Alexander James Colvin

People/Faculty
Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean
Dean's Office
Kenneth F. Kahn ’69 Dean, Martin F. Scheinman ’75, MS ’76, Professor of Conflict Resolution
Global Labor and Work
Alexander James Colvin

Contact

121 Tower Rd
309E Ives Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

Tel
+1 (607) 2552185
CV
Colvin Vita 2022
Overview

Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. '99, is the Kenneth F. Kahn '69 Dean and the Martin F. Scheinman '75, 'MS '76 Professor of Conflict Resolution at the ILR School, Cornell University. His research and teaching focuses on employment dispute resolution, with a particular emphasis on procedures in nonunion workplaces and the impact of the legal environment on organizations. His current research projects include empirical investigations of employment arbitration and cross-national studies of dispute resolution. He has published articles in journals such as ILR Review, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Relations Industrielles, Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution. He is the co-author of An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations (w/H. Katz and T. Kochan), Labor Relations in a Globalizing World (w/H. Katz and T. Kochan), The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations (w/W. Roche and P. Teague), and Arbitration Law (w/K. Stone and R. Bales). He is an academic fellow of the Labor and Employment Relations Association.

Dean Colvin received his J.D. in 1992 from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. in 1999 from Cornell University. He received the 2003 Outstanding Young Scholar Award from the Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) and the 2000 Best Dissertation Award from the IRRA for his dissertation entitled “Citizens and Citadels: Dispute Resolution and the Governance of Employment Relations”. Before joining the faculty of the ILR School in 2008, he taught at Penn State University from 1999-2008.

Research Statement 

Current research projects include an empirical investigation of employment arbitration and a cross-national study of workplace dispute resolution systems in four countries.

Areas of Expertise

Alternative dispute resolution
Arbitration
Collective Bargaining
Conflict Resolution
Conflict prevention
Contract administration
Contract negotiations
Dispute resolution
Employee Relations
Employment law and policy
High Performance Work Systems
Industrial relations systems
Industry Studies
International and Comparative Workplace Studies
Labor law
Labor relations
Mediation
Negotiations
Wage differentials and inequality

Other expertise

Canadian Employment and Labor Relations, Conflict Management, Employee-Organization Alignment, Employment Relations, Grievance Procedures, Turnover, Work Motivation

Publications

Journal Articles

  • , , , & . . A fragmented and heavily privatized dispute resolution system: The United States. Industrial Relations Journal, 54(4-5), 304-320.
  • , , & . . New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 555-579.
  • , , , & . . Advancing Dispute Resolution by Unpacking the Sources of Conflict: Toward an Integrated Framework. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 73(2), 254-280.
  • , & . . Decision-Maker and Context Effects in Employment Arbitration. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 73(2), 479-497.
  • , , , & . . Systems for Conflict Resolution in Comparative Perspective. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 73(2), 312-344.
  • . . The Metastisization of Mandatory Arbitration. Chicago-Kent Law Review, 94(1), 3-24.
  • . . Conflict and Employment Relations in the Individual Rights Era. Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, 22, 1-30.
  • . . Strike Ballot Law and Practice in the U.S.: Order without Law in Labor Relations?. Australian Journal of Labour Law, 29(2), 243-255.
  • , & . . Individual Employment RIghts Arbitration in the U.S.: Actors and Outcomes. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 1019-42.
  • . . Mandatory Arbitration and Inequality of Access to Justice in Employment.. Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law.
  • , & . . Saturns and Rickshaws Revisited: What Kind of Employment Arbitration System has Developed?. Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 29(1), 59-83.
  • , , & . . Beyond Baby-Splitting: Arbitrator Decision-Making Patterns in Employment Cases.. Dispute Resolution Journal, 68(2), 57-67.
  • , , & . . Convergence in Industrial Relations Systems: The Emerging Anglo-American Model?. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 66(5), 1045-75.
  • . . Participation Versus Procedures in Non-Union Dispute Resolution. Industrial Relations (Berkeley), 52(s1), 221-258.
  • . . American Workplace Dispute Resolution in the Individual Rights Era. International Journal of Human Resources Management, 12(3-4), 459-475.
  • , & . . An Employment Systems Approach to Turnover: HR Practices, Quits, Dismissals, and Customer Satisfaction. Academy of Management Journal, 54(4), 696-717.
  • . . An Empirical Analysis of Employment Arbitration: Case Outcomes and Processes. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 8(1), 1-23.
  • . . Employment Arbitration: Empirical Findings and Research Needs. Dispute Resolution Journal, 64(3), 6-11.
  • . . Empirical Research on Employment Arbitration: Clarity amidst the Sound and Fury?. Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, 11(2), 405-447.
  • , & . . Improved Metrics for Workplace Dispute Resolution Procedures: Efficiency, Equity, and Voice. Industrial Relations, 43(3), 460-479.
  • , & . . The Problem of Action and Interest Alignment: Beyond Job Requirements and Incentive Compensation. Human Resource Management Review, 17(1), 38-51.
  • , , & . . Employee ‘Line of Sight’ to an Organization’s Strategic Objectives. Business Horizons, 49(6), 499-509.
  • . . Flexibility and Fairness in Liberal Market Economies: The Comparative Impact of the Legal Environment and High Performance Work Systems. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 44(1), 73-97.
  • . . Adoption and Use of Dispute Resolution Procedures in the Nonunion Workplace. Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations, 13, 71-97.
  • . . Mandatory Arbitration and the Reconfiguration of Workplace Dispute Resolution. Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy, 13(3), 581-597.
  • . . The Relationship between Employee Involvement and Workplace Dispute Resolution. Industrial Relations, 59(4), 671-694.
  • . . Institutional Pressures, Human Resource Strategies and the Rise of Nonunion Dispute Resolution Procedures. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 56(3), 375-392.
  • . . The Dual Transformation of Workplace Dispute Resolution. Industrial Relations, 42(4), 712-735.
  • , , & . . Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, and Quit Rates: Evidence from the Telecommunications Industry. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55(4), 573-594.
  • , & . . Das amerikanische Arbeitsrecht aus der Perspecktive historische und zukunftiger Entwicklungen [Looking Forward and Backward at American Labor Law]. WSI-Mitteilungen, 608-615.
  • . . Gerechtigkeit ohne Gewerkschaft und Betriebsrat? Konfliktschlichtung in gewerkschaftsfreien Betrieben in den USA. WSI-Mitteilungen, 743-749.
  • , , & . . How Human Resource Practices and Industrial Relations Institutions Affect Managerial Pay. Personnel Psychology, 54(4), 903-934.
  • . . Rethinking Bargaining Unit Determination: Labor Law and the Structure of Collective Representation in a Changing Workplace. Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal, 15(2), 419-490.

