US States News, June 18, 2007, Monday

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US States News

June 18, 2007 Monday 5:01 AM EST

HEADLINE: INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS PEOPLE EARN HONORS AND INDUSTRY AWARDS

BYLINE: US States News

DATELINE: ITHACA, N.Y.

BODY:

The Cornell University College of Industrial and Labor Relations issued the following news release:

The NYC Labor Council for Latin American Advancement honored Gene Carroll, Director, Union Leadership Program, and Maria Figueroa, Director, Labor Research, for their outstanding contributions and commitment to the labor movement and the community.

The awards were presented by U.S. Representative Nydia M. Velazquez at the annual Labor History Month celebration, hosted by the NYC Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). [Photo caption: From left, Maria Figueroa, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, and Gene Carroll.]

Lou Jean Fleron

The Coalition for Economic Justice recently honored Lou Jean Fleron for her contributions related to the Living Wage Campaign. Fleron received the Norman Harper Award, which was presented by Lois Gray, Jean McKelvey and Alice Grant Professor of Labor Management Relations, at the 2007 awards banquet ceremony in Buffalo.

The Coalition for Economic Justice works with religious, academic, labor, and community activists to improve living standards for the Western New York community. CEJ is a local chapter of the organizations Jobs with Justice and the New York State Labor Religion Coalition.

CEJ gives an annual award in the name of Norm Harper, one of CEJ's founders, to an individual in the labor movement who demonstrates Norm's leadership, but also his understanding that the union movement, in serving its members, goes much beyond technical collective bargaining, and that the issues of workers are issues for the community.

In presenting the award, Gray said that Fleron "cares deeply for the western New York community. She carries incredible respect for all workers and she has worked tirelessly for our economic well-being and the economic well-being of our community. She listens, finds the issues, does the research, makes the connections, and builds a practical grassroots strategy for the great good of all working people. She is a role model for all of us."

Michele Williams

Michele Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of Organizational Behavior, will receive the best paper award from the Academy of Management Conflict Management Division for her work "Disentangling concepts: The role of affect in trust development and cooperation."

Williams will accept the award at the academy's 2007 annual meeting this summer. The Academy of Management is the world's largest and oldest scholarly management association.

In this award-winning theory paper, Williams develops an affective model of trust and cooperation that clarifies the mechanisms individuals use to build collaboration in today's less hierarchically structured organizations. By examining emotions that can prompt non-self-interested behavior (e.g., self-defeating behavior and altruistic actions), she contributes a model that reconciles the perspective of scholars who argue that trust is irrelevant for business transactions with that of scholars who advocate the importance of trust in organizations.

This work suggests that it is not trust alone, but trust and emotion combined that lead to positive collaborative outcomes. Managers and professionals who understand the interrelationship between trust and emotion can avoid suboptimal behavior and lead their teams and organizations to more successful outcomes.