The Importance of Worker Participation in Decision Making with Peter Lazes Part Two of Two

Channel U: Union Institute and University

Authors of Union features a conversation with one of our many published authors.

Today’s guest is Peter Lazes, (Union Ph.D. ’74) alumnus with concentrations in Clinical and Industrial Psychology. Peter’s book “From the Ground Up: How Frontline Staff Can Save Americas Healthcare,” coauthored with Marie Rudden, M.D., outlines concrete steps to improve the healthcare system with research-based labor management practices that apply to all areas of work.

A specialist in organizational change, leadership development, and labor-management partnerships, Dr. Lazes will discuss the importance of worker participation in decision-making that has applications in many sectors of our economy.

Dr. Lazes is the founder and former director of the Healthcare Transformation Project and Programs for Employment and Workplace Systems at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, where he served for 40 years. He is now Visiting Professor and Co-Coordinator, Healthcare Partnership Initiative, School of Labor and Employment Relations, Penn State University.

He has worked with labor union and management leaders in the U.S. and Europe to customize and implement strategic worker participation programs and employee-driven innovative opportunities. His recent work involves assisting hospitals and healthcare organizations to develop methods to improve patient care and reduce costs with a focus on frontline staff engagement.

He has written more than 30 articles on such topics as the creation of agile work systems, new roles for unions in the 21st century, ways to create meaningful jobs, methods to increase civic participation, strategies for keeping American jobs and has produced several videotapes on topics such as creating breakthroughs in organizations.

Dr. Lazes and his partner Marie Rudden, MD, plan to create a series of webinars about labor/management partnerships in the near future.

Your host is Dr. Linwood Rumney, professor in the UI&U General Education Program, poet, and author. He is the winner of the 17th Annual Gival Press Poetry Award for Abandoned Earth. His poems and nonfiction essays have appeared in many publications including the North American Review and Crab Orchard Review. His translations of Aloysius Bertrand, an early practitioner of the modern prose poem in French, have appeared in Arts & Letters and Hayden’s Ferry Review. His fellowships include the American Antiquarian Society, The Writers’ Room of Boston, and the St. Botolph Club, as well as a residency from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. He recently completed his Ph.D. as a Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation Fellow at UC.