Employment Relations Discussion Lists
Last modification date: November 1998.
Maintained by Richard L. Hannah, Professor of Economics
Middle Tennessee State University
Contact author for citation permission: RLHANNAH@MTSU.EDU
This description attempts broad inclusion of Internet
discussion lists which are oriented toward an employment relations niche.
The two objectives are a provision of a resource table with the list names
and listserver addresses for those interested in subscribing, and a
tabular representation of quantifiable list subscribership, including an
indication of whether the list is archived. Details of the methodology of
technical measurement of list subscribership and the broader intellectual
and practical implications have been published elsewhere by author. (See
[1], [2], and [3] respectively.)
Students who are not experienced on the net or familiar with
netiquette should consult with their instructors before subscribing to
discussion lists and for the purpose of determining the appropriate lists
for subscription. Using net materials in papers also carries an ethical
obligation for proper citation of the sources. I have participated or
currently participate in most of these lists, and continue to find this a
most productive experience, but I can not vouch for the utility of
all of them. Also, the level of message volume varies from very little
to very high.
As a matter of perspective on how lists may be influencing
professional and academic online activity, in 1997 the Association of
Research Librarians estimated there were 3,808 such lists, news groups,
and chat groups.
As far as I know, I'm the only person who has pursued empirical research
on this topic in the field of employment relations. I have several unpublished
papers in the works on the topic. The most detailed is derived from an online
survey of the Benefits-L list and will be published in Benefits Quarterly,
Third Quarter 1999.
Table 1
Employment Relations Lists and Server Addresses
(as of August 1998)
---List--- --------Description-------- ----Subscribe Address-----
AAUP-GENERAL American Assn. of Univ. Prof. majordomo@igc.apc.org
AFFAM-L Affirmative Action Information listserv@cmsa.berkeley.edu
AoM-OrgMgmt Organizational Management listproc@sting.isu.edu
AoM-HRM Human Resources listproc@sting.isu.edu
BENEFITS-L Employee Benefits listproc@frank.mtsu.edu
COLLBARG CB for Librarians listserv@cms.cc.wayne.edu
COMPENSATION-L Compensation (direct forms) listproc@frank.mtsu.edu
CUPA-COMPSIG Coll. & Univ. Pers. Assn. listserv@carbon.cudenver.edu
DISPUTE-RES Alternative Dispute Res. listserv@listserv.law.
cornell.edu
FLEXWORK Flexible Work Environments listserv@HMC.PSU.EDU
FUTUREWORK FutureWork--econ & technology listproc@csf.colorado.edu
H-LABOR Labor History listserv@msu.edu
H-UCLEA Labor Studies/Educ/Res/Teaching listserv@H-NET.msu.edu
HEALTHMGMT Health Management Issues listproc@ursus.jun.alaska.edu
HRNET Human Resources Network listserv@cornell.edu
HRD-L Human Resource Planning & Dev. majordomo@hr.trends.ca
HRIS-L HRIS/HRMS/PAYROLL majordomo@hr.trends.ca
HRNZ-L HR in New Zealand listproc@list.waikato.ac.nz
IERN-L Intl. Employee Relations Net. listserv@ube.ubalt.edu
IRRA Ind. Rel. Research Assn. listserver@relay.doit.wisc.edu
IOOB-L Industrial Psychology listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu
IWW-news IWW updates, history, etc... majordomo@igc.apc.org
IWW San Francisco based Underground Lists:
Municipal Transportation Workers iu540-l-request@iww.org
Health Service Workers iu610-l-request@iww.org
Education Workers iu620-l-request@iww.org
Recreation Workers iu630-l-request@iww.org
Park and Highway Maint. Workers iu650-l-request@iww.org
JOBANALYSIS Job Analysis & Classification listserv@listserv.vt.edu
JOB-TECH Job Technologies listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
LABNEWS U.S. Labor News listserv@cmsa.berkeley.edu
LABOR-EMP Labor/Emp. Law Group e-mail: rrunkel@willamette.edu
LABOR-L Labor listserv@yorku.ca
LABOR-PARTY Union Activist List majordomo@igc.apc.org
NWAC-L Nat. Workforce Assistance listserv@psuvm.psu.edu
OBTS-L OB Teaching Society listserv@bucknell.edu
ODCNET-L Organizational Development listserv@psuvm.psu.edu
PAYHR-L Payroll & HR in Higher Ed. listserv@vm1.ucc.okstate.edu
PENSION-POLICY Pension Policy majordomo@bolis.com
PENSION-HELP Pension Help majordomo@bolis.com
PRIR-L Pacific Reg. Industrial Rel. listproc@list.waikato.ac.nz
PUBLABOR Public Labor Relations listserver@relay.doit.wisc.edu
RHUMANOS Hispanic HR, I/O, & T&D listproc@ucdavis.edu
STAFF-DEVELOPMENT SD in Higher Ed. mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
TRDEV-L Training and Development listserv@missou1.missouri.edu
UNION-D European Trade Unions listserv@wolfnet.com
UNITED Labor Activist united-request@cougar.com
WORK-AT-EDU Work/Emp. at Universities listserv@yorku.ca
WORKFAM-L Work/Family Newsgroup contact: drago@uwm.edu
The quantifying of list subscribership can be accomplished via
"review" commands to listservers. In many cases the full subscriber files
with addresses are returned. However, in the past two years more list
managers are concealing the files such that only a total count of the
number of subscribers are returned. Only the former yields an accurate
way to estimate multiple-list subscribership and decomposition of
addresses into additionally descriptive categories. This is extremely
tedious and time consuming work and in the author's opinion yields less
useful information as the net continues to dynamically evolve. Therefore,
only the latter, the total count, is illustrated below. This should be
construed only as a very broad indicator of interest. The date in the
last column indictes the chronological origin of list archiving as
indicated by an "index" command to the listservers. This does not
necessarily indicate list origin since some lists started archiving after
being founded, and in a few cases when the lists were transferred to a new
listserver location, the previous archiving became inaccessible.
