University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Three essays on labor-management relationships in the changing world of work

Kim, Ki-Jung

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120092

Description

Title
Three essays on labor-management relationships in the changing world of work
Author(s)
Kim, Ki-Jung
Issue Date
2023-04-25
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Benton, Richard
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Benton, Richard
Committee Member(s)
  • Lamare, Ryan
  • Jung, Jiwook
  • Riordan, Christine
Department of Study
School of Labor & Empl. Rel.
Discipline
Human Res & Industrial Rels
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Labor-management relationships
  • employment externalization
  • unions
  • innovation
  • industrial relations climate
  • employment relations
Abstract
Are labor-management relationships relevant to today’s changing world of work? Three chapters in this dissertation address this question by studying the role of labor-management relationships in organizational flexibility and innovation—two essential components for organizational success. The first chapter examines how unions react to employers’ attempts to increase labor flexibility, known as employment externalization. This chapter suggests that cooperative union-management relationships mitigate externalization, whereas conflictual relationships strengthen unions' resistance to both types of externalization. In the second chapter, I argue that labor-management cooperation can counteract the power of short-term-oriented shareholders. And such cooperation can promote a more balanced approach to decision-making that considers various stakeholders of organizations. In the third chapter, I discover that worker representatives and high-performance work systems can work in a synergetic way when worker representatives can meaningfully participate in managerial decision-making processes. For empirical evidence, I use the Workplace Panel Survey from South Korea, covering the period from 2005 to 2019, to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between labor and management and their influence on organizational outcomes. Overall, my dissertation makes a case for the continuing relevance and importance of labor-management relationships in the evolving world of work.
Graduation Semester
2023-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2023 Ki-Jung Kim

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