"Massaging
Earnings": The Effects of State Licensing of Massage Therapists
Edward J. Timmons and
Robert J. Thornton
Lehigh University
In 2000 approximately 20 percent of workers in the United States
were directly affected by occupational licensing.1 We add
to the existing literature by examining the impact that state licensing
of massage therapists (MTs) has had upon MT earnings. In the United
States massage therapy is an important complement to conventional
medical treatment. Our results indicate that licensing has increased
the annual earnings of MTs by approximately 3.0Ð5.4 percent annually.
We believe that our estimated effect is somewhat smaller than estimates
from previous studies of other health occupations because licensing
requirements for MTs are relatively less onerous than those for other
licensed health occupations.
Note
1. Morris Kleiner,
Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition
Kalamazoo, MI: W. E. Upjohn Institute, 2006.
Perceptions
of Mediator Performance: Does It Matter When the Mediator Shows Up?
Betty Barrett
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Using data from the 2003 Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services
survey, this study explores the impact of the entry time of the mediator
on perceptions of his/her performance. The paper seeks to analyze
perceptions of mediator performance primarily among those who used
the services of a mediator during their 2003 negotiations, although
the paper also includes discussions of the demographics of those who
did not use a mediator during their negotiations and three factors
that could have an impact on the conditions that the mediators find
as they enter the negotiations.
Reducing
Conflicts of Interest When Employing Spouses
Jack L. Howard
Illinois State University2
While antinepotism and no-spouse policies are designed to ensure
that employees make decisions in the best interest of businesses,
there exist alternatives to these policies that allow businesses to
ensure that family relationships do not interfere with employees'
decisions, while also ensuring that family members are not denied
employment opportunities based solely on to whom they are related.
This paper addresses this issue by providing information on how to
develop conflict-of-interest policies that meet the business's needs
while protecting employees' rights. The benefits of coupling family
friendly policies with focused conflict-of interest-policies will
be provided.
Too
Much of a Good Thing? Applying Education on the Job in Information
Technology
Johanna Weststar
University of Toronto1
This research builds on the "overqualification" literature
that suggests there is a disconnect between the knowledge and ability
that workers acquire through their learning activities and their capacity
to apply that knowledge and ability in their day-to-day work. Using
unique survey and interview data, I examine this correspondence in
the information technology (IT) industry. My findings indicate that
IT workers value the problem-solving abilities and foundational knowledge
acquired through higher education. However, they rely on informal
learning experiences to overcome the daily challenges associated with
the changing technological environment. They tend to feel matched
to slightly overqualified in terms of their schooling, but they also
report that they are continuously engaged in self-directed learning
to match their abilities with the changing requirements of their jobs.
These findings call into question the emphasis on university-level
entry requirements and the burgeoning systems of technology-specific
credentialing and certification. This research also has implications
for job design and learning support.
Race
and Gender Differences in Job Responsibility and Advancement
Timothy J. Keaveny and
Edward J. Inderrieden
Marquette University2
This study seeks to identify if race and gender differences in
job responsibility and promotion are observed at the early career
stage. The sample consists of just over 2,500 subjects employed full-time
who completed the Graduate Management Admission Test. The sample was
stratified by race to insure appreciable representation of African
Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans.
The results suggest that men supervise larger budgets and more employees.
Gender differences with regard to promotion were not observed. The
multiple regression analysis suggests that race differences are limited
to Asian subjects relative to white subjects. When control variables
are entered, significant differences between Asian and white subjects
are observed with respect to budgets supervised and promotions.
The findings regarding gender differences are consistent with the
suggestion that men are more likely to be assigned to jobs that prepare
one for advancement to top management positions. The pattern of negative
results for Asian subjects suggests the presence of a bias that has
received relatively little attention in either the research or professional
literature.
The
Dynamics of Unemployment
by Gender: Evidence from
OECD Countries
HervŽ Queneau
Brooklyn College
of the City University of New York and University of Paris I PanthŽonÐSorbonne
(Laboratoire Georges Friedmann)
Amit Sen
Xavier University
We present empirical evidence regarding unemployment dynamics for
women and men in eight Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries. Unit root tests are used to examine
the unemployment dynamics of women and men. Failure to reject the
unit root hypothesis is consistent with unemployment hysteresis. Rejection
of the unit root hypothesis indicates that unemployment dynamics are
best explained by the natural rate of unemployment or the structuralist
view. We find evidence of gender differences in unemployment dynamics
in Canada, Germany, and the United States but not in other countries.