Table 2
List Subscribership & Archive Status
(as of March 1997)
List Number of Subscribers Arichived from
AAUP-GENERAL 396 February 1995
AFFAM-L 673 unknown
BENEFITS-L 563 January 1995
BENEFITS-CA 50 March 1996
COLLBARG 295 unknown
COMPENSATION-L 147 January 1997
CUPA-COMPSIG 1160 April 1996
DISPUTE-RES 716 December 1993
FLEXWORK not functioning unknown
FUTUREWORK 535 December 1994
H-LABOR 1218 unknown
H-UCLEA 257 January 1996
HRNET 3149 October 1992
HRD-L not functioning unknown
HRIS-L 678 February 1997
HRNZ-L 214 September 1995
IERN-L 536 ? 1993
IRRA 450 February 1995
IOOB-L 1750 May 1995
IWW-news unknown unknown
IWW-S.F. Lists unknown unknown
JOBANALYSIS 331 August 1995
JOB-TECH not functioning unknown
LABNEWS not functioning unknown
LABOR-EMP unknown unknown
LABOR-L 577 unknown
LABOR-PARTY unknown unknown
NWAC-L 301 unknown
OBTS-L 549 unknown
ODCNET-L 622 unknown
PAYHR-L 608 January 1994
PENSION-POLICY unknown January 1997
PENSION-HELP unknown January 1997
PRIR-L 268 unknown
PUBLABOR 376 unknown
REDFAM-L 75 May 1996
RHUMANOS 70 September 1996
STAFF-DEVELOMMENT 539 May 1995
TRDEV-L 4716 August 1996
UNION-D unknown unknown
UNITED 217 November 1995
WORK-AT-EDU 177 April 1996
not functioning=no server response at time of contact
unknown=response of not archived or list not recognized
The lists described above range in message content from what some
might describe as the "radical fringe" of labor activism to the nuts and
bolts of daily human resource management. Some lists are more blended
than others--i.e., inclusive of a wide array of subscribers such as
academics, practitioners, consultants, and a large proportion of
unidentified lurkers.
As Table 2 indicates, some lists do not survive as viable
information exchange or expertise pooling arrangements. Sometimes their
demise is caused by a general decline in enthusiasm or by technical
problems with the listserver. The long-term viability of several lists
does seem plausible, as indicated in Table 3 by stabilized or continued
growth rates of subscribership. The comparative data are limited to the
lists given in order to match the lists to the earlier data collected by
the author.
Table 3
Approximation of Six Month Growth Rates of Subscribership
For Same Lists
List October 1996 March 1997 Percent Change
BENEFITS-L 492 563 14.4
HRIS-L 524 678 29.4
HRNET 2770 3149 13.7
HRNZ-L 130 214 64.6
IERN-L 436 536 22.9
IRRA 281 450 60.1
LABOR-L 493 577 43.5
PAYHR-L 643 608 (5.4)
PRIR-L 212 268 26.4
The sustainability of these lists is perhaps underestimated by the
growth rates since this is a net change--i.e., subscribers dropping from
the lists had to be replaced too. Also, obviously lists which are new
will experience an accelerated increase from curious cyber dwellers.
However, most of the lists in Table 3 have been online for several years.
REFERENCES
[1] Hannah, Richard L. "The Emerging Significance of Internet Patterns of
Association," LABOR STUDIES JOURNAL, in press for Spring 1997.
[2] Hannah, Richard L. "HR Has a Committee of 10,000 on the Internet,"
EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS TODAY, Vol. 24(1), Spring 1997: 11-20.
[3] Hannah, Richard L. "An Academic Perspective on the Evolving
Interdependence of Internet and Employment Relations." In John
Bacon-Shone and Fred Castro, Editors, PUBLISHING ON THE LINE:
Proceedings of the Third Hong Kong Web Symposium (7-10 May 1997):
106-120. HREF Version