This dissertation examines the phenomenon of labor espionage from the mid-nineteenth century through the 1930s. Trade unionists coined the term to describe the use of undercover agents posing as workers to collect information for employers about their employees' opinions and activities. Labor spies sometimes identified union supporters and blocked organizing drives; other spies functioned more like surrogate supervisors checking on job performance.;I explore the origins of labor espionage in "spotting," undercover surveillance of railway workers by private detectives to catch theft. I argue that spotting began as a management technology to cope with large dispersed railway workforces, but managers soon saw that secret agents could also monitor workers' behavior and subvert collective action. Rail workers' unions were hamstrung by shame over worker theft and unable to exploit public sympathy to limit employers' use of undercover agents. Next, I examine the difficulties encountered by the American Federation of Hosiery Workers when they tried to systematically counter labor spies in their industry and find that the Hosiery Workers' campaign showed that no union could effectively counter labor spies, and that the union was further hampered by its inability to acknowledge that many spies came from its own ranks. Finally, I compare labor spies to Communists as undercover agents deploying similar strategies in attempts to infiltrate American unions. Unionists developed narratives of infiltration to denounce both labor spies and Communists but deployed them to different ends in the 1930s; progressives used the labor spy narrative to lobby for federal oversight of labor relations, and conservatives used the Communist narrative to attach progressives and fight expanded federal authority. Labor conservatives helped drive early American anticommunism and the rise of McCarthyism.;Trade unionists and historians have avoided a critical fact about labor espionage, that workers performed most secret surveillance. Labor espionage should be seen not just as a management tool, but as a manifestation of worker antiunionism. Rather than asking how labor espionage impaired the growth of American unions, we should ask why some workers chose to subvert collective action, and integrate worker antiunionism into our understanding of American working-class formation.

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American companies have experimented with "employee involvement" (EI), also referred to as "workplace democracy," "quality of worklife," and "participatory decision making" since the late 1960's. Results are mixed but interest remains high because organizations that have adapted to this new form are industry leaders. Research of the literature suggested (and this research agrees) that EI will be a long term success when management: (1) shares information and power at all levels of the organizational unit, (2) emphasizes cooperative problem solving to meet organizational goals, and (3) engenders a sense of dignity, meaning and community in every employee in the organizational unit. This study at four manufacturing sites investigates the link between the process of change to EI management and managers' beliefs. In-depth interviews of 25 managers and 8 hourly employees (plus printed matter) provide data for this qualitative research. "Grounded theory" from the data generated five Management Characteristics and seven Antecedents for Change which provide a framework for further analysis of managers' beliefs related to EI. Research sites had different types of manufacturing, different organizational histories, and EI programs were at different stages of development, but 13 themes emerged which were highly consistent (and two themes that were dissimilar were still clearly significant to the change process). The study establishes that both the organizational change process and Antecedents affect a manager's response to EI. Some experiences and beliefs make it easier for a manager to adapt to EI management and some make it more difficult. Antecedents that were shown to have both positive and negative affects on the process include self confidence, family, education, and work experiences, mentors, organizational culture, and personal characteristics, beliefs and values.

The interview method was used to conduct a qualitative case study in a large business corporation to discover the organizational culture that supports moving minority employees into management positions, the management practices that enables the phenomena to occur, and the experiences of minority employees who have become managers. The literature was reviewed to explore studies that presented data from African American's perspective about corporate life in America and the specific themes that emerged during this research project. Those themes are culture, learning organization, motivation, leadership, goals, reward, group development, and mentoring. This researcher found little empirical work existing on mentoring and few adequate models that utilize mentoring as a legitimate management development strategy. Therefore the researcher created theoretical constructs and the MENTOR model to improve practice in this area. The findings of this investigation are that organizational culture is based on the assumptions, values, and norms shared by organizational members, that a company can create a culture that values all employees including minorities, and that the company can implement management practices that result in positive work experiences for minority employees which enables them to become managers. The minority managers interviewed have the ability to "fit" into the IBM organization and they have gained acceptance. An invisible barrier or "glass ceiling" does not prevent minorities from advancing beyond lower or middle management positions. Today, there are already minorities at the executive level and the current focus is on moving minorities into the Corporate Officer positions that manage the business. The study creates new knowledge about the value and legitimacy of mentoring as a management development strategy and it produces knowledge directly relevant to managing a diverse work force. Suggestions are offered for future research.