While there are some differences in the extent of persistence across
gender and across countries, the degree of persistence for both female
and male unemployment rates is fairly low in all countries. Our results,
therefore, contrast with substantial empirical evidence of high levels
of unemployment persistence in European countries.
Note
Amit Sen acknowledges
support from a Faculty Development Grant at Xavier University.
Labor
Market Dynamics in a Transition Economy: Evidence from Romania
Wei-Chiao Huang
Western Michigan University
Ioana Mazare
UPS
This paper analyzes employment dynamics of the Romanian economy
from 1990 to 1996 using firm-level data. We compute and examine the
job creation and job destruction rates of three types of firms in
three sectors in those years. The results basically confirm our expectation
that de novo firms (the genuine new and private firms established
after 1990) outperform the "traditional" firms in job creation.
However, it also appears that Romanian firms are still in a transition
phase. The restructuring is far from complete in Romania, as evidenced
by the increasing rate of job destruction in 1995 and 1996. We also
examine the determinants of employment growth of Romanian firms in
this period. The baseline OLS results in many ways corroborate the
findings from earlier descriptive analysis of job creation and job
destruction. For example, de novo firms are found to have a
positive effect on employment growth. In addition, the service sector,
relative to manufacturing and trade sectors, exerts positive impact
on employment growth. The employment growth model is re-estimated
with standard panel estimation technique. The random effect estimation
results suggest that the size and age of firms are important determinants
of the employment growth rate for privatized firms. Since these firms
represent the "traditional" firms, which are previously
state owned and now becoming privatized firms, this finding provides
some insights to how firms respond and adjust to the new market conditions.
Specifically, it suggests that those larger and older privatized firms,
as they weather through transition, tend to downsize more than the
state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and thus they actually have better
prospects for employment growth than the SOEs.
A
Look at Abusive Supervision at the U.S. Department of Labor
Edward Stern
AFGE Local 12, U.S. Department of Labor
Psychological abuse of workers at
the U.S. Department of Labor is neither zero nor trivial. This paper
examines an employee survey revealing supervisors' verbal and nonverbal
aggression. The frequencies of such behavior toward workers and
their co-workers are presented. Possible self-selection bias is addressed
through alternative estimates. (New analysis for the LERA conference
found employee characterizations of abuse corresponded to summed,
frequency-weighted behavior.) Psychological abuse is recognized as
a workplace violence. Methods to address workplace bullying are detailed.
This paper prompted AFGE Local 12's "Proposal to Secretary of
Labor Elaine Chao on Workplace Bullying and Psychological Harassment"
in February 2006 (available at http://L12bullying.googlepages.com).
Congress
and the NLRB: How
Appointments Affect Board Outcomes
Matthew M. Bodah
University of Rhode Island1
I explore the link between appointments
to the NLRB its outcomes. Several outcome measures are studied: the
number of decisions per year by the NLRB; the length of time from
an administrative law judge (ALJ) to a board decision; and the number
of docketed cases left pending at the end of the year. Regression
results suggest that board output is positively associated with the
average tenure of board members and negatively associated with board
vacancies and turnover. I argue that the recent tendency toward high
member turnover and long vacancies hinders the board's output and
negatively affects its ability to fulfill its statutory mission.
Outsourcing
Human Resources
Management: The Impact on
Employee Satisfaction and Retention
Thomas J. Norman
University of Minnesota2
This paper explores the relationship
between outsourcing various types of human resource management (HRM)
practices and employee satisfaction and turnover. This proposal develops
a typology of four purposes of HRM activities and measures the degree
to which each HRM activity is transactional (noncomplex and routine),
relational (provider-dependent), and firm-specific (customized).
The results of this study contribute to
the literature on HRM and business process outsourcing by examining
a wider array of costs and benefits from outsourcing HRM activities
than previous studies. The target audience of this research is corporate
executives, HR consultancies, and HR leaders involved in outsourcing
decisions. The implications may challenge conventional wisdom about
outsourcing HR activities derived from the resource-based theory of
the firm and works by authors like Ulrich. This paper also compares
the phenomena of outsourcing human resource activities that are not
highly transactional and are provider-dependent or highly firm-specific
with the predictions of theories based on transaction cost economics,
social network theory, and social exchange theory as they involve
different processes. Also examined is how each of these three theoretical
views depend on the context surrounding the outsourcing relationship,
so factors such as industry and firm size are considered.
