Latin America," Revista Ecos de Economía, Universidad EAFIT, vol. 21(44), pages 4-36, June.
    3. Samantha Farmakis‐Gamboni & David Prentice, 2011. "When Does Reducing Union Bargaining Power Increase Productivity? Evidence from the Workplace Relations Act," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 87(279), pages 603-616, December.
    4. Brändle, Tobias, 2024. "Unions and Collective Bargaining: The Influence on Wages, Employment and Firm Survival," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1457, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. John T. Addison, 2016. "Collective bargaining systems and macroeconomic and microeconomic flexibility: the quest for appropriate institutional forms in advanced economies," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-53, December.
    6. Samantha Farmakis-Gamboni & David Prentice, 2007. "Does Reducing Union Bargaining Power Increase Productivity?," Working Papers 2007.04 EDIRC Provider-In, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    7. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2017. "Unionization Regimes, Capacity Choice by Firms and Welfare Outcomes," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(6), pages 661-681, December.
    8. Sojourner, Aaron & Yang, Jooyoung, 2015. "Effects of Unionization on Workplace-Safety Enforcement: Regression-Discontinuity Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 9610, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Abhir Kulkarni & Barry T. Hirsch, 2021. "Revisiting Union Wage and Job Loss Effects Using the Displaced Worker Surveys," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(4), pages 948-976, August.
    10. Bloom, Nicholas & Van Reenen, John, 2011. "Human Resource Management and Productivity," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 19, pages 1697-1767, Elsevier.
    11. Emin Dinlersoz & Jeremy Greenwood & Henry Hyatt, 2014. "Who Do Unions Target? Unionization Over The Life-Cycle Of U.S. Businesses," Working Papers 14-09, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, revised Jun 2014.
    12. John T. Addison, 2016. "Collective bargaining systems and macroeconomic and microeconomic flexibility: the quest for appropriate institutional forms in advanced economies," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-53, December.
    13. David S. Lee & Alexandre Mas, 2012. "Long-Run Impacts of Unions on Firms: New Evidence from Financial Markets, 1961--1999," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 333-378.
    14. Barry T. Hirsch, 2008. "Sluggish Institutions in a Dynamic World: Can Unions and Industrial Competition Coexist?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 153-176, Winter.
    15. Aaron J. Sojourner, 2013. "Do Unions Promote Members' Electoral Office Holding? Evidence from Correlates of State Legislatures' Occupational Shares," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(2), pages 467-486, April.
    16. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Recent Advances in the Empirics of Organizational Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 105-137, September.
    17. Dale-Olsen, Harald, 2019. "Creative Destruction, Social Security Uptake and Union Networks," IZA Discussion Papers 12546, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Aaron Sojourner & José Pacas, 2019. "The Relationship Between Union Membership and Net Fiscal Impact," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 86-107, January.
    19. Richard B. Freeman, 2005. "What Do Unions Do?-- The 2004 M-Brane Stringtwister Edition," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 26(4), pages 641-668, November.
    20. Blanchflower, David G., 2006. "A Cross-Country Study of Union Membership," IZA Discussion Papers 2016, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:buseco:v:46:y:2011:i:2:p:111-124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.