Managerial Perceptions of the Economic Impact of Labor Relations Programs

Managers of unionized Wisconsin firms were surveyed in 1984 concerning their companies' experiences with gainsharing programs, profit-sharing plans, employee stock-ownership plans, employee participation programs, joint union-management committees at the plant level, and communitywide union-management cooperation committees. Managers assessed gainsharing, profit-sharing, and participation programs as improving company performance more than the other types of programs. The local community cooperation committees were perceived as having no effect on firm performance.