Governance
Mechanisms of Privatized State-Owned Enterprises and Trade Union Strength
Moderation
Baniyelme Zoogah
Morgan State University
Does the mode of governance adopted
for privatized firms vary according to the strength of trade unions?
When governments divest, trade unions are affected (Kikeri 1998).
Consistent with transaction cost theory, trade union strength moderated
the relationship between human asset specificity and governance mechanisms
adopted for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Multinomial ordered probit
results from a sample of 1,745 privatized SOEs from 285 industries
and 41 African countries showed that given high human asset specificity,
governments were more likely to adopt internal governance modes when
unions are strong and external governance modes when trade unions
are weak. Implications for privatization management and labor relations
are discussed.
Reciprocity
at the Workplace: Do Fair Wages Lead to Higher Effort,
Productivity, and Profitability?
Paul Chen
Australian National University1
Do workers reward
fair wages with higher job effort, better labor relations, and greater
workplace labor productivity and profitability (positive reciprocity)
and punish unfair wages with lower effort, worse relations, and lesser
productivity and profitability (negative reciprocity)? I examine whether
workers, who report whether they feel that their pay is fair or unfair,
reciprocate using an Australian linked survey of workers and workplaces.
I find no statistically significant evidence of positive reciprocity
but some evidence of negative reciprocity in labor relations and workplace
labor productivity. Overall, the evidence consistent with either positive
or negative worker reciprocity is not strong.
The
NLRB and the Supreme Court:
A Longitudinal Analysis
Clyde J. Scott
The University of Alabama2
Edwin W. Arnold
Auburn University Montgomery
The number of NLRB cases decided
by the Supreme Court has declined significantly over the past four
decades. Between 1965 and 1983, the Court decided 61 board cases,
or 3.2 per year. From 1984 through 2003, only 25 cases were decided,
an average of 1.3 per year. The Supreme Court overall affirmation
rate for board decisions declined from 77 percent during 1965 to 1983
to 52 percent full and 8 percent partial from 1984 to 2003.The affirmation
rate for decisions where the board and an Appellate Court disagreed
declined from 76 percent during 1965 to 1983 to 68 percent from 1984
to 2003.
The
Effect of Absolute and Relative Wages on Employee Attitudes:
Whose Wages Matter?
Darla Flint Paulson
University of Minnesota
Using an employer-employee matched
data set of nursing homes, the effects of absolute and relative wages
on employee justice perceptions, pay satisfaction, job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and intent to turnover are examined. The
four measures of relative wages used in this analysis are the individual's
wages relative to (1) co-workers, (2) managers, (3) the executive
director, and (4) individuals in the same occupation outside the organization.
Both absolute and relative wages are important predictors of employee
justice perceptions and attitudes. The relationships between wages
and distributive justice, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment
are moderated by procedural justice.
Fishing
in Different Ponds:
Union Organizing Across Industries
Timothy D. Chandler
Louisiana State University1
Rafael Gely
University of Cincinnati
A major complaint of the Change to
Win Coalition is the AFL-CIO's failure to "follow the work"
and allocate sufficient resources to organizing, particularly in industries
experiencing job growth. Our paper uses industry-level data from NLRB-supervised
elections from 1970 to 2000 to evaluate the validity of this criticism.
We find support for the coalition's claim. Most industrial groups
faired better than manufacturing in election outcomes. Yet union organizing
activity was lower in other industries. Moreover, declining organizing
activity within manufacturing suggests that other industries, most
notably services, account for an ever greater share of new entrants
into the labor movement.
"Stopping
by the Pond": Using
Metaphors to Understand Student Labor Union Conflict and Cooperation
Emily T. Porschitz and JosŽ C. Alves
University of MassachusettsÐAmherst2
The number of graduate student labor unions has increased in recent
years, and the importance and influence of these institutions are
growing. Although these unions have many similarities to traditional
labor unions, some of their structural aspects and concerns are unique;
understanding their conflicts and cooperative efforts as outsiders
is difficult. In this paper we take an interpretive approach to understanding
one graduate student labor union, analyzing their emotion and power
states through a metaphorical framework. This framework allows those
of us who are removed from direct participation in these labor unions
to access our own understandings of their very personal experiences.