This dissertation is a longitudinal ethnography of a bicultural organization in transition I began in October 1987 directly after the takeover by Japanese management of a Western Massachusetts paper plant. This project documents the experience of both the American workforce and the Japanese management team at the plant, a microcosm of the cultural change process recurrent in modern industrial America. In particular, I examine cultural differences in the understanding of leadership and "concept of work," actual and experienced shifts in how inequality is structured, how conflict is managed, and how "otherness" is defined. The results are organized around four themes which emerged over time from the ethnographic data: (1) a conceptual model of "negotiated culture"; (2) national cultural differences in the transfer of technology; (3) effects of culture on labor relations and the collective bargaining process; and (4) "bicultural alienation" of the American middle manager. This study employs a between-methods triangulated research design involving both a qualitative ethnographic component as well as a quantitative study. The ethnography relies on a dialectical mode of inquiry wherein current anthropological theory and ethnographic data gathered at the field site are constantly compared. The results of the ethnography are then used to inform the generation of strong constructs which are the basis for a quantitatively tested organization-wide census. My ethnographic methods include participant observation and intensive interviewing of the American managers, union committee, blue collar workers, and Japanese management team in the U.S. and in Japan. The quantitative component of my methodology is a retrospective questionnaire administered to the entire workforce (N = 203) which measures their attitudes towards the Japanese management and their assessment of the evolving organizational culture at three distinct time periods: (A) before the takeover; (B) after a $40 million dollar expansion of the facility---a zenith of the company's success; and (C)~the present---after the company has endured its first layoffs in the wake of a severe industry downturn. Results of the questionnaire analysis are woven into the body of the ethnographic reports, sometimes supporting, sometimes adding to, and sometimes challenging the ethnography.

While society has begun its evolution from the industrial age to the information age, most teacher unions continue to pattern their behavior after the industrial model of unionism focusing almost exclusively on salary, benefits and working conditions. In some school systems, though, teacher unions and management are questioning the legitimacy of their adversarial relationships. They are beginning to abandon the belief in the separation of traditional labor and management roles, and replacing it with a collective operational model that offers promise for significant educational reform and improved employer-employee relations. This expanded scope of union activity is attempting to include non-traditional issues, such as teacher professional development, teacher quality, instructional delivery, student achievement standards and educational reform, as well as mechanisms that are highly flexible and reactive to immediate need (Koppich, 2005; Urbanski, 1998). The purpose of this case study was to uncover the events that led to formation of collaborative structures at each of the study sites, gain insight in the collaborative activity that is occurring, better understand the impact of collaboration on the collective bargaining process, and attempt to understand the various challenges to collaboration at each study site. Data collection for this case study relied heavily on intensive personal interviews. Study participants were selected from school systems that have strong collaborative relations between the district administration and the teachers' union. Care was given in the selection of diverse school systems and in different regions of the country. Contractual language from the negotiated agreement also provided additional supporting data. The convergence of this data resulted in a greater understanding on the formation and maintenance of collaborative structures. The results of this study exposed that there are, in fact, strong models of collaboration between labor representative groups and management. The work that is occurring in these school districts is significantly transforming labor relations and impacting student educational experience. Leaders for both management and labor have largely abandoned their traditional roles and relinquished power in favor of working more cooperatively for the betterment of all within the organization. At each site, many collaborative byproducts have emerged to address a plethora of identified needs and goals. The collaborative relationship has also impacted the collective bargaining process, as the parties attempt to more creatively address all issues that either party raises as a concern. Greater respect for the role of unions and management has also emerged, as participants began to realize that they shared more in common than previously thought. The participants in school systems with strong collaborative relations have also demonstrated that they are anxious to share their knowledge and experience with others, as evidence by their participation in informal networks like Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN), as well as with researchers interested in collaboration between labor and management. / Educational Administration

This is a sociological study of four factories in New England on acquisitions by Japanese corporations in the late 1980s. It investigated whether two sets of "Japanese" managerial practices were implemented by the Japanese, and whether they were successful at these factories. One was "welfare corporatist" practices which enhance workers' commitment to the organization by employing paternalistic personnel policies. The other was a group of various quality assurance programs that were either developed or nurtured in Japan. A questionnaire survey of 440 employees, interviews of 25 American and 22 Japanese managers, and 4 focus groups were employed. The Japanese seemed to be reluctant to alter existing personnel practices in the U.S. Insufficient math skills of employees can be a serious obstacle to quality assurance programs. Linguistic and non-linguistic communication issues were also a major problem between the Japanese and Americans. Much Japanese managers' frustration seemed to result from weak inter-group communication and cooperation of American firms. In general, the management at these firms were more engaged in implementing quality assurance programs than welfare corporatist policies. Both types of managerial practices seem to have positive results for employees when they are instituted properly. On the other hand, the lack of these practices can cause adverse effects.

This study will endeavor to present an analysis of the process in which the National Labor Relations Board gave specific meaning to "interfere with, restrain or coerce" found in section 8(1) of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. Under Section 8(1) of the Act, the Labor Board, subject to judicial review, has the authority to declare illegal any management procedure which in its opinion involves interference, restraint or coercion.