A host of public policy decisions inspires and limits the employer's hand. Some of them, such as those on international trade, touch providers and managers of labor indirectly through effects on supply and demand in product markets. These sets of issues are obviously connected. Similarly, public policies condition how employers view and cope with the issues at their level. The influence is not, of course, one-way.
Employers consider likely worker response to their management practices.
Likewise, intelligent public policy anticipates managers' reaction to its incentives, requirements, and restrictions. Choices at all levels are certainly worth examining. The emphasis in Labor Management Decisions, as in the DANR Agricultural Personnel Management Program, is on those made by farmers and supervisors at the level of the firm. All information and work presented in this publication, though wide ranging, is connected by its relevance to such labor management decisions in agriculture. Our main intent is to expand understanding of the choices farmers make as personnel managers, factors impinging on them, options in management policy and practice, means for implementing them, and their outcomes for various stakeholders.