Criteria by which ad hoc labor arbitrators are selected by union and management advocates in the petroleum refining industry

A non-experimental, descriptive study was conducted to examine the criteria by which ad hoc labor arbitrators are selected in the petroleum refining industry. Three factors--arbitrator background, recognition, and arbitration practice--were examined to determine their relative importance to advocates selecting ad hoc labor arbitrators. The population of the study consisted of management and labor union advocates in the petroleum refining industry who routinely select ad hoc labor arbitrators.;Participating management and union advocates completed a questionnaire used to gather respondents' evaluations of criteria considered in the selection of ad hoc arbitrators. Responses to statements designed for measuring relative importance of the criteria considered were recorded. Descriptive statistics, discriminant analysis, and tests of significance were used in the treatment of the data.;The central hypothesis that ad hoc labor arbitrator acceptability to management and union advocates in the petroleum refining industry is determined by like considerations of the three major factors was rejected. The results of this study indicated that management advocates consider arbitrators' background factors and recognition factors to be more important than do union advocates in ad hoc arbitrator selection. The results also indicated that union advocates consider arbitrators' arbitration practice factors to be more important than do management advocates in ad hoc arbitrator selection.;Secondary findings of the study revealed that management advocates are more willing to select arbitrators who charge higher daily fees than are union advocates. Management advocates also indicated a greater tendency than union advocates to use an arbitrator qualification reporting service to gain more information about arbitrators listed on a specific panel. A majority of the advocate respondents indicated an age preference for ad hoc arbitrators in the 50-59 age group. The advocates indicated very little preference for ad hoc labor arbitrators under the age of forty or over the age of seventy.