The Ability to Predict Workers' Preferences: A Research Exercise

Workers' Preferences in Concession Bargaining

“…Our analysis confirms what other researchers (Lawler and Levin, 1968;Howells and Brosnan, 1972) have found: Workers prefer those benefits which offer them the greatest economic security. The rank ordering of benefits shows that workers place job security, wages, and health and pension items as their highest bargaining priorities.…”

“…A similar study was conducted by Howells and Brosnan (1972). In a follow-up to an earlier study (see Howells and Woodfield, 1970), these authors tested the ability of union officers and managers to predict workers' preferences.…”

United States Air Force Summer Research Program -- 1993. Volume 7. Armstrong Laboratory

“…Gillooly et al (1990) reported performance on most variables in a battery of cognitive tasks, similar to the one used here, to be lowest between 0230 and 0630 h. Other tasks including psychomotor performance, reaction time, symbol cancellation, digit summation, performance on a flight simulator, grip strength, time estimation, tapping and personal tempo tests have all been demonstrated to have a similar pattern with performance lowest between 0300 and 0600 h (Aschoff et al, 1972;Hockey et al, 1972;Klein et al, 1968;1970;1972). An overall feeling of fatigue is often associated with performance decrements on cognitive tests (French et al, 1993;Neville et al, 1993).…”

“…Research in the area of integrative bargaining suggests that such solutions, while frequently present, are not as readily attainable as they might appear. Evidence that negotiators arrive at suboptimal, distributive solutions in negotiations that present an opportunity for interest integration has been found in a variety of case and field studies (Raiffa, 1982;Lax & Sebenius, 1986;Howells & Woodfield 1970;Howells & Brosnan, 1972) as well as in controlled laboratory environments (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986;Bazerman & Neale, 1983). …”

Satisfaction with Union Representation

“…First, although unions are generally regarded as having an homogenizing influence on job-related outcomes, relative to such outcomes in nonunion firms, outcomes such as wage rates differ greatly among individuals across and within bargaining units (for example, by skill and seniority). Second, variations among individuals in the discrepancy between expectations and perceived union performance arise from varying expectations as to the scope and priority of bargaining issues, and these expectations vary systematically with individual characteristics (Ponak and Thompson 1979;Howells and Brosnan 1972); thus, even uniform outcomes generate variations in individual satisfaction.…”