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Union members (n = 187) completed surveys assessing five affective measures (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, work climate satisfaction, management satisfaction, and union commitment) following a five-month long strike. Paired t-tests (using retrospective questions where participants assessed pre and post-strike affect on a single survey) found that the strike had a negative impact on worker reactions to both their management group and their union across all five measures. The significance of this study is that the negative effects of strikes can, and do, carry over into the workplace in terms of worker affect towards their union and employer. From a theoretical perspective, these findings are consistent with the IR systems' concept of a feedback loop and suggest that future strike research and theories should be expanded to examine issues related to worker reaction.

Cette étude analyse le taux de pénétration des nouvelles formes d’organisation du travail (NFOT) ainsi que leurs déterminants. Pour ce faire, les perspectives contingente et institutionnelle ont été mises à profit afin de caractériser les facteurs explicatifs des NFOT dans 252 entreprises québécoises. Les résultats de cette étude sont concluants : la perspective contingente explique mieux la présence des NFOT lorsque le taux de pénétration de ces pratiques est élevé, alors que la perspective institutionnelle s’avère dominante lorsque ce taux est faible. Concrètement, les résultats suggèrent que la stratégie d’affaires, la gestion participative, le type de culture et la qualité totale, caractérisant la perspective contingente, sont les facteurs déterminants d’une pénétration élevée des NFOT, alors que le secteur d’activités, la concurrence à l’international et la structure de gouvernance, caractérisant la perspective institutionnelle, expliquent mieux la présence des NFOT lorsque celles-ci sont implantées superficiellement., This study deals with new forms of work organization (NFWO). Whereas, in the past, this subject has been approached by many authors from the perspective of the impact of innovative practices on business performance (Arthur, 1994; Handel and Gittleman, 2004; Handel and Levine, 2004), this study rather sets out to study the diffusion and the determinants linked to work organization. Consequently, we can ask the following question: what differentiates firms having implemented new forms of work organization (NFWO)? To answer this question, two perspectives will be used: the institutional perspective and the contingent perspective. On the one hand, according to the institutional perspective, businesses could be tempted to imitate competitors and/or to follow the enthusiasm which increasingly, many industries show for NFWO (Dirsmith, Fogarty and Gupta, 2000). They might equally be compelled to adopt NFWO due to surrounding coercive forces. According to this approach, the choice would thus be rather the result of sectoral imitation (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) limited or encouraged by the different groups of actors in the business. On the other hand, according to the contingency theory, businesses should be bound to their internal structure as well as to their policies and human resource management practices on their business strategies and their internal strategies. The choice to adopt or to implement NFOW would stem, from this perspective, from a rational and strategic choice (Dunphy and Bryant, 1996). Thus, businesses opting for participative management and having initiated a quality management approach would be more inclined to adopt new forms of work organization oriented towards autonomy and, conversely, those having adopted autocratic management and mass production without concern for quality would be less attracted by these practices (Dean and Bowen, 1994; Handel and Levine, 2004). The results of this study show that 27% of establishments surveyed chose to implement NFOW substantially, which is comparable to the results obtained by Osterman (1994a, 2000). Also, although we did not test for the presence of complete practice systems, it appears that few businesses chose to thoroughly implement several practices linked to work organization. To this end, we observe that autonomous work teams are less implemented than are the other selected practices. Our results suggest that the contingent perspective and mainly internal strategies better account for the presence of NFOW than does the institutional perspective. Concretely, we found that the presence of a leadership strategy by costs, of participative management, of a quality management approach, and a market culture based on performance are all linked to the presence of NFOW when the degree of penetration for these practices is considered. However, on the institutional perspective side, the sector to which the business belongs, the competitive pressure to which businesses are exposed, the governing mechanism and their level of growth are linked to the presence of NFOW only when these are superficially implemented. In conclusion, certain businesses implement NFOW in a way so as to be coherent with their strategies and values, while others seem rather to follow the style of the day, without achieving true change as concerns their work organization method., Este estudio analiza la tasa de penetración de las nuevas formas de organización del trabajo (NFOT) así que sus determinantes. Para ello hemos utilizado las perspectivas contingente e institucional para caracterizar los factores explicativos de las NFOT en 252 empresas quebequenses. Los resultados de este estudio son concluyentes: la perspectiva contingente explica mejor la presencia de NFOT cuando la tasa de penetración de dichas prácticas es elevada, mientras que la perspectiva institucional se revela dominante cuando esa tasa es baja. Concretamente, los resultados sugieren que la estrategia empresarial, la gestión participativa, el tipo de cultura y la calidad total, que caracterizan la perspectiva contingente, son los factores determinantes de una penetración elevada de NFOT, mientras que el sector de actividad, la concurrencia en el campo internacional y la estructura de gobernanza, que caracterizan la perspectiva institucional, explican mejor la presencia de NFOT cuando estas son implantas superficialmente.

