LABOR'S CHANGING RESPONSES TO MANAGEMENT RHETORICS: A STUDY OF ACCOUNTING-BASED INCENTIVE PLANS DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

This study compares organized labor's reactions to changing management rhetorics as these rhetorics surrounded accounting- based incentive plans, including profit sharing. Results suggest that labor's perceptions of profit sharing changed dramatically from the 1900–1930 period to post-World War II. The shift, in turn, prompts an exploration of two research questions: (1) how and why did the national labor discourse around the management rhetoric and its emphasis on accounting information change, and (2) how did this change render unions more governable in their support for accounting-based incentive plans?