XIV. POSTER SESSION I

Avoiding the Common Problems in the Boundaryless Career: The Role of Employability Obligations

HARRY J. VAN BUREN III
University of Northern Iowa

      Boundaryless careers may be beneficial to people with rare and valuable skills, but might prove to harmful to many others. The idea of employability as an ethical responsibility of employers to employees is introduced; it is argued that attention to employability in private practice and public policy partially resolves the commons problem inherent to boundaryless careers. Because employability programs are considered to be voluntary, some means of holding employers accountable for such responsibilities needs to be considered when discussing boundaryless careers. Implications for practice and public policy are also discussed.

The Effect of Interpersonal Trust on Union Member Commitment

ROBERT C. HOELL
Georgia Southern University

      Employees working in unionized environments have the unique position of having their loyalty courted by both their employer and their union. Some employees form a loyalty to both, while some remain uncommitted to one or the other, or in some instances, to neither. There is no strong research evidence that explains these differences.

      It was hypothesized that interpersonal trust may explain these varying levels of employee commitment to their employer and their union. Initial findings indicate that individuals with low levels of trust do not form as high a degree of commitment as those who have high levels of trust.

The Work Incentive Provisions of the Social Security Disability Benefits and Beneficiaries' Return-to-Work

WEI CHI AND DENNIS AHLBURG
University of Minnesota

      Social Security Disability Insurance Program (DI) is one of the largest social transfer programs in the United States. The DI program includes work incentive provisions to encourage the DI beneficiaries to return to work. The work incentive provisions include a Trial Work Period (TWP), an Extended Period of Entitlement (EPE), and an Extended Medical Eligibility (EME). The paper investigates the effects of these work incentive provisions on the beneficiaries' return to work by exploring a "natural experiment" created by a policy change in the DI in 1987. The difference-in-difference estimator suggests that the policy change in 1987 that increases the EPE from 15 to 36 months has a positive impact on return to work. It increases male beneficiaries' employment by 4 percent and females' employment by 3 percent. It also increases male beneficiaries' hours of work per year by 9 percent. The results suggest that the DI work incentive provisions succeed in providing work incentives to the beneficiaries to some extent.

Voting in Local Union Officer Elections: A Model and Test

JAMES E. MARTIN AND MICHAEL P. SHERMAN
Wayne State University

      Despite the apparent renewed interest in union democracy, very little empirical work on officer elections in local unions exists. We build and empirically test a model of local union officer elections based on social exchange theory, the concept of voice, and support for the status quo. Survey data from members and stewards, aggregated by voting unit, explained 48 percent of the variance in the incumbent president's reelection. Increased member votes for the incumbent president were found related to higher union loyalty, higher grievance rates, better union–management relations, and more positive perceptions of the union contract, supporting our model of membership voting.

Nonprofit Versus For-Profit Sector:
Different Wages and Different Workers?

MARY E. TABER
Skidmore College

      The nonprofit sector is of particular interest with the shift in the political climate away from government to private sector provision of social services. Using 1990 census data, this paper explores the nonprofit work force. The results show that nonprofit workers earn less than for-profit workers, with the wage differential being larger for men than women. This study also finds that marital status and having children under the age of 18 help explain why women are disproportionately represented in the nonprofit sector. Controlling for these and other factors, men are as likely as women to work in the nonprofit sector.

Information and Communications Technology Use in British Unions

JACK FIORITO
Florida State University

      This paper summarizes research based on survey responses from, and interviews with, British union officers and staff. The information was gathered during the last part of 2000 and early in 2001. Most British unionists see a large role for information and computer technology (ICT) in the future of their unions. Although most are optimistic about the role of ICT, some reservations are expressed about "digital divides" among unions and workers, and the possibility that ICT will be seen as a substitute for face-to-face communications and the "personal touch" that union members value.