Abstract

Industrial relations also has a long history of rather well-informed individuals making rather major errors of prognostication. Neither 1932 nor 1948 were very good years for accurate predictions of the future development of the labor movement in the U. S. Some of our past misjudgments appear less egregious in light of similar failures in other fields, especially because of lack sophisticated data that would allow to evaluate the determinants of union growth and other variables. However, much of the optimism in management circles in the U.S. today is based on a belief that these countervailing forces will prevail. The level and, more significantly, the openness of managerial resistance to unionization are probably higher than at any time since the end of World War II. Some of this resistance is based on highly publicized use of management consultants and clever transgressions of our labor laws. But still, a management's ability to resist unionization is also based on personnel policies that are as progressive.