The Realities of Work: Experiencing Work and Employment in Contemporary Society, third edition, by Mike Noon and Paul Blyton, is reviewed.

Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy, by Stephen Sweet and Peter Meiksins, is reviewed.

Using Canadian national data from the Workplace and Employee Survey (WES), this study aims to identify predictors of participation in voluntary vocational training for female and male managers, respectively. Results show a higher rate of participation for female managers and a differential effect of predictors by gender. For men, schooling is the sole human capital variable significantly linked to the probability of participating in voluntary vocational training. For women, the probability of participating in voluntary vocational training varies by age, organizational tenure and schooling. Results also indicate that both participation in mandatory training and family responsibilities are significantly and negatively linked to participation in voluntary training for female managers but not for male managers.

The article reviews the book, "La contractualisation de la relation de travail," by Christian Bessy.

The article reviews the book, :Les intermittents du spectacle. Sociologie d’une exception," by Pierre-Michel Menger.

1 Le 11 septembre 2007, Rodrigue Blouin, professeur au Département des relations industrielles de l’Université Laval, décédait subitement. Sa famille perdait un mari et un père aimés, la revue RI/IR, un collaborateur constant et indéfectible, le Département des relations industrielles perdait un collègue inestimable, les étudiantes et étudiants, un enseignant passionné, le monde du travail perdait un collaborateur de haut niveau apprécié par tous et toutes et beaucoup perdaient un ami irremplaçable. Les témoignages reçus de partout au Québec, du Canada et de l’Europe révèlent l’attachement que collègues et amis témoignaient à Rodrigue et mettent en lumière son influence importante comme référent dans le monde du travail. // On Sep 11, 2007, Rodrigue Blouin, Professor in the Department of Industrial Relations of Universite Laval, died suddenly. The tributes received from all corners of Quebec, Canada and Europe are an eloquent testimonial to the attachment to Rodrigue felt by his colleagues and friends and to his important influence as a model in the world of labor relations. He was impassioned by the subjects that he taught, highly organized, disciplined and always available to his students. After being accustomed to seeing a colleague like Rodrigue every day, everyone is left with a deep sense of emptiness because his presence touched them in many ways and at many levels.

Every year in Canada and the U.S., the share of higher education faculty who teach off the tenure track grows. One might expect that faculty unionization would limit this process, but the data examined here indicate that this is not so. While Canadian universities are significantly more unionized than their U.S. counterparts, they rely at least as heavily on contingent faculty. Similarly, U.S. states with high levels of unionization do not exhibit lower levels of casualization. Union strategies that institutionalize divisions between tenure-track and non-tenure-track, and/or between part-time and full-time faculty, probably play a role in this outcome. They can and should also play a pivotal role in reversing these trends if they develop the political will to do so.

