SOCIAL CAPITAL AND LABOR ORGANIZATIONS: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES. Stream Proposal for CMS 7 Naples, 2011

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1 1 SOCIAL CAPITAL AND LABOR ORGANIZATIONS: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Stream Proposal for CMS 7 Naples, 2011 Raymond Hogler, Professor of Management, Colorado State University Christine Henle, Assistant Professor of Management, Colorado State University Steven Shulman, Professor of Economics, Colorado State University Allesandro Hinna, Assistant Professor in Organizational Studies, Tor Vergata University of Rome A growing body of research suggests that social capital plays an important role in organizational behavior. Social capital is broadly defined as networks between actors which facilitate trust, mutual cooperation, and collective benefit to participants on both the individual and group level. While labor unions would appear to be an obvious source of social capital, the relationships between unions and the effects of social capital are unclear. Social capital may help employees to form unions, or the presence of a union may add to a firm s stock of social capital. Social capital might influence cultural values that enhance or inhibit union density, such as an employer s willingness to oppose unionization. The latter point has particular relevance to union membership trends over the past three decades. While some countries, such as the US, experienced rapid and sharp drops in density, other nations have maintained stable institutional arrangements between labor and management. Explanations concerning the role and nature of labor organizations are important for the implementation of collective bargaining policies at the national level. Without convincing justification for policy initiatives, public support for unions may be marginal. In the US, for example, most treatments of falling levels of union density focus on employer antiunionism as the cause of decline because survey research shows that most American workers have favorable preferences about representation and would organize if they

2 2 were able to do so. The conclusion follows that managerial opposition, often in violation of legal rules, frustrates workers desires for collective action and an impressive stream of research substantiates that claim. Conversely, other industrial relations experts claim that union decline is a global phenomenon arising from economic competition between nations. The differing perspectives have implications for public policy choices in a number of contexts. Proposed legislation in the United States Congress aims to make union organizing easier and to promote successful collective bargaining outcomes. Critics of the legislation, however, argue that the law would lead to higher levels of unemployment and lower levels of firm efficiency. Similar issues arise in discussions of global competitiveness and social welfare. This track will examine the linkages between labor organization and social capital from local, national and comparative perspectives. We welcome both empirical and qualitative studies across a range of academic disciplines, including economics, law, labor relations, sociology, and international business. The major focus is on whether, and to what extent, unions contribute to the formation, development, and transmission of social capital in workplaces. From a critical approach, we propose that communitarianism and social capital are an alternative to the market conception of how economic organizations fit into the broader political economy. Our argument is that profit, efficiency, and agency theories of self-maximization are insufficient as an approach to corporate regulation and governance. Rather, economic activity should also aim toward the goals of equity, social uplift, justice, and individual happiness. Social capital is an essential component of our perspective. This stream will address such topics as the following: measuring social capital at work unions as social institutions

3 3 impacts of employment legislation on social capital effects of unions on workplace justice effects of unions on income inequality unions and happiness cross-national comparisons of unions and social capital the formation of workplace social capital theoretical frameworks for explaining and understanding workplace social capital Our suggested topics are intended to be illustrative and not exhaustive. Below is a short bibliography of references that provide further background about the stream. Submission Instructions: Abstracts (maximum 1000 words, A4 paper, single spaced, 12 point font) should be submitted to Ray.Hogler@business.colostate.edu by 30 th November List of Selected Reference Works Bailey, J. & Brown, K. Social capital and unions. Available online at: Al View Banks, A. & Metzgar, J. Response to Unions as Social Capital. Labor Studies Journal, 29, No. 4 (Winter 2005):

4 4 Bartkus, V.O. & Davis, J. H. Introduction: the yet undiscovered value of social capital. In Social capital: Reaching out, reaching in, ed. V.O. Bartkus & J.H. Davis. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2009, Brown, N. & Jarley, P. Unions as social capital: the impact of trade union youth programmes on young workers political and community engagement. Transfer 4/05 11 (4), 2005, Card, D., Lemieux, T. & Riddell, W.C. Unions and wage inequality. In Bennett, J. T. & Kaufman, B.E., What do unions do? A twenty-year perspective. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007, Fourcade, M. & Khurana, R. From social control to financial economics: The linked ecologies of economics and business in twentieth century America. Harvard University Business School Working Paper , Helliwell, J. Huang H., & Putnam, R.D. How s the job? Are Trust and Social Capital Neglected Workplace Investments?, in Social Capital: Reaching Out, Reaching In. Ed. V. O. Barkus and J. H. Davis. Cheltenham, UK, 2009, Hogler, R., Shulman, S. & Weiler, S. Right to work legislation, social capital, and variations in state union density. Review of Regional Studies, 34 (1), 2004, Jarley, P. Unions as Social Capital: Renewal through a Return to the Logic of Mutual Aid? Labor Studies Journal, 29, No. 4 (Winter 2005), Kahan, Dan M. The Logic of Reciprocity: Trust, Collective Action, and Law. Yale Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 31; Yale Law & Economics Research Paper No. 281, Available at Layard, R. Happiness: Lessons from a new science. New York: Penguin Press, Palley, T. & LaJeunesse, R. Social attitudes, labor law, and union organizing: Toward a new economics of union density. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 62 (2), 2007, Putnam, R. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster, Troy, L. The Twilight of Collective Bargaining. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. New York: Penguin Books, 2009.

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