David A. Dilts - Böcker

This book is a basic treatment of faculty performance appraisal in higher education. It is written for those scholars faced with the need to understand the issues and solutions to the often thorny problems posed by having to judge the performance of their colleagues in teaching, service, research and citizenship. Neophyte administrators, committee members, and those facing evaluation are often perplexed by the range and depth of the questions concerning what constitutes an effective and reasonable performance appraisal system. This book provides answers to the most common of these questions and integrates current thinking from education literature with models of strategic management from business administration.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the nature, causes, dimensions, and effects of absenteeism and gives professionals specific guidelines for determining how it affects their particular organization. Economic, psychological, and sociological dimensions are discussed in clear, nontechnical terms. Readers will learn how to analyze absenteeism and measure its direct and indirect costs; how to collect, test, and evaluate data; how to formulate a workable personnel policy; and how to implement effective absenteeism control procedures. The analyses and prescriptions offered are applicable to union and nonunion, blue collar and white collar occupations in virtually any type of industry, agency, or institution. Incorporating the recommendations of arbitrators who have evaluated a wide variety of problems in this area, the authors provide concrete examples of workable and unworkable approaches and bring a wealth of practical expertise to bear on a probelm that continues to pose a major obstacle to greater efficiency and productivity.

Although much has been written concerning labor relations and collective bargaining in the private sector, negotiators working in public sector employer-employee relations have been handicapped by the paucity of practical information relating to the specific demands of their field. Responding to an evident need, Dilts and Walsh supply detailed guidelines for the practicing negotiator and at the same time enlarge our knowledge of an area that is of increasing significance to academics and professionals alike. They provide in-depth explanations of the principles and practices of fact-finding, interest arbitration, mediation, contract negotiation, and impasse resolution procedures for the public sector, with particular emphasis on labor relations problems confronting state and local governments. The first four chapters outline the basics of public sector collective bargaining. Labor law, contract negotiations, impasse creation, negotiation strategies and tactics, and relevant economic and behavioral issues are discussed. The steps typically found in statutory impasse resolution procedures are examined. The authors next focus on mediation techniques, the situations in which they most often prove successful, and the procedures used in fact-finding and interest arbitration hearings. They explain the differing decisional standards employed by arbitrators and fact-finders in cases involving economic issues and language issues. Other topics covered are factors affecting impasse resolution, the effects of impasse resolution on labor relations, guidelines for utilizing fact-finding reports and interest arbitration awards, and experimental impasse resolution techniques that have been applied in the public sector. The most comprehensive, practitioner-oriented work in its field, this volume will be of value to professionals, e.g., union and management officials and representatives, and academics concerned with public sector labor-management relations, labor law, and human resources management.

Labor law in state and local government is often characterized as a patchwork of inconsistent and contradictory statutes. The purpose of this book is to present the labor law in state government in a concise and understandable manner. To date, there has been no systematic treatise on the subject that is generally applicable. The authors have collected and analyzed the laws of each state that have enacted collective bargaining statutes. Comparisons are drawn with the National Labor Relations Act and the evidence suggests that there is a significant area of consistency, suggesting that many jurisdictions have modelled their statutes after the federal law; making only those modifications necessary to local conditions. Rather than focus on minute details of specific statutes, the authors have presented a general analysis of the major aspects of the state collective bargaining laws.The book begins with an introduction and overview of the states' labor laws. An analysis of why states must act if collective bargaining rights for public employees are to be protected is presented together with an analysis of the political and economic reasons for inconsistent treatment of public sector employees collective bargaining rights. The discussion then turns to the structure and functions of administrative law agencies, the rights of employers and employees, the scope of bargaining, bargaining in good faith, impasse resolution and its impact, and contract enforcement and administration.

Designed specifically for labor management advocates and their clients in the public sector, this book is a comprehensive yet practical guide to the arbitration of grievances in public employment. The authors, both experienced arbitrators themselves, offer step-by-step advice on the preparation and presentation of arbitration cases and provide a detailed description of effective grievance resolution through the effective use of the grievance procedure. Written in a style accessible to those without substantial academic training in labor relations law, the volume's purpose is to equip the practitioner to represent his or her respective constituents effectively in the private system of industrial jurisprudence. Although it focuses particularly on grievance administration and arbitration in state and local government, the concepts and techniques presented are equally appropriate for those working in the federal or private sectors.Following an introduction, the authors review various state bargaining statutes governing the arbitration of grievance disputes and look at the grievance process as a prelude to arbitration. They go on to examine the institution of arbitration, focusing primarily upon the administrative agencies, the arbitrators, and the legal environment within which labor relations advocates must work. Subsequent chapters treat procedural and evidential issues common to arbitration, the arbitration of discharge and disciplinary matters, contract interpretation issues, and the decision making of neutrals and what can or cannot reasonably be expected of arbitrators. In their conclusion, the authors make the case for rights arbitration as the preferred method of dispute resolution. Five appendices contain information critical for the practitioner not normally available in a single source: the Code of Professional Responsibility for Arbitrators of Labor-Management Disputes; the Rules of the American Arbitration Association and the Procedures of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; and sample arbitration awards issued in real-life cases.