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UNION PARADIGMS

Alan I. Murray and Yonatan Reshef. 1988. "American Manufacturing Unions' Stasis: A Paradigmatic Perspective." 
Academy of Management Review, 13: 615-626.

 

THE ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING
NORTH AMERICAN UNIONS' ECONOMIC PARADIGM

  1. Workers have little interest in broad social issues, they expect their union to improve their working conditions only and, with it, their own well-being.
  2. Unions should rely on their powers and not expect government to reach out a helping hand.
  3. Labor shares no common interest with management, thus,
  4. Unions should stay outside management decision making processes, thus,
  5. Collective bargaining is the unions' foremost mechanism for the advancement of worker interests.
  6. Labor should challenge management actions, but should neither question the legitimacy of the capitalist system nor try to undermine its tenets.

 

THE ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING
NORTH AMERICAN UNIONS' POLITICAL PARADIGM

  1. Unions should advocate broad societal interests.

  2. Government is a powerful and legitimate agent in resource allocation.

  3. Unions should engage government's critical decision makers in political exchange relations.

  4. The political arena provides useful opportunities to advance labor interests without being involved in industrial strife with employers in the labor market.

  5. To extract the most from political exchange relations, employer representatives should participate.

  6. Collective bargaining is an important regulatory mechanism but by no means is it the only one.



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