This Handbook is an important contribution to knowledge about employee voice which combines a variety of approaches to the subject by drawing on different disciplines, forms and philosophies. It provides new research from a wide range of national and international experience and covers both collective and individual means of expressing the views of employees in the workplace. A feature of the Handbook is that it covers not only employment relations perspectives on the subject but also draws upon human resource management as well as organizational studies. The editors are leading authors in the subject area and have brought together both established authors and emerging scholars who have fresh approaches to the role of employee voice in organizations and society. I am sure that the Handbook will become a standard reference in the future.' - Russell Lansbury, University of Sydney, Australia'Given that employee voice has become more important recently across a range of disciplines, this book is very timely indeed. It brings together contributions from 50 well-known academics from different countries who provide a comprehensive account of employee voice from a variety of historical and contemporary angles. Crucially it also raises key questions for current and future research and practice. In my view this book should be compulsory reading for academics, policy-makers, practitioners and students in the subject area.' - Michael Marchington, University of Strathclyde and University of Manchester, UK The term 'employee voice' refers to the ways and means through which employees can attempt to have a say and influence organizational issues that affect their work and the interests of managers and owners. The concept is distinct, but related to and often overlapping with issues such as participation, involvement and, more recently, engagement. This Handbook provides an up-to-date survey of the current research into employee voice, sets this research into context and sets a marker for future research in the area. The contributors are all expert in their field. The book examines the theory and history of employee voice and what voice means to various actors, including employers, middle managers, employees, unions and policy-makers. The authors observe how these actors engage in various voice processes, such as collective bargaining, grievance procedures, task-based voice, partnership and mutual gains. The efforts that have been made to date to evaluate voice across and between firms are then assessed, before the contributors go on to open up the debate on potential new areas for voice research, with a focus on voice and its relationship to organizational inclusion and exclusion. Contributors: B. Abbott, M.M.C. Allen, A.C. Avgar, N. Balnave, A. Barnes, C. Benassi, J. Benders, C.T. Brinsfield, A. Bryson, J.W. Budd, S. Chillas, N. Cullinane, T. Dobbins, V. Doellgast, J. Donaghey, T. Dundon, J. Foley, R.B. Freeman, P.J. Gollan, R. Gomez, M.G. Menendez, J.A. Gruman, B. Harley, E. Heery, P. Holland, S. Johnstone, S. Kaine, B.E. Kaufman, T. Kretschmer, D. Lewin, A.A. Luchak, M.M. Lucio, C. MacMillan, A. Marks, W. Nienhuser, S. Owens, M.F. Ozbilgin , G. Patmore, D.M. Pohler, S. Procter, A. Pyman, A.M. Saks, M. Sameer, J. Syed, L. Thornthwaite, K. Townsend, A. Wilkinson, S. Williams, P. Willman, Y. Xu

This thoroughly revised second edition presents up-to-date analysis from various academic streams and disciplines that illuminate our understanding of employee voice from a range of different perspectives. This wide-ranging Handbook demonstrates that research on employee voice has gone beyond union and non-union voices to build a wider and deeper knowledge base. Exploring the previously under-represented paradigm of the organizational behaviour approach, new chapters take account of a broader conceptualization of employee voice. Written by expert contributors, this Handbook explores the meaning and impact of employee voice for various stakeholders and considers the ways in which these actors engage with voice processes such as collective bargaining, individual processes, mutual gains, task-based voice and grievance procedures. This comprehensive Handbook will enable the reader to engage with the debates surrounding employee voice and help to extend our overall understanding of what goes on in workplaces at the heart of modern economies. This second edition of the Handbook of Research on Employee Voice will be a vital resource for academics and students researching human resource management, organizational behaviour and employment relations, while its forward-thinking approach will also appeal to policy makers, employers and union officials. Contributors include: M.M.C. Allen, A.C. Avgar, A. Barnes, M. Barry, C. Benassi, J. Benders, C.T. Brinsfield, A. Bryson, J.W. Budd, C. Casey, J. Chan, S. Chillas, N. Cullinane, T. Dobbins, V. Doellgast, J. Donaghey, T. Dundon, M. Edwards, R. Freeman, R. Gomez, J.A. Gruman, B. Harley, J. Harmer, E. Heery, P. Holland, J.A. Ingvaldsen, M. Irfan, S. Johnstone, S. Kaine, S. Kalfa, B.E. Kaufman, K. Kenny, B. Klaas, T. Kretschmer, D. Lewin, A.A. Luchak, M.M. Lucio, C. MacMillan, A. Marks, M.G. Menendez, P. Mowbray, K.R. Murphy, W. Nienhuser, D. O Shea, G. Patmore, D.M. Pohler, S. Procter, A. Pyman, A.M. Saks, S. Sekwao, P. Strom, J. Syed, L. Thornthwaite, K. Townsend, W. Vandekerckhov, A. Wilkinson, S. Williams, P. Willman

