Sizing up the Soviet system

Article Abstract:

The personal observations of a US businessman on a two-week trip to the USSR in May 1990 are presented. While the Ministry of Labor claims there is no unemployment, it does admit that 2 million people are looking for better jobs. The hardest working people in the USSR seemingly are the entrepreneurs on the black market, who typically will not accept rubles. Cooperatives are experiments in private enterprise in which the concern is run for profit. The cooperatives, which are 20% more productive than state businesses, set their own wages and hire their own employees. Major changes in the USSR include the emergence of official unemployment as cooperatives typically lay off 20% of their workforce; a new concern with training by the Soviet Employment Bureau; increased emigration; and a new focus on human resource management.

Economic aspects, Management, Soviet Union

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Peer review grievance procedure bolsters employee support

Article Abstract:

The General Electric (GE) appliance factory in Columbia, MD implemented a peer review grievance procedure after being faced with several union organizing drives. In each case, the main employee issue was not wages or job security, but rather the employees' perception that job discipline, raises, and promotions were administered in an arbitrary manner. GE installed a grievance review board that consisted of two managers and three workers. The board was given the final authority to decide all employee grievances within the company. The workings of the board and its effect on employee relations at the plant are discussed.

Case studies, General Electric Co., Grievance procedures

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Use the five golden rules of employee relations

Article Abstract:

The Five Golden Rules of Employee Relations can provide management with easy to remember guidelines for coping with increasingly complicated employment laws, and reduce the risk of liability of supervisors, companies, and others who face employee-related work problems. The rules include: make employment decisions based on legitimate business concerns and do not deviate from well-considered personnel policies; separate business from personal relations; and consider such things as timing, individual employee circumstances, and business customs when taking personnel actions.

Analysis, Labor disputes

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