UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIVol. 8, No. 1 May 1965

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS CONFERENCEHumphrey to SpeakAt ConferenceFor ManagementA major conference on equal employ-

ment opportunity will be held for man-

agement representatives from 12 westernstates on June 10 in San Francisco.The program, which will include

speakers from government and industry,is cosponsored by the Institute and thePlans for Progress section of the Presi-dent's Committee on Equal EmploymentOpportunity.

Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey,who is chairman of the President's Com-mittee, will address the conference.

Plans for Progress is a voluntary, co-

operative program in which more thanthree hundred major companies havejoined to provide leadership in the na-

tional equal opporttinity program. TheJtune 10 conference is the third in a na-

tion-wide series.In announcing the conference, Vice

President Humphrey noted that the semi-nars "help to impress on people the good,sound economic sense of equal opportu-nity." For example, the President's Coun-cil of Economic Advisers reported thatracial discrimination costs the economy

some $23 billioni annually.Rudolph A. Peterson, President of

Bank of America, is honorary chairmanof the conference; Norman E. Nicholson,Vice President of Kaiser Industries, isgeneral chairman.

Those interested should phone JohnHislop, Coordinator of Management Pro-grams, TH 5-6000, Ext. 2571.

Employment ConferenceTo Be Held This FallThe Institute has been asked by Gov-

ernor Edmund G. Brown to arrange a

conference on "Employment in Califor-nia" to be held September 30 to Octo-ber 3.A group of labor and business repre-

sentatives, academicians, and govern-ment officials will discuss employment,unemployment, and public policies as

they relate to the goal of full utilizationof the state's manpower and productiveres

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIALRELATIONS LIBRARY

MAY 1 9 1965.iuuFMTrv of C'I 9"1 v

New Coordinator

I

Oliver E. McMillan, Jr.

Oliver E. McMillan, Jr., has been ap-

pointed Associate Coordinator of LaborPrograms. His primary task at the Centerwill be to develop resource materials forbasic labor education courses, seminars,and conferences.A former newspaper and television

writer, McMillan was employed from1961-1964 as an Information Officer forthe California Department of IndustrialRelations and most recently held the postof Assistant Executive Secretary of theSan Francisco-Oakland Newspaper Guild,AFL-CIO.

Labor Center CompletesFirst 'Pathfinder' ReportThe Center for Labor Research and

Education is presently developing a

"pathfinder" research service for laborleaders who need detailed information on

specific problem areas.

The first background paper-under-taken at the request of the San FranciscoLabor Council-has now been completed.Written by John Simons, an Institutestaff member, it deals with, "ExtendingMental Health Services to Blue-CollarWorkers and Low-Income Groups in SanFrancisco."The paper summarizes the nature of

the problem, the resources available tothe community, and the experimentalprojects in progress. Special attention is

(Continued on page 4)

Annual Meeting to ConsiderProblems of Job TrainingThe Institute's annual Industrial Re-

lations Conference will be held on May 26at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.

Stanley Ruttenberg, t. S. ManpowerAdministrator, and Francis S. Quillan,Senior Vice President of Prudential In-surance, will be among those addressingthe conference.

Speakers and two panel sessions willconsider various aspects of Job Train-ing and Industrial Relations.The one-day meeting is open to all in-

terested persons. Fee for the day, includ-ing lunich and dinner, is $15.

Following registration in the ColonialBallroom, the conference will begin at9:15 a.m. with opening remarks by LloydUlman, Institute Director. The firstspeaker, George Strauss, University Pro-fessor of Business Administration, willpresent an Operational Analysis ofTraining Programs.A panel symposium will follow on

Evaluating Training Programs,chaired by Curtis Aller, Professor of Eco-nomics at San Francisco State College.The speakers, who will deal with suchsubjects as job placement of trainees,durability of skills, and programs in theU. S. and abroad, will include:

George Ebey, Director of Research andPlanning, College of San Mateo; Mar-garet S. Gordon, Institute Associate Di-rector; Donald H. Roney, Chief, Office ofManpower Training and Utilization, Cali-fornia Department of Employment; PercyH. Steele, Executive Director, Bay AreaUrban League; Margaret Thal-Larsen,Executive Secretary, California Commis-sion on Manpower, Automation, andTechnology.

