Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:10:48.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How Pervasive is the “Going Rate”? Some Behavioural Insights into the Process of Enterprise Bargaining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

R.E. Fells
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Relations, University of Western Australia
R.M. Skeffington
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Relations, University of Western Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper examines the significance of information about “going rates” in the resolution of issues by negotiation. In addition to the strategic factors which negotiators must consider this paper identifies a behavioural factor, the mutually prominent alternative, which also has the effect of drawing negotiators towards the going rate as a settlement for their own negotiations. The results of research based on an experimental negotiation confirm the importance of going rate information on negotiation outcomes. This finding, and its explanation in terms of the going rate adopting the characteristics of a mutually prominent alternative, has significance in the context of enterprise bargaining; it would suggest that outcomes negotiated at the enterprise level may not be as egocentric as some advocates of a deregulated labour market might suggest.

Type
Contemporary Issues
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1992

References

Bacharach, S.B., Lawler, E.J. (1981) Bargaining, Jossey Bass, San Fancisco.Google Scholar
Bain, G.S., Clegg, H.A. (1974) “A Strategy for Industrial Relations Research in Great Britain”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 12, pp.91113.Google Scholar
BCA (1989) Enterprise Based Bargaining Units: A Better Way of Working, Business Council of Australia, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Blain, N. (1984) Industrial Relations in the Air, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.Google Scholar
Callus, R (1991) “The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and the Prospects for Enterprise Bargaining”, The Economic and Labour Relations Review 2, 1, 4256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, N.W., Kuhn, J.W. (1965) Collective Bargaining McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Courchene, M., Coates, M.L. (1990) “Collective Bargaining in 1989: Goals, Priorities and Outcomes”, Research and Current Issues Series No.64, Industrial Relations Centre, Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario.Google Scholar
Deery, S., Plowman, D(1991) Australian Industrial Relations McGraw Hill, Sydney.Google Scholar
Deaton, D. (1989) “The Orthodox Theory of Labour Demand”, in Whitfield, K. (ed) Contemporary Issues in Labour Economics, Harper and Row, Sydney, pp. 1926.Google Scholar
Douglas, A. (1957) “The Peaceful Settlement of Industrial and Intergroup Disputes”, Journal of Conflict Resolution 1, 6981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dufty, N.F. (1979) “The Operation of Western Australian Unions and the Prospects for Collective Bargaining”, Journal of Industrial Relations 21, pp. 6377.Google Scholar
Dufty, N.F. (1984) Industrial Relations in the Pilbara Iron Ore Industry Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth.Google Scholar
Dufty, N.F., Fells, R.E. (1989) The Dynamics of Industrial Relations in Australia Prentice Hall, Sydney.Google Scholar
Farr, R.M. (1979) “The Relevance of Experimental Gaming Studies to industrial Relations”, in Stephenson, G.M., Brotherton, C.J., Industrial Relations: A Social Psychological Approach, Wiley, London, pp.95110.Google Scholar
Fells, R.E. (1986) Movement, Phases and Deadlocks, Industrial Relations Research Centre, University of N.S.W., Kensington.Google Scholar
Feuille, P. (1975) “Final Offer Arbitration and the Chilling Effect”, Industrial Relations, 14, pp.302310.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. (1983) “Negotiating Power”, American Behavioral Scientist 272, pp.149166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R., Ury, W. (1983) Getting To Yes, Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Freeman, R.B., Medhoff, J.L. (1984) What Do Unions Do? Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Gordon, M.E., Schmitt, N., Schneider, W.G. (1984) “Laboratory Research on Bargaining and Negotiation”, Industrial Relations 23, pp.218233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, E.E., Kuhn, A, Seeber, R.L. (1981) Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations Prentice Hall, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Hilmer, F., McLaughlin, P., Macfarlane, D., Rose, J. (1991) Avoiding Industrial Action, Business Council of Australia, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Howard, W.A. (1985), Making Industrial Relations Work, Industrial Relations Research Centre, University of N.S.W., Kensington.Google Scholar
Isaac, J. (1986) “The Meaning and Significance of Comparative Wage Justice” in Niland, J. (ed) Wage Fixation in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, pp.84104.Google Scholar
Kochan, T.A. (1980) Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Ill.Google Scholar
Kochan, T.A., Katz, H.C., McKersie, R.B. (1989) The Transformation of American Industrial Relations, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Lax, D.A., Sebenius, J.K. (1985) “The Power of Alternatives or the Limits to Negotiation”, Negotiation Journal, 1, pp.163179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, H.M. (1960) “Pattern Bargaining. A Case Study of American Automobile Workers”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 74, pp.296319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magenau, J.M., Pruitt, D.G. (1979) “The Social Psychology of Bargaining: A Theoretical Synthesis” in Stephenson, G.M., Brotherton, C.J. Industrial Relations: A Social Psychological Approach, Wiley, London, pp.181210.Google Scholar
Niland, J. (1978) Collective Bargaining and Compulsory Arbitration in Australia, New South Wales University Press Ltd, Kensington, N.S.W.Google Scholar
Niland, J. (1989, 1990) Transforming Industrial Relations in New South Wales, Vol. 1, 2.Google Scholar
NLCC (1988) Guidelines on Information Sharing, National Labour Consultative Council, AGPS, Canberra.Google Scholar
Norris, K. (1989) The Economics of Australian Labour Markets, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Portus, J.H. (1969) “Inter-industry Wage Fixation under the Commonwealth Act”, Journal of Industrial Relations 11, pp.201211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruitt, D.G. (1981) Negotiation Behavior, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Pruitt, D.G., Lewis, S.A. (1977) “The Psychology of Integrative Bargaining”, in Druckman, D. (ed) Negotiation, Sage, Beverly Hills, pp. 161192.Google Scholar
Provis, C. (1986) “Comparative Wage Justice”, Journal of Industrial Relations 28, 2439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinlan, M., Rimmer, M. (1990) “Workplace Industrial Relations Reform and Legislative Change: Hancock, Hangar, Niland and the Business Council of Australia” Labour and Industry 2, pp.434452.Google Scholar
Seltzer, G. (1951) “Pattern Bargaining and the United Steelworks”, Journal of Political Economy, 59, pp.332344.Google Scholar
Strauss, G. (1979) “Can Social Psychology Contribute to Industrial Relations?” in Stephenson, G.M., Brotherton, C.J. Industrial Relations: A Social Psychological Approach, Wiley, London, pp.365393.Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, P., Gardner, M. (1978) “Over-Awards: Bargaining at Plant Level in Australia”, Journal of Industrial Relations 20, pp. 4155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walton, R.E., McKersie, R.B. (1965) A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, McGraw Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Wheeler, H.N. (1975) “Compulsory Arbitration: A “Narcotic Effect”?” Industrial Relations 14, pp.117120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zartman, I.W., Berman, M.R. (1982) The Practical Negotiator, Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar