Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T23:04:13.761Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Institutionalization of athletic conferences for wage comparison in collective bargaining in High Schools in the US: A natural experiment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2018

Heejoon Park*
Affiliation:
College of Business Administration, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
*
Corresponding author: hjpark@snu.ac.kr

Abstract

Social comparison plays an important role in collective bargaining. However, due to self-serving bias, the bargaining parties rarely agree on appropriate referents. In this respect, Wisconsin teachers’ collective bargaining provides an intriguing case because there is consensus on an appropriate comparison group: the schools’ athletic conferences. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of athletic conferences as referents is institutionalized beyond their technical merits. Using conference realignment as a natural experiment, this paper shows that when the bargaining parties experienced conference realignment, they changed their comparison groups. Because this realignment can be regarded as exogenous to collective bargaining, such changes in comparison groups are unlikely to be accounted for by technical factors, thus providing support for institutional theory.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, J. S. (1965). Equity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 267299). New York: Academy Press.Google Scholar
Babcock, L. C., Loewenstein, G., Issacharoff, S., & Camerer, C. (1995). Biased judgements of fairness in bargaining. American Economic Review, 85, 13371343.Google Scholar
Babcock, L., Wang, X., & Loewenstein, G. (1996). Choosing the wrong pond: Social comparisons in negotiations that reflect a self-serving bias. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111, 119.Google Scholar
Baum, J. A. C., & Oliver, C. (1991). Institutional linkages and organizational mortality. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 187218.Google Scholar
Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2005). The draw of home: How teachers’ preferences for proximity disadvantage urban schools. Journal of Policy: Analysis and Management, 24(1), 113132.Google Scholar
Brueckner, J. K., & Saavedra, L. (2001). Do local governments engage in strategic property-tax competition? National Tax Journal, 54(2), 203230.Google Scholar
Case, A. (1991). Spatial patterns in household demand. Econometrica, 59, 953965.Google Scholar
Cooksey, R. W. (1996). Judgment analysis: Theory, methods, and applications. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Daughtrey, G., & Woods, J. B. (1976). Physical education and intramural programs: Organization and administration (2nd ed.), Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders Company.Google Scholar
Deephouse, D. L., (1999). To be different or to be the same? It's a question (and theory) of strategic balance. Strategic Management Journal, 20, 147166.Google Scholar
Deniz-Deniz, M. D. L. C., & Garcia-Cabrera, A. M. (2014). Management and ownership control in foreign investments: An analysis of the influence of isomorphism and quality of institutions. Journal of Management and Organization, 20(6), 764783.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147160.Google Scholar
Finch, M., & Nagel, T. W. (1984). Collective bargaining in the public schools: Reassessing labor policy in an era of reform. Wisconsin Law Review, 1984, 15731670.Google Scholar
Forsythe, C. E. (1954). Administration of high school athletics. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Freeman, R. B. (1986). Unionism comes to the public sector. Journal of Economic Literature, 24, 4186.Google Scholar
Gibbons, R. (1992). Game theory for applied economists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Glass, G. V., Peckham, P. D., & Sanders, J. R. (1972). Consequences of failure to meet assumptions underlying fixed effects analyses of variance and covariance. Review of Educational Research, 42, 237288.Google Scholar
Goldhaber, D., Lavery, L., & Theobald, R. (2014). My end of the bargain: Are there cross-district effects in teacher contract provisions? Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 67(4), 12741305.Google Scholar
Goodstein, J. D. (1994). Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: Employer involvement in work-family issues. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 350382.Google Scholar
Greenbaum, R. T. (2002). A spatial study of teachers’ salaries in Pennsylvania school districts. Journal of Labor Research, 23(1), 6986.Google Scholar
Halm, F. P. (1985). Athletic conference: The question of comparability. Wisconsin Public Employer Relations Association, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. (1977). The population ecology of organizations. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 929964.Google Scholar
Haunschild, P. R., & Miner, A. S. (1997). Modes of interorganizational imitation: The effects of outcome salience and uncertainty. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 472500.Google Scholar
Heugens, O. P. M. A. R., & Lander, M. W. (2009). Structure! Agency! (And other quarrels): A meta-analysis of institutional theories of organization. Academy of Management Journal, 52(1), 6185.Google Scholar
Jarley, P. A. (1987). The impact of Wisconsin’s Mediation-Arbitration Law of bargaining outcomes. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P. (1998). A guide to econometrics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
La Crosse Education Association v. School District of La Crosse, No. 28037 (January 19, 1983).Google Scholar
Lee, K., & Pennings, J. M. (2002). Mimicry and the market: Adoption of a new organizational form. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 144162.Google Scholar
Meyer, J., & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340363.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W., & Scott, W. R. (1983). Centralization and the legitimacy problems of the local government. In J. W. Meyer, & W. R. Scott (Eds.), Organizational environments: Ritual and rationality (pp. 199215). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Olson, C. A., & Jarley, P. (1991). Arbitrator decisions in Wisconsin teacher wage disputes. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 44, 536547.Google Scholar
Olson, C. A., & Rau, B. L. (1997). Learning from interest arbitration: The next round. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 50, 237251.Google Scholar
Otte, M. (1997). More than a game: The first 100 years of the Wisconsin Interscolastic Athletic Association 1896 to 1996. Stevens Point, WI: Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.Google Scholar
Palmer, D., Jennings, P. D., & Zhou, X. (1993). Late adoption of the multidivisional form by large U. S. corporations: Institutional, political and economic accounts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 100131.Google Scholar
Powell, W. W. (1991). Expanding the scope of institutional analysis. In Powell W. W., & DiMaggio P. J. (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 183-203). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Reininger, M. (2012). Hometown disadvantage? It depends on where you’re from: Teachers’ location preferences and the implications for staffing schools. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 34(2), 127145.Google Scholar
Remler, D. K., & Van Ryzin, G. G. (2015). Research methods in practice: Strategies for description and causation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Ross, A. M. (1947). Trade union wage policy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Saltzman, G. M. (1982). The growth of teacher bargaining and the enactment of teacher bargaining laws. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R. (1991). Unpacking institutional arguments. In W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 164182). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R., & Meyer, J. W. (1991). The organization of social sectors: Propositions and early evidence. In W. W. Powell, & P. J. DiMaggio (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 108140). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. (1957). Leadership in administration. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Shadish, W., Cook, T., & Campbell, D. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Sherer, P. D., & Lee, K. (2002). Institutional change in large law firms: A resource dependency and institutional perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 102119.Google Scholar
Sinnott, R. W. (1984). Virtues of the haversine. Sky and Telescope, 68, 159.Google Scholar
Tolbert, P. A., & Zucker, L. G. (1983). Institutional sources of changes in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30, 2239.Google Scholar
Westphall, J. D., Gulati, R., & Shortell, S. M. (1997). Customization or conformity? An institutional and network perspective on the content and consequences of TQM adoption. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 366394.Google Scholar
Upton, G. J. G., & Fingleton, B. (1985). Spatial data analysis by example (Vol. 1). Chichester, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (1991). Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Yearbook Reviewing 1990–1991. Stevens Point, WI: Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.Google Scholar
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (1997). Official high school (grades 9-12) handbook. Stevens Point, WI: Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.Google Scholar