Quillan will speak at the luncheon on

Rescuing the High School Drop-Out.The afternoon session will be a panel

discussion of The Respective Roles ofOn-the-Job and Classroom Training.Six speakers will participate, under thechairmanship of Harold Wilensky, Uni-versity Professor of Sociology: C. R.Bartalini, Secretary, Bay Area Council ofCarpenters; Leonard Beanland, Person-

(Continued on page 4)

L

CURRENTRESEARCH

ACTIVITIES

The third annual conference to be heldunder the auspices of the Institute's re-search program on Unemployment andthe American Economy has been ar-ranged for June 14-16 at the BiltmoreHotel, New York. The subject to be dis-cussed is "The Last Five Years: EconomicExpansion and Persisting Unemploy-ment." Conference participants will in-clude about forty economists from aca-demic, government, management, andlabor organizations.

Papers to be presented will be con-cerned with the expansion of aggregatedemand, labor force participation anddisguised unemployment, the changinglevel and pattern of employment, lessonsfrom the pattern of unemployment ofthe last five years, and wage levels anddifferentials. The authors and discussantsof papers will be Gertrude Bancroft, Wil-liam Bowen, Harry Douty, Otto Eckstein,Solomon Fabricant, Harold Goldstein,Margaret S. Gordon, R. A. Gordon,George H. Hildebrand, Edward Kala-chek, Charles Killingsworth, StanleyLebergott, Jacob Mincer, Joseph Pech-man, Melvin W. Reder, Albert Rees, Les-ter Thurow, and Lloyd Ulman.The Institute's four-year study of Un-

employment and the American Economyis supported by a grant from the FordFoundation.

Arrangements have been made withthe Chandler Publishing Company ofSan Francisco to publish the papers pre-sented at the national Conference on Pov-erty in America, which was held on theBerkeley campus, February 26-28. It isanticipated that the volume, which willbe issued in both paperback and hard-cover editions, will be available in Sep-tember. Margaret S. Gordon, AssociateDirector of the Institute, is editing thepapers, and Lloyd Ulman, Institute Di-rector and conference chairman, is pre-paring a foreword for the book.The conference program included such

distinguished speakers as Marion B. Fol-som, Director of Eastman Kodak Com-pany; Michael Harrington, author of TheOther America; Daniel P. Moynihan,Assistant Secretary of Labor; GunnarMyrdal, the eminent Swedish economist;Gista Rehn, Director of the Manpowerand Social Affairs Division, Organizationfor Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment; and Neil V. Sullivan, BerkeleySuperintendent of Schools.

INSTITUTE PUBLICATIONSBOOKSThe Negro and Organized LaborBy Ray Marshall(New York, London, and Sydney: John Wiley & Sons, 1965; $6.95)An objective analysis of the relations between the Negro and organized labor, with

emphasis on the factors responsible for the evolution of union racial practices.Employment Policy and the Labor MarketEdited by Arthur M. Ross(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965; $7.50)A collection of papers presented at the second annual conference conducted under

the auspices of the Institute's research program on Unemployment and the AmericanEconomy, held at Boulder, Colorado, June 1964.

Nation-Building and Citizenship: Studies of Our Changing Social OrderBy Reinhard Bendix(New York, London, and Sydney: John Wiley & Sons, 1964; $7.75)

In this first volume to be issued under the Institute's research and training programin Comparative Developmental Studies (jointly sponsored with the Institute of Inter-national Studies), Professor Bendix analyzes the process of nation-building in WesternEurope, with a view to developing guidelines for the comparative study of nation-build-ing in the non-Western world.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSLong-Term Manpower Projections, proceedings of a conference conducted by

the Institute's research program on Unemployment and the American Economy inWashington, D.C., June 25-26, 1964 (copies available at $1) . Methods of making long-term projections of labor force, employment, occupational changes. etc., are discussedby government officials. The proceedings were edited by R. A. Gordon.