The Asian economic crisis of 1997-99 showed that the model of growth through export manufactures adopted by Korea could not sustain the country to the next rung of economic development; even after the crisis the labour market remained under considerable stress. This new book looks at the major issues that have faced the Korean labour market since the financial crisis, tracing the rise in inequality and division between workers in different sectors and the effect of expansion in higher education, increased longevity and the low fertility.

This book brings together key contributions from Korean labour researchers, containing a guide to the data on Korean workers and firms. For those who want to understand the challenges that face a successful developing country on the road to the top rungs of economic progress, the book lays them out and describes new policy solutions.

This Handbook is an important contribution to knowledge about employee voice which combines a variety of approaches to the subject by drawing on different disciplines, forms and philosophies. It provides new research from a wide range of national and international experience and covers both collective and individual means of expressing the views of employees in the workplace. A feature of the Handbook is that it covers not only employment relations perspectives on the subject but also draws upon human resource management as well as organizational studies. The editors are leading authors in the subject area and have brought together both established authors and emerging scholars who have fresh approaches to the role of employee voice in organizations and society. I am sure that the Handbook will become a standard reference in the future.' - Russell Lansbury, University of Sydney, Australia'Given that employee voice has become more important recently across a range of disciplines, this book is very timely indeed. It brings together contributions from 50 well-known academics from different countries who provide a comprehensive account of employee voice from a variety of historical and contemporary angles. Crucially it also raises key questions for current and future research and practice. In my view this book should be compulsory reading for academics, policy-makers, practitioners and students in the subject area.' - Michael Marchington, University of Strathclyde and University of Manchester, UK The term 'employee voice' refers to the ways and means through which employees can attempt to have a say and influence organizational issues that affect their work and the interests of managers and owners. The concept is distinct, but related to and often overlapping with issues such as participation, involvement and, more recently, engagement. This Handbook provides an up-to-date survey of the current research into employee voice, sets this research into context and sets a marker for future research in the area. The contributors are all expert in their field. The book examines the theory and history of employee voice and what voice means to various actors, including employers, middle managers, employees, unions and policy-makers. The authors observe how these actors engage in various voice processes, such as collective bargaining, grievance procedures, task-based voice, partnership and mutual gains. The efforts that have been made to date to evaluate voice across and between firms are then assessed, before the contributors go on to open up the debate on potential new areas for voice research, with a focus on voice and its relationship to organizational inclusion and exclusion. Contributors: B. Abbott, M.M.C. Allen, A.C. Avgar, N. Balnave, A. Barnes, C. Benassi, J. Benders, C.T. Brinsfield, A. Bryson, J.W. Budd, S. Chillas, N. Cullinane, T. Dobbins, V. Doellgast, J. Donaghey, T. Dundon, J. Foley, R.B. Freeman, P.J. Gollan, R. Gomez, M.G. Menendez, J.A. Gruman, B. Harley, E. Heery, P. Holland, S. Johnstone, S. Kaine, B.E. Kaufman, T. Kretschmer, D. Lewin, A.A. Luchak, M.M. Lucio, C. MacMillan, A. Marks, W. Nienhuser, S. Owens, M.F. Ozbilgin , G. Patmore, D.M. Pohler, S. Procter, A. Pyman, A.M. Saks, M. Sameer, J. Syed, L. Thornthwaite, K. Townsend, A. Wilkinson, S. Williams, P. Willman, Y. Xu

Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff's now classic 1984 book What Do Unions Do? stimulated an enormous theoretical and empirical literature on the economic impact of trade unions. Trade unions continue to be a significant feature of many labor markets, particularly in developing countries, and issues of labor market regulations and labor institutions remain critically important to researchers and policy makers. The relations between unions and management can range between cooperation and conflict; unions have powerful offsetting wage and non-wage effects that economists and other social scientists have long debated. Do the benefits of unionism exceed the costs to the economy and society writ large, or do the costs exceed the benefits? The Economics of Trade Unions offers the first comprehensive review, analysis and evaluation of the empirical literature on the microeconomic effects of trade unions using the tools of meta-regression analysis to identify and quantify the economic impact of trade unions, as well as to correct research design faults, the effects of selection bias and model misspecification. This volume makes use of a unique dataset of hundreds of empirical studies and their reported estimates of the microeconomic impact of trade unions. Written by three authors who have been at the forefront of this research field (including the co-author of the original volume, What Do Unions Do?), this book offers an overview of a subject that is of huge importance to scholars of labor economics, industrial and employee relations, and human resource management, as well as those with an interest in meta-analysis.

For economists, policy-makers, and historians who want to learn how the Korean labor market dealt with the 1997 financial crisis and how this informed future policies, this volume provides a succinct summary of what Korean experts know and how they view the problems the country must overcome to continue on its road to the top rungs of economic success. The book is filled with institutional detail and statistics to enlighten scholars and with critiques of policy and potential solutions from labor specialists. It provides a guide to the data on Korean workers and firms that can inform future research work.

Over the course of the twentieth century, Sweden carried out one of the most ambitious experiments by a capitalist market economy in developing a large and active welfare state. Sweden's generous social programs and the economic equality they fostered became an example for other countries to emulate. Of late, Sweden has also been much discussed as a model of how to deal with financial and economic crisis, due to the country's recovery from a banking crisis in the mid-1990s. At that time economists heatedly debated whether the welfare state caused Sweden's crisis and should be reformed--a debate with clear parallels to current concerns over capitalism.
Bringing together leading economists, "Reforming the Welfare State" examines Sweden's policies in response to the mid-1990s crisis and the implications for the subsequent recovery. Among the issues investigated are the way changes in the labor market, tax and benefit policies, local government policy, industrial structure, and international trade affected Sweden's recovery. The way that Sweden addressed its economic challenges provides valuable insight into the viability of large welfare states, and more broadly, into the way modern economies deal with crisis.

A compelling argument for broad-based profit sharing and employee ownership in keeping with the economic vision of America's Founders The idea of workers owning the businesses where they work is not new. In America's early years, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison believed that the best economic plan for the Republic was for citizens to have some ownership stake in the land, which was the main form of productive capital. This book traces the development of that share idea in American history and brings its message to today's economy, where business capital has replaced land as the source of wealth creation. Based on a ten-year study of profit sharing and employee ownership at small and large corporations, this important and insightful work makes the case that the Founders' original vision of sharing ownership and profits offers a viable path toward restoring the middle class. Blasi, Freeman, and Kruse show that an ownership stake in a corporation inspires and increases worker loyalty, productivity, and innovation. Their book offers history-, economics-, and evidence-based policy ideas at their best.

This book brings together research in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand to answer a series of key questions: * What opportunities do employees in Anglo-American workplaces have to voice their concerns and what do they seek? * To what extent, and in what contexts, do workers want greater union representation? * How do workers feel about employer-initiated channels of influence? What styles of engagement do they want with employers?* What institutional models are more successful in giving workers the voice they seek at workplaces? * What can unions, employers, and public policy makers learn from these studies of representation and influence? The research is based largely on surveys that were conducted as a follow-up to the influential Worker Representation and Participation Survey (WRPS) reported in What Workers Want, coauthored by Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers in 1999 and updated in 2006. Taken together, these studies authoritatively outline workers' attitudes toward, and opportunities for, representation and influence in the Anglo-American workplace. They also enhance industrial relations theory and suggest strategies for unions, employers, and public policy

Since the late 1950s, the engineering job market in the United States has been fraught with fears of a shortage of engineering skill and talent. U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy brings clarity to issues of supply and demand in this important market. Following a general overview of engineering-labor market trends, the volume examines the educational pathways of undergraduate engineers and their entry into the labor market, the impact of engineers working in firms on productivity and innovation, and different dimensions of the changing engineering labor market, from licensing to changes in demand and guest worker programs. The volume provides insights on engineering education, practice, and careers that can inform educational institutions, funding agencies, and policy makers about the challenges facing the United States in developing its engineering workforce in the global economy.

