PARALLEL LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS (ORGANIZATION, SYSTEMS, CONTRACT)

The thesis provides an empirical and theoretical basis to help in understanding emergent social processes in the field of labor-management relations. The empirical component is based on experiences of ten public sector labor-management committees that participated in Project Network, an evaluation project sponsored by the National Center for Productivity and Quality of Working Life (NCPQWL) and other federal agencies. Project Network was significant in that it was among the first longitudinal studies of labor-management committees (LMCs) at a variety of sites. Although the two-year time span and the limited sample of committees were inadequate to provide definitive findings, the project did allow for a degree of generalization concerning the development of LMCs. It further allowed for cross-case comparison, facilitating the development of grounded theory in a field where little research had been conducted. The theoretical component is based on joining the concept of parallel relations to the distinction of Andras Angyal in 1941 between relations inherent to positions within a system and those inherent to the occupants of positions. The first are systemic relations. The second are simple relations. Simple relations are more direct, faster in response time, and between the qualities of individuals. Systemic relations are more indirect, slower, and between the value of positions. Parallel relations provided through establishment of labor-management committees are an opportunity to retain the inherent stability offered by the tendency towards changelessness of systemic relations while introducing the adaptiveness of simple relations between individuals located outside their traditional positions. Where both the traditional relations and the new relations have legitimacy, and are allowed to utilize mutual learning, both labor and management gain. Where these conditions are not met neither tends to gain, and the new relation disappears. Over the longer term, the traditional relation may tend to erode further as well. In simplest terms, labor-management committees offer an opportunity to tap into the potentials offered by interpersonal relations to overcome the problems built up by a tradition of formal relations between system positions. Access to these considerable potentials for mutual understanding, learning, and growing need not reduce the potentials of the social systems from which the individuals come. . . . (Author\u27s abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UM