L’objectif de cet article est d’évaluer, sur la base de la théorie de l’échange social, dans quelle mesure le soutien et la confiance envers le supérieur et l’organisation permettent d’expliquer l’influence de chacune des dimensions associées au leadership transformationnel, transactionnel et laisser-faire sur l’engagement affectif des employés. De nombreuses études montrent que ces différentes formes de leadership ont un impact important sur plusieurs attitudes et comportements des employés, mais encore très peu de chercheurs se sont intéressés aux processus par lesquels les leaders produisent de tels effets. À cet effet, nos résultats font ressortir que la confiance et le soutien constituent des mécanismes cruciaux pour expliquer l’effet du leadership sur l’engagement organisationnel des employés., Over the last few years, the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership theory has attracted the attention of many researchers (Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Lowe and Gardner, 2000, Yammarino et al., 2005). Furthermore, numerous studies (Bycio, Hackett and Allen, 1995; Dumdum, Lowe and Avolio, 2002; Rafferty and Griffin, 2004; Yammarino, Spangler and Dubinsky, 1998) have shown that these three forms of leadership have a significant impact on several employee attitudes and behaviours, including affective organizational commitment, which is characterized by an individual’s emotional attachment to his company (Meyer and Allen, 1997). Nevertheless, there are still very few researchers taking an interest in the processes through which leaders can produce such effects (Bass and Riggio, 2006; Bono and Judge, 2003; Yukl, 2006). Only a few authors have tackled this problem, particularly by identifying empowerment (Avolio et al., 2004) and fairness (Pillai, Schriesheim and Williams, 1999) as mechanisms explaining the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ affective commitment. We intend to build on these recent results in improving the understanding of this dynamic. Based on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), this research is aimed at exploring how supervisors can strengthen their employees’ affective commitment. More specifically, we will assess the extent to which support and trust can account for the influence of each of the dimensions associated with transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership has on commitment. These dimensions are: charisma, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, contingent reward, active management by exception, and passive avoidance. One of the primary contributions of this article resides in the fact that currently, there are still very few empirical research projects that have focussed on the effects of these dimensions on other variables, and that such research has only concentrated on the influence of global forms of leadership, and almost exclusively on the transformational form. However, recent works have indeed highlighted the importance of using specific dimensions rather than these three major forms of leadership since the later provide an imperfect and oversimplified image of all the leaders’ behaviours and potential (Antonakis, Avolio and Sivasubramaniam, 2003). In addition to filling a gap at this level, the second significant contribution of this project lies in the fact that, to our knowledge, no study has as yet validated the role of support as an intermediate mechanism lying between leadership and affective commitment. In concrete terms, we are first proposing that the charisma, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration and contingent reward dimensions are positively related to employees’ perceived supervisor support and trust in their supervisor, whereas the active management by exception and passive avoidance dimensions are negatively related to those same two variables. Secondly, we are proposing that employees’ perceived organizational support and trust in their organization act as mediating variables between perceived supervisor support and trust in their supervisor and affective commitment, respectively. This research, which was conducted in the spring of 2004 among all the employees (excluding physicians) of a Quebec hospital center, allowed the collection of 568 questionnaires, representing a 46% response rate; 80% of the subjects in the sample were women, whose average age was 43, and who had been working in the organization for 12 years, on average. To test our hypotheses, confirmatory factorial analyses and structural equations were conducted, while controlling for gender and employment status (full time vs. part time). The results of the study indicate that only the charisma dimension seems to lead employees to trust their supervisor. This observation is particularly interesting for researchers with an interest in interpersonal trust since other studies have arrived at similar conclusions (Gillespie and Mann, 2004). However, our results indicate that charisma and contingent reward are positively related to perceived supervisor support whereas active management by exception is negatively associated to it. This observation is particularly important in that it provides responses to the theoretical arguments which were paving the way for such a possibility (Yammarino and Bass, 1990; Jung and Avolio, 2000). Lastly, this research shows that the constructs of perceived supervisor support and perceived organizational support constitute an important explanatory mechanism in the relationship between leadership and affective commitment. Trust in the organization also contributes to explaining the dynamic existing between leadership and commitment; however, it is not significantly influenced by trust in the supervisor. Our results open up several avenues of further research. Although our analyses have identified support and trust as intermediate mechanisms between leadership and commitment, other mediators could still account for this relationship. In addition to exploring this avenue, future research could simultaneously analyze the intermediate variables that have been identified to date in the literature (e.g., support, trust, fairness, empowerment) with respect to commitment, but also to other consequences which are often related to transformational and transactional leadership (e.g., satisfaction, mobilization, performance), in order to better understand their relative importance. Finally, this study has certain limitations, including the difficulty in generalizing results (sample composed of a single organization), the possible inflation of the strength of certain relationships (common variance bias) and the impossibility of inferring the causality of the observed relationships (cross-sectional design)., El objetivo de este artículo es de evaluar, sobre la base de la teoría del intercambio social, en qué medida el apoyo y la confianza hacia el superior y la organización permiten de explicar la influencia sobre el compromiso afectivo de los empleados de cada una de las dimensiones asociadas al liderazgo transformacional, transaccional y de “laisser-faire”. Numerosos estudios muestran que estas diferentes formas de liderazgo tienen un impacto importante sobre varias actitudes y comportamientos de los empleados, pero son pocos los investigadores que se interesan a los procesos por los cuales los líderes producen tales efectos. A este propósito, nuestros resultados resaltan que la confianza y el apoyo constituyen mecanismos cruciales para explicar el efecto del liderazgo sobre el compromiso organizacional de los empleados.

The article reviews the book, "Innovations sociales dans le travail et l’emploi : recherches empiriques et perspectives théoriques," edited by Paul-André Lapointe and Guy Bellemare.

Rethinking Work: Time, Space and Discourse, edited by Mark Hearn and Grant Michelson, is reviewed.

The article reviews the book, "Shakespeare in the Worlds of Communism and Socialism," edited by Irena R. Makaryk and Joseph G. Price.

The article reviews the book, "Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism," by Susan Gelfand Malka.

The article reviews the book, "The Manly Modern: Masculinity in Postwar Canada," by Christopher Dummitt.

The article reviews the book, "Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America," by Kurt Weyland.

The article reviews the book, "Forgotten Families: Ending the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy," by Jody Heymann.

The article reviews the book, "On the Side of the People: A History of Labour in Saskatchewan," by Jim Warren and Kathleen Carlisle.

