Samuel B. Bacharach

Peter A. Bamberger

William J. Sonnenstuhl

The ongoing decline in union membership is generally attributed to an increasingly hostile economic, legal, and managerial environment. Samuel B. Bacharach, Peter A. Bamberger, and William J. Sonnenstuhl argue that the decline may have more to do with a crisis of union legitimacy and member commitment. They further suggest that both problems could be addressed if the unions return to their nineteenth-century, mutual aid-based roots. The authors contend that the labor movement is characterized by two models of union-member relations: the mutual aid logic and the servicing logic. The first predominated in the early days and encouraged a sense of community among members who worked to support one another. In the twentieth century, it was largely replaced by the servicing model, which asks little of members, who remain loyal only if their leaders deliver increasing wages and benefits. Regaining legitimacy and strengthening member commitment can only happen, the authors claim, if mutual aid logic is allowed to return. They examine three unions in the transportation industry to judge the effectiveness of new programs created after the old model.

Cycles of Logics of Action

Mutual Aid and Union Renewal

Michal Biron

Ilan Meshoulam

What is human resource strategy? How are human resources strategies formulated and how can we explain the variance between what is espoused and what is actually implemented? What impact – if any – does human resource strategy have on the organization’s "bottom line," and how can this impact be explained? Is there one best HR strategy for all firms, or is the impact of HR strategy on performance contingent on some set of organizational, technological or environmental factors? Human Resource Strategy, 2nd edition, provides an overview of the academic and practitioner responses to these and other questions. Applying an integrative framework, the authors review 30 years’ worth of empirical and theoretical research in an attempt to reconcile often-conflicting conceptual models and competing empirical results. Complex theoretical models and scientific findings are presented in an accessible and relevant way, in the context of the strategic decisions that executives are forced to make on a regular basis. This new edition features an updated literature review, coverage of the latest challenges to HR strategy, new mini-cases, discussion questions, additional examples, and an emphasis on the strategic implications of the research, making it an ideal resource for students and practitioners alike.

Peter A. Bamberger

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