Are Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Decreasing Conflict? Evidence from the Last Eight Years of Reported Data

In December 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13522, initiating a formal period during which the federal government has been acting under a declared labor-management partnership. Researchers and practitioners believe these partnerships can result in substantial benefits to the organization. However, this article's analysis of an original data set containing agency data on labor-management collaboration and conflict over time indicates that partnerships are not associated with changes in conflict. Instead, participation in labor-management pilot projects weakly predicts a decrease in conflict. Qualitative data from union officials suggest that this finding could be because the partnerships do not represent true labor-management collaboration.