Teacher unions worldwide are being criticized for disregarding their responsibility as professionals towards education and students. Critics have claimed that teacher unions tend to protect incompetent teachers, place their own needs and interests above their students, and continuously demand for financial increases even when there is more urgency…

To discover how teachers feel about a bonus program designed to give stipends to teachers with few absences, the author surveyed teachers in two elementary schools, one an urban school with a heterogeneous student body and the other suburban and homogeneous. By using a questionnaire, information was gathered on (1) standard demographic…

This paper reports a survey of the attitudes of school personnel toward teacher unions and draws some implications concerning the dynamics of labor relations in school systems. Teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members responded to questions on what areas unions should be involved in, degree of satisfaction with the local,…

Systemwide bargaining in higher education in four states (Florida, Minnesota, New York, Illinois) was studied to determine whether institutions were affected in the manner predicted by previous literature, whether the amounts of influence, or power, of various institutional decision-makers were affected, and whether the viewpoints of respondents…

Conceptualizing militant behavior as a strategic choice involving collective action and occurring within a specific organizational context, this paper examines the impact of various organizational factors on elementary and secondary school teachers' willingness to engage in militant behavior. Teachers in 83 New York districts were surveyed as to…

Emphasizing a distinction between interpersonal versus intergroup behavior, this paper investigates the impact of interpersonal and intergroup characteristics on the individual's decision to rely on collective action. Four dimensions of interpersonal versus intergroup behavior--social mobility versus social change, personal deprivation versus…

Drawing on survey data from 83 New York school districts and case studies of 6 districts, the project reported here explores several aspects of schools and districts as organizations. The conceptual framework guiding the study emphasizes that educational organizations are not governed either by their structure or by the reactions of individuals,…