Can a union be both democratic and administratively efficient, or are these goals always at odds? Building on the Webbs’ focus on this critical question, this article analyses and compares the changing administrative policies and practices of US, UK and Australian trade unions over a 25-year period. We conducted surveys of unions in all three countries to gather information on union policies and practices involving the unions’ human resources, hiring, budgeting and strategic planning. Using these novel longitudinal data, we contribute to industrial relations scholarship by showing that unions have increasingly adopted formal, systematic practices in these areas. The article is grounded in theory and also has practical relevance given the important implications that our findings may have for the revitalization of unions in the three countries and beyond.

中文翻译：

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现代化的工会行政实践是促进还是阻碍了工会振兴？美国、英国和澳大利亚工会的比较研究

工会能否既民主又行政高效，或者这些目标总是不一致？基于 Webbs 对这一关键问题的关注，本文分析和比较了 25 年来美国、英国和澳大利亚工会不断变化的行政政策和做法。我们对所有三个国家的工会进行了调查，以收集涉及工会人力资源、招聘、预算和战略规划的工会政策和做法的信息。使用这些新颖的纵向数据，我们通过展示工会越来越多地在这些领域采用正式、系统的做法，为劳资关系研究做出了贡献。