FLEMING, R. W., and EDWIN E. WITTE. Marathon Corporation and Seven Labor Unions. Pp. xiii, 65. Washington: National Planning Association, 1950. $1.00
| Author | Joel Seidman |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400169 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
239
in
education
and
government
as
well
as
in
industry,
commerce,
and
finance.
Thus
is
outlined
a
broad
assignment,
encompassing
not
only
private
personnel
administration,
but
public
and
educational
personnel
work
as
well.
To
this
end,
the
974
pages
and
33
chap-
ters
are
divided
into
five
sections.
The
first
is
concerned
with
the
nature
and
de-
velopment
of
personnel
management.
Sec-
tion
II
describes
psychological
aspects,
with
emphasis
on
individual
differences,
motiva-
tion,
interests,
attitudes,
and
group
dynam-
ics.
Section
III
is
devoted
to
&dquo;the
tech-
nique
of
selection
and
placement.&dquo;
Part
IV
describes
the
&dquo;maintenance&dquo;
of
person-
nel,
including
usual
functions
of
transfer,
promotion,
discipline,
wage
administration,
training,
employee
publications,
health
pro-
grams,
employment
stabilization,
and
em-
ployee
services.
Part
V
is
made
up
of
three
chapters
on
&dquo;joint
relations
and
col-
lective
bargaining.&dquo;
A
final
section,
Part
VI,
consists
of
a
short
chapter
on
&dquo;person-
nel
management
in
a
changing
economy.&dquo;
The
book
provides
evidence
of
the
au-
thors’
intent
to
bring
into
this
revision
&dquo;the
most
significant
improvements
in
the
prin-
ciples
and
procedures
in
human
administra-
tion,
especially
in
the
United
States.&dquo;
On
the
whole,
however,
they
appear
to
have
been
much
more
successful
in
reporting
on
new
procedures
than
on
important
de-
velopments
in
principles.
They
have
pro-
vided
excellent
and
unusually
detailed
chap-
ters
on
several
types
of
procedures,
for
example,
those
used
in
selection
and
place-
ment.
They. have
given
greater
attention
to
physical
working
conditions--heating,
lighting
and
others-than
have
other
authors
in
this
field.
They
have
provided
an
ex-
cellent
chapter
on
methods
of
dealing
with
groups
that
require
special
attention-the
aged,
women,
minorities,
and
the
physically
impaired.
On
the
other
hand,
several
of
the
most
significant
changes
in
employment
relations
have
failed
to
impress
them.
Their
han-
dling
of
collective
bargaining
provides
an
illustration.
They
note
that
relationships
between
employers
and
groups
may
well
be
included
in
personnel
administration.
But
they
give
the
subject
of
collective
bar-
gaining
only
minor
attention
as a
part
of
a
broader
discussion
of
employee
representa-
tion
in
the
closing
chapters
of
the
book.
Similarly,
they
see
manpower
management
as
a
function
reserved
to
employers.
Em-
ployee
and
union
participation
is
largely
confined
to
offering
suggestions
(pp.
60,
919).
Union
performance
of
several
spe-
cific
functions
(selection,
training,
counsel-
ing,
and
others)
and
union
participation
in
others
are
not
emphasized.
Several
other
recent
but
notable
changes
in
the
basic
philosophy
of
manpower
man-
agement
have
also
apparently
failed
to
impress
the
authors.
This
is
true,
for
ex-
ample,
of
the
current
emphasis
on
con-
tinuing
critical
appraisal
of
current
pro-
grams.
The
same
can
be
said
for
the
trend
toward
development
of
means
for
quantita-
tive
evaluation
of
programs.
Perhaps
most
important,
current
recognition
of
the
need
for
industrial
relations
research-a
need
publicly
evidenced
by
establishment
of
new
research
centers,
institutes,
and
schools
in
at
least
twenty
universities
since
World
War
II-is
not
regarded
as
justifying
an
item
in
the
index
or
even
a
paragraph
in
the
text.
DALE
YODER,
Director
Industrial
Relations
Center
University
of
Minnesota
FLEMING,
R.
W.,
and
EDWIN
E.
WITTE.
Marathon
Corporation
and
Seven
Labor
Unions.
Pp. xiii,
65.
Washington:
Na-
tional
Planning
Association,
1950.
$1.00.
This
well-planned
and
competently
ex-
ecuted
case
study
is
the
eighth
publication
of
the
National
Planning
Association’s
series
of
fifteen
on
the
causes
of
industrial
peace
under
collective
bargaining.
The
company
under
study
is
one
of
the
leading
paper
manufacturers
in
Wisconsin,
an
expanding
and
profitable
enterprise
in
a
highly
com-
petitive
field.
The
two
principal
unions
are
the
Pulp,
Sulphite
and
Paper
Mill
Workers
and
the
International
Brotherhood
of
Paper
Makers,
both A.
F. of
L.
affiliates,.
Four
printing
trades
unions
and
the
International
Association
of
Machinists
represent
smaller
numbers
of
the
company’s
employees.
The
company
has
never
had
a
strike
in
its
40-year
history.
Its
employees
were
successfully
organized
in
1935
without
op-
position
from
top
management,
although
there
was
some
opposition
at
lower
levels
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