Les services essentiels doivent être assurés tout en permettant l’exercice légal du droit de grève. Après avoir fait un rappel historique des services essentiels, le présent article étudie l’exercice définitionnel de ces services et tente de mettre en lumière la manière dont est déterminée l’essentialité légale des services à maintenir en cas de grève. Aux termes du Code du travail, il n’existe qu’un seul et unique critère définitionnel des services essentiels, c’est-à-dire la « santé ou sécurité publique ». Mais, depuis peu, comme l’illustre la jurisprudence du Conseil des services essentiels, se dessine une tentative d’extension des services essentiels. L’article présente trois facteurs qui concourent à cette extension., In the event of a legal strike affecting the provision of some public services and the public and parapublic sectors, the parties in the dispute must ensure that the activity is partly maintained due to its critical nature. In other words, the legislator sometimes compels them to provide essential services. This notion exists at both the supra-state and national levels. However, there is no universal legal definition. It is interpreted more or less broadly, depending on the meaning of the concept in use in a particular legal system. In Quebec, the notion of essential services has been constructed over the years. Its history is long and marked by the evolving labour relations in the area of public services and the public and parapublic sectors. It first appeared in the law in 1965 and has continued to evolve ever since: it has become more precise, more refined, but has also expanded. Two important events have marked the history of this notion: the Martin-Bouchard Commission (1978) and the creation of the Conseil des services essentiels (essential services council) (1982). The implementation of essential services gives rise to issues of a political, economic or legal nature. A fundamental legal issue relates to the methods used to define these services. The law stipulates the use of a single criterion to determine essential services, that is, “public health or public safety.” According to the International Labour Organization and the Quebec legislator, essential services are those which when interrupted would endanger the safety or health of a person, in the entire population or in a segment of a population. The Council is the Quebec organization responsible for ensuring protection of the population’s health and safety in the event of a strike. Under this mission, the only relevant criterion it can use is the impact of the provision or non-provision of services on the health and safety of the public. However, the Council can use various subcriteria to determine in a concrete way the essential nature of services, involving, for example, the duration of the strike, the time of year in which the strike takes place, or the characteristics of the services provided. The inconvenience caused by a strike is considered to be normal. Thus, subject to special obligations, the inconvenience, impracticability or discomfort generated by a strike, and its economic impact do not in any way constitute relevant factors in determining the sufficiency of essential services. The Quebec legislation is particularly consistent in this matter. On the one hand, one single definitional criterion is used throughout the process of implementing essential services: from when agreements are worked out between the parties to when they are applied and subsequently controlled. On the other hand, the sole parameter constituted by public health or safety is imposed on very different environments: the health and social services sector, the provision of public services and the civil service. More specifically, it constitutes the basic definitional instrument of the notion of essential services which is adjusted based on the specific characteristics of each “sector.” The Council’s case law effectively clarifies the idea of an activity’s essential nature. Although, for a long time, public health or safety has been the sole criterion that can be applied and is applied, recent case law reveals several phenomena which tend to increase the number of services maintained in the event of a strike in the public services and the public and parapublic sectors. First, the definitional criterion is interpreted broadly. The examination of case law shows that a greater number of services are today considered to be essential. The disputes in the transportation sector are an apt illustration of this finding. Whereas for about 20 years, the way essential services were defined in public transport involved providing service during the peak hours of the week, they now include bus service during the week-end. Second, a number of provisions in the LabourCode related to institutions in the health network are applied beyond the legal requirements. Thus, two trends have emerged: the voluntary application of percentages of employees to be maintained at work that are higher than those set out by law (section 111.10 LC); and the conventional extension of the scope of application of the law by organizations not specified by the legislator that voluntarily apply the rules imposed on institutions in the health network. The application of the LabourCode beyond the legal requirements can be explained in part by the evolving methods used by the state in the area of health management. Third, new criteria have appeared because of the extension of the Council’s field of jurisdiction. Current practices in the public service show that criteria other than public health or safety are being used. In particular, the parties are using the following criteria: public health or safety, the independence of the judiciary, parliamentary privilege and contingent loss of rights or the fact that university training is now included among the essential services to which anyone is entitled. The appearance of these new criteria is acceptable insofar as it leads to the consideration of the specific characteristics pertaining to each sector that has recently come under the Council’s jurisdiction., Los servicios esenciales deben ser asegurados al mismo tiempo que se permite el ejercicio legal del derecho de huelga. Después de hacer un esbozo histórico de los servicios esenciales, el presente artículo estudia el ejercicio de definición de estos servicios y intenta esclarecer la manera como es determinada la esencialidad legal de los servicios que deben ser mantenidos en caso de huelga. Según los términos del Código del trabajo, existe un solo y único criterio de definición de los servicios esenciales, es decir la “salud o seguridad pública”. Pero desde hace poco, como lo ilustra la jurisprudencia del Consejo de servicios esenciales, se bosqueja una tentativa de extensión de los servicios esenciales. El artículo presenta tres factores que concurren a esta extensión.

The article reviews the book, "The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850-1920," by Padma Anagol.