Dr. Scott Walsworth (Hanlon Scholar in International Business; Associate Professor in the Department of Human Resourses & Organizational Behavior) was awarded the ‘Best Paper' in the HR Division at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC), 2010. The article is titled "An Empirical Look at Process Innovation and the Role of Unions and HR Policy". 

For more information about Dr. Scott Walsworth, please visit his faculty profile.

ABSTRACT

Using longitudinal private sector data from Canadian firm this article estimates the union effect on process innovation.  The presence of a union is found to have a small direct positive effect on process innovation.  There is also a positive relationship between the union density of a workplace and process innovation.  The argument that unions also contribute to innovation via an indirect effect by influencing the use of HRM policies is subsequently tested.  All of the HRM policies that were examined have a positive effect on process innovation; however half of them are more likely to appear in a unionized workplace while the other half are less likely to appear.  This suggests that there is no overall dominant indirect union effect.  Contributing to process innovation is argued to be an important survival strategy for Canadian unions.