SPECIAL REPORTRetraining in Western EuropeBy Margaret S. Gordon(To be published by the Office of Manpower, Automation, and Training, U. S. Depart-ment of Labor, and also to be included in the Institute's reprint series)A comparative analysis of retraining and related labor market adjustment policies

in seven Western European countries-Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, TheNetherlands, Sweden, and West Germany.

RECENT REPRINTSVarieties of Work Experience, by Harold L. Wilensky (No. 231)Mass Society and Mass Culture: Interdependence or Independence, by

Harold L. Wilensky (No. 232)Political Religion in the New Nations, by David Apter (No. 233)Has Structural Unemployment Worsened? by R. A. Gordon (No. 234)Collective Bargaining in the Federal Civil Service, by B. V. H. Schneider

(No. 235)Labor and the Academicians, by George Strauss (No. 236)Professional or Employee-Oriented: Dilemma for Engineering Unions,

by George Strauss (No. 237)Work-Flow Frictions, Interfunctionary Rivalry, and Professionalism: A

Case Study of Purchasing Agents, by George Strauss (No. 238)How Do We Use Our Engineers and Scientists? by Arthur M. Ross (No. 239)The Effects of 'Tall' Versus 'Flat' Organization Structures on Managerial

Job Satisfaction, by Lyman W. Porter and E. E. Lawler (No. 240)The United States-The First New Nation, by S. M. Lipset (No. 241)The Professionalization of Everyone? by Harold L. Wilensky (No. 242)Why Managers Cultivate Social Responsibility, by Earl F. Cheit (No. 243)Political Cleavages in 'Developed' and 'Emerging' Polities, by Seymour M.

Lipset (No. 244)Labor Courses: The Need for Radical Reconstruction, by Arthur M. Ross

(No. 245)(Single reprints free; additional copies, 20 cents each.)

2

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS:

THE VALUE OF CONFLICT AMONG STAFFSGeorge Strauss

(The following is abstracted from anarticle which appeared in Human Or-ganization, Summer 1964. Dr. Strauss isa University Professor of Business Ad-ministration and a Research Economistat the Institute of Industrial Relations.)

I have a hunch that every staff or func-tional group in industry feels its trueworth to be underrecognized. Engineers,personnel men, accountants, quality con-trol men, all claim to be underdogs (andin the same breath, to be in a unique,middle-of-the-road position, ground downby opposing forces).

Since status is a relative matter andobviously all groups cannot be top dog atonce, interdepartmental conflict is in-evitable. Even were status not an issue,one should expect friction from the verynature of the staff or functional special-ist's job. Production men make thingsand their accomplishments are visibleto the eye. Staff men make ideas and canfeel success and demonstrate accomplish-ment only to the extent other departmentsaccept these ideas (willingly or other-wise)

In addition, different departmentsbring very different views to the situa-tion. More than a conflict of perceptionis involved, there are very real differ-ences in the objectives of various func-tional groups, and one objective can beachieved only at the partial expense ofanother.

Staff Men and ManagementThese problems may be accentuated by

unrealistic managerial ideology. Accord-ing to traditional theory, staff's primaryfunction is to advise higher management.But staff groups perform such importantfunctions today that the lines of commu-nication would be hopelessly blockedwere activities, in fact, cleared throughthe common boss. Staff men must workdirectly through other departments ifthey want to get things done. Similarly,as "experts" they are trained to deal withproblems in rational, this-is-the-right-an-swer terms and expect that their pro-posals will be evaluated on their ownmerits, not in terms of power bargain-ing. Yet staff men must not only developthe right answers, but must be able towin their acceptance by others. To a con-siderable extent staff men are left to de-vise their own means of survival, makinguse of whatever bargaining weapons theycan muster. Understandably, many feel

that higher management has abandonedthem.The trend towards professionalism can

be explained, in part, in terms of the staffgroups' acceptance of the fact that theymust sink or swim on their own. Thedebate, which runs in many staff groups,"Are we professional or are we manage-ment?" involves questions of identifica-tion and loyalty as well as self-interest.Many staff men, convinced that theirjobs are dead-end and that managementgives them too little recognition, turn toprofessionalism both as a means ofbolstering their self-concept and as anideological weapon to use against otherdepartments.