Book Chapters

  • , & . . The United States. In International and Comparative Employment Relations. Allen-Unwin.
  • . . Nonunion Grievance Procedures. In The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management. (pp. 168-189). Oxford University Press.
  • , & . . The Goals and Assumptions of Conflict Management in Organizations. In The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management. (pp. 12-29). Oxford University Press.
  • . . Organizational Primacy after the Demise of the Organizational Career: Employment Conflict in a Post-Standard Contract World. In Employment Regulation after the Demise of the Standard Employment Contract: Innovations in Regulatory Design. (pp. 194-210). Russell Sage.
  • , & . . International Employment Relations: The Impact of Varieties of Capitalism. In Handbook of International Human Resource Management Research, 2nd ed.. (pp. 52-75). Edward Elgar.
  • , & . . Employment Relations in the United States. In International and Comparative Employment Relations: Globalisation and Change, 5th ed.. (pp. 62-87). Allen & Unwin.
  • , , & . . Organizational systems and employee motivation. In Work Motivation: Past, Present, and Future. Routledge.
  • , , & . . Research on Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures. In Contemporary Issues in Employment Relations. (pp. 103-147). Labor and Employment Relations Association.
  • . . Semi-Institutionalisation in Nonunion Industrial Relations - Challenges and Opportunities for Labour. In Human Resource Development and Workplace Government in the Caribbean. Ian Randle Publishers.

Textbooks

  • , & . . An Introduction to US Collective Bargaining and Inductrial Relations. ILR Press.
  • , , & . . Labor Relations in a Globalizing World: An Introduction Focused on Emerging Countries. ILR Press.
  • , , & . . Arbitration Law, third edition. Foundation Press.

Books

  • , , & . . The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations. Oxford University Press.
  • , , & . . An Introduction to Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations. McGraw Hill Irwin.

Book Reviews

  • . . Book review in Industrial and Labor Relations Review of "Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt." By Sean Safford..
  • . . What Do Unions Do? A Twenty-Year Perspective.
  • . . Book review of Hoyt Wheeler, Brian Klaas and Douglas Mahony, Workplace Justice Without Unions.
  • . . Book review of Saul Rubinstein and Thomas Kochan, Learning from Saturn: Possibilities for Corporate Governance and Employee Relations.
  • . . Book review of Paul Johnston, Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace.
  • . . Book review of Pradeep Kumar, Unions and Workplace Change in Canada.

Research Reports

  • , , , & . . Telecommunications 2004: Strategy, HR Practices & Performance.
  • , , , & . . Telecommunications 2000: Strategy, HR Practices & Performance.

Conference Proceedings

  • . . The Institutional Framework of Dispute Resolution in Canada and the United States: Incentives and Alternatives.

Professional activities

  • The Changing Workplace in Public Schools -- Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice,. Presented to Labor and Employment Research Association. St. Louis, MO. 2016.
Edit this profile if it's yours.