Uniformities and differences in local union-management relationships.

A variety of approaches to the study of union-management relationships--the historical, the case study, and the survey method, to mention several--have been attempted by students of industrial and labor relations. The authors of this article are identified with the first major attempt to extend the case study approach by interdisciplinary research and, particularly, to quantify observations for intensive analysis of the significant variables. Building on their exploratory work in the Illini City study, and no doubt also on the criticisms which it received, they have attempted further identification and quantification of the significant differentiating variables in various types of labor-management relations. This typological or "cluster" approach, they feel, reveals significant doubt about certain generalizations which have been established through other approaches. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)