Model for the Future?But as one group dons the cloak of pro-

fessionalism, other groups seek to do like-wise in self-defense. Thus, to take an ex-treme case, in the hospital, where thestatus and power of top management isrelatively weak, we see a vast prolif-eration of professional and semiprofes-sional occupational associations, coveringgroups ranging from housekeepersthrough medical librarians and lab tech-nicians. Each organization fights for theeconomic and social welfare of its mem-bers, and many seek the full accouter-ments of professionalism. In this sense,the hospital may possibly provide amodel for the firm of the future.The picture of the company we get

from the staff man's frame of referenceis very different from that presented bymany organizational theorists. It is notthat of a highly coordinated organiza-tion, tightly controlled by top manage-ment. Rather it is one of a number ofsemi-autonomous departments whichkeep each other in line through a seriesof checks and balances.On the surface, at least, this seems to

be a highly inefficient way of doingthings. Even routine decisions seem toinvolve a number of departments, eachwith its special point of view. Decisionsseem to be made as much on the basisof pressure politics and implicit bargain-ing as of rational analysis, and there isno one department to bear the final re-sponsibility. Certainly a case can be madefor a unified systems approach whichwould take all variables into account.

Inefficient as it may seem, perhaps thesystem of checks and balances has itsvirtues in the industrial scene just as itdoes in the national state. The restricted

"professional" viewpoint tends to coun-terbalance the excessive conformity andrigidity of "organization man."

Interdepartmental conflicts encouragethe free competition of new ideas (aswell as giving top management a chanceto evaluate subordinates' behavior).Since each department has only a partialpicture of the entire organization, com-petition improves the quality of each de-partment's thinking and forces it to takethe other department's point of view intoconsideration. In large organizationssuch internal competition tends to substi-tute for the external competition of themarket place.A centralized, "programmed" deci-

sion-making procedure may give appar-ently optimum solutions, but suppose theoriginal program is wrong? Mechanicaldecision-making programs may be use-ful when the relevant dimensions can bestated in measurable, numerical terms.But the optimum is less immediately ap-parent when intangibles, such as moraleor consumer good will, are involved.Built-in checks and balances exist inmany organizations, for example, the con-sumer's counsel in some governmentagencies and devil's advocate in theCatholic church. Theoretically, these di-vide responsibility, but they also insurethat, as Landsberger says, "the organiza-tion may benefit from having all sides ofa problem clearly argued by some groupwithin it." In addition, it can be arguedthat, with proper safeguards, the checks-and-balances system permits problems tobe safely resolved at lower levels, thussaving top management's time as wellas giving subordinates a greater feelingof participation.

Management's ProblemThis approach is not without dangers.

(1) Interdepartmental friction may cutdown on operating efficiency. (2) Onefunctional group may become extremelypowerful and induce the organization topursue professional rather than economicobjectives. (3) Compromises based onrelative power position may not be bestfor the organization as a whole.The task of higher management, then

(and it is not an easy one), is to devisemeans which, on the one hand, facilitatethe harmonious disposition of such dif-ferences as may be best resolved at lowerlevels, and, on the other hand, insure thattop management makes those decisionswhich are appropriately its own.

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ITEMS OF INTEREST . .

Basic Labor EducationThe Center for Labor Research and

Education has been working with a num-ber of labor organizations to establishcourses in such subjects as Shop Stew-ards' Training, Local Union Adminis-tration, Communications, Arbitration,Labor Law, Leadership Skills, ContractNegotiation, Labor History and Philos-ophy, and Social Legislation.The Northern California Council of

the American Federation of GovernmentEmployees is sponsoring a two-day lead-ership training course at Santa Rosa onJuly 16-18, and the Superior Council,AFGE, will sponsor one in Sacramento,September 17-19. Lodge 1533 at theOakland Naval Supply Center is planninga union leadership course for late in thespring.A one-week residential leadership

school of International Association ofMachinists business representatives andchairmen will be held at the MarineCooks and Stewards Training School atSanta Rosa May 9-14. The IAM's ad-vanced leadership summer school will beconducted on the Berkeley Campus, July11-16.The second session of a continuing

program of shop steward training for theDepartment Store Employees Local 1100of the Retail Clerks International Asso-ciation will be held on May 16 in SanFrancisco.

