Driscoll, J: Structure for Cooperative Problem Solving in Ba

Excerpt from A Structure for Cooperative Problem Solving in Bargaining Between Union and Management

Weinburg (1976) has described some recent initiatives on a sub ject reminiscent of American industrial relations in the l940's, namely union-management cooperation (golden and Parker, Conceptually, union-management cooperation is integrative collective bargaining, defined by Walton and mckersie (1965) as the system of activities [by negotiators] instrumental to the attainment of objectives which are not in conflict with those of the other party and which therefore can be integrated to some degree (p. Collective bargaining also includes distributive bargaining, defined as a system of activities to resolve conflicts of interests between parties (p. According to Walton and mckersie the individual orienta 'tions and group patterns of communication and decision making which facili tate distributive bargaining interfere with effective integrative bargaining.

Preliminary reports of these initiatives in union-management cooperation provide an opportunity to examine an extension of the Walton and mckersie theory of collective bargaining. A single collective bargaining system may reconcile the contradictory conditions facilitating integrative or distributive bargaining based on an interesting set of findings by Lawrence and Loresh in their study of manufacturing firms In effective firms, both individual orientations and the degree of formality in departments variedto meet the demands of different departmental tasks. This finding is often referred to as the differentiation hypothesis. In much the same way, both union and management might form specialized groups for the task of integrative bargaining in addition to existing structures designed for effective distributive bargaining.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.