This book brings together research in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand to answer a series of key questions: * What opportunities do employees in Anglo-American workplaces have to voice their concerns and what do they seek? * To what extent, and in what contexts, do workers want greater union representation? * How do workers feel about employer-initiated channels of influence? What styles of engagement do they want with employers?* What institutional models are more successful in giving workers the voice they seek at workplaces? * What can unions, employers, and public policy makers learn from these studies of representation and influence? The research is based largely on surveys that were conducted as a follow-up to the influential Worker Representation and Participation Survey (WRPS) reported in What Workers Want, coauthored by Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers in 1999 and updated in 2006. Taken together, these studies authoritatively outline workers' attitudes toward, and opportunities for, representation and influence in the Anglo-American workplace. They also enhance industrial relations theory and suggest strategies for unions, employers, and public policy

Praise for the first edition:

"This very valuable book reports the results of a large-scale and complex survey aimed at understanding the preferences of employees regarding workplace governance and their attitudes toward the three key institutions in the labor market: unions, government, and firms. . . . The findings are . . . sophisticated and convincing. . . . This is a terrifically useful book that contains a wealth of information." Labor History

"What Workers Want is one of the most ambitious efforts ever undertaken to determine the attitudes of employees about the American workplace. . . . An extremely important contribution to the long and often heated debates that swirl around these issues." Ralph Nader

"What Workers Want is a sharply focused study of how American workers think about workplace participation. This book is a message about workplace democracy that union leaders would do well to build into their organizing strategies." Dissent

"This is easily one of the most readable books on industrial relations matters written by academics in recent times. The authors are able simultaneously to engage the reader in an almost folksy manner, while also being quite rigorous in their presentation of data. There should be more such books." Journal of Industrial Relations

How would a typical American workplace be structured if the employees could design it? According to Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers, it would be an organization run jointly by employees and their supervisors, one where disputes between labor and management would be resolved through independent arbitration. Their groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive account of employees' attitudes about participation, representation, and regulation on the job.

For the updated edition, the authors have added an introduction showing how recent data have confirmed and strengthened their basic argument. A new concluding chapter lays out the model of "open source unionism" that they propose for rebuilding unionism in the United States, making this updated edition essential for anyone thinking about what labor should be doing to move forward."

"Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the Twenty-First Century" provides the first in-depth assessment of how effectively labor market institutions are responding to the decline of private sector unions.
This important volume provides case studies of new labor market institutions and new directions for existing institutions. While non-union institutions are unlikely to fill the gap left by the decline of unions, the findings suggest that emerging groups and unions might together improve some dimensions of worker well-being. "Emerging Labor Market Institutions" is the story of workers and institutions in flux, searching for ways to represent labor in the new century.

Once heralded in the 1950s and 1960s as a model welfare state, Sweden is now in transition and in trouble since its economic plunge in the early 1990s.
This volume presents ten essays that examine Sweden's economic problems from a U.S. perspective. Exploring such diverse topics as income equalization and efficiency, welfare and tax policy, wage determination and unemployment, and international competitiveness and growth, they consider how Sweden's welfare state succeeded in eliminating poverty and became a role model for other countries. They then reflect on Sweden's past economic problems, such as the increase in government spending and the fall in industrial productivity, warning of problems to come. Finally they review the consequences of the collapse of Sweden's economy in the early 1990s, exploring the implications of its efforts to reform its welfare state and reestablish a healthy economy.
This volume will be of interest to policymakers and analysts, social scientists, and economists interested in welfare states.

In recent years, globalization and the expansion of information technologies have reshaped managerial practices, forcing multinational firms to adjust business practices to different environments and domestic companies to adjust to their foreign competitors. In "International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms," a distinguished group of contributors examines the phenomenon of widespread differences in managerial practices across firms, establishments within firms, and countries.

This volume brings together eight studies that combine qualitative and quantitative insider analysis of business practices such as the use of teams, incentive pay, lean manufacturing, and quality control, revealing the elements that determine which practices are adopted and why. "International Differences in the Business Practices and Productivity of Firms" offers a much-needed model for measuring the productivity and performance of international firms in a fast-paced global economy.