During the first week of August theCenter will cosponsor a summer instituteat Santa Barbara with the UCLA Centerand the California Federation of Labor.

Management ProgramThe Institute's Management Program

continues to offer a variety of specialservices. For a company or group of com-panies wishing instruction for personnelin a specific area of industrial relations,the Institute will organize and staff aconference or workshop on a contractualbasis. The Institute also organizes, on

its own initiative, seminars and confer-ences on problems of general interest tothe management community.A series of two-day conferences for

middle and upper management personnelof the Pacific Gas and Electric Companyis presently under way. Sessions concen-trate on the fiscal implications of engi-neering design and construction, deci-sion-making, techniques and problems inthe field of personnel motivation, andmodern management.A one-week training course for mid-

dle management personnel at Travis AirForce Base and selected personnel fromnearby military and other governmentalinstallations was held in April.A special eight-session course for sii-

pervisory employees of the University ofCalifornia Library has also just ended.Training focussed on the techniques ofsupervision.The Personnel Administration and

Philosophy of Management Seminarscontinue to meet monthly.

Labor History BibliographyThe UCLA Institute has published A

Selective Bibliography of CaliforniaLabor History by Mitchell Slobodek ($4).This annotated and indexed volume of265 pages lists materials which are almostall in accessible library collections. Itshould prove of great value to personswho research in California labor and in-dustrial relations.

Moderate Income HousingThe Institute's Labor Center has been

asked to assist the Alameda County Cen-tral Labor Council in its investigationsinto housing needs and costs and the pos-sibility of labor sponsorship of housingprojects under Section 221 (d) 3 of the1961 federal housing act. So far, theCenter has prepared background infor-mation and assisted in the presentationof an educational seminar.

Annual Conference(Continued from page 1)

nel Manager, Pacific Gas and ElectricCompany, San Francisco; Jack Brookins,Dean, Technical Vocational Education,Southwestern Oregon College; R. J. Cuy-ler, District Education Manager, IBMCorporation; Charles F. Hanna, Chief,California Division of ApprenticeshipStandards; Morris Skinner, Regional Di-rector, U. S. Bureau of Apprenticeshipand Training.

After a reception, Ruttenberg willspeak at dinner on New Horizons inManpower Programs.

Further information on the conferencemay be obtained by phoning TH 5-6000,Ext. 2571.

'Pathfinder' Report(Continued from page 1)

given to the problem of providing serviceand to alternative approaches which theLabor Council, in cooperation with pro-fessional suppliers of care, might pursue.A community committee will shortly

be formed to consider and act on theissues clarified by the "pathfinder" paper.

War Against PovertyA two-day state-wide conference on

"Labor and the War Against Poverty"was presented in April by the State Officeof Economic Opportunity, the CaliforniaLabor Federation, AFL-CIO, and theBerkeley and UCLA Labor Centers. Con-centration was on labor's role in com-munity action and youth training pro-grams and how it can participate inantipoverty programs as project sponsors.

Labor PressAn International Labor Press Associa-

tion chapter was formed for Californiain February. The chapter proposes todevelop, in cooperation with the Cali-fornia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, acontinuing relationship with the Insti-tute's Labor Center which will includeprofessional training on a variety oflevels for labor editors and utilization inthe labor press of academic research andother materials.

INSTITUTE OF

Published by theInstitute of Industrial RelationsUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeley, California 94720Director: Lloyd UlmanEditor: B. V. H. Schneider

Nonprofit OrganizationU. S. PostagePAID

Berkeley, Calif.Permit No. 1

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