Going Public: The Role of Labor-Management Relations in Delivering Quality Government Services

The public sector currently employs around 40 percent of all union members in the United States. Pressures for cost-effective and quality government services have placed new demands on the labor-management relationship. A fluctuating set of expectations about the appropriate responsibilities of government and a shifting political culture are severely testing the ability of the public sector to meet demands for increased accountability and expanded services.

Especially in an age of knowledge workers, the traditional division between labor and management regarding leadership and work may no longer be viable. Going Public examines the forces affecting labor and management and the prospects for adopting service-oriented cooperative relationships as a key strategy for meeting the expanded demands on the public sector.

Contributors: Robert R. Albright, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Lorenzo Bordogna, University of Milan; Jonathan Brock, University of Washington; John F. Burton Jr., Rutgers University; Adrienne E. Eaton, Rutgers University; Stephen Goldsmith, Harvard University; Jeffrey H. Keefe, Rutgers University; Charles Kerchner, Claremont Graduate School; David B. Lipsky, Cornell University; Martin H. Malin, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Marick F. Masters, University of Pittsburgh; Sonia Ospina, New York University; Terry Thomason, University of Rhode Island; Robert M. Tobias, American University; Paula B. Voos, Rutgers University; Allon Yaroni, New York University

David B. Lipsky is Professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Director of the Institute on Conflict Resolution, at Cornell University. He is coeditor of Going Public, also from Cornell, and coauthor of Emerging Systems for Managing Workplace Conflict. He is the President-Elect of the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA).