People at ILR

Adam Seth Litwin
people / faculty

Adam Seth Litwin

Associate Professor of Industrial & Labor Relations
Global Labor and Work (GLW)

Overview

Adam Seth Litwin is Associate Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell’s ILR School and serves as an associate editor at its flagship journal, the ILR Review. Over his 2022-2023 sabbatical, he’ll serve as the J. William Fulbright Visiting Professor of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. Litwin’s research, anchored in industrial relations, examines the determinants and impact of labor relations structures and technological change. As a technologist, Litwin also writes on issues involving technological change, work, and workers in the healthcare sector, having been honored by the Aspen Institute, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Labor and Employment Relations Association, and the International Labor and Employment Relations Association, among others.

Litwin has published a mix of empirical and conceptual studies intersecting the areas of labor relations and technological change, in both industrial relations and medical journals, including the Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, Human Resource Management, Applied Clinical Informatics, and the International Review of Psychiatry. His pedagogy has been recognized with an “Ideas Worth Teaching” Award from the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program as well as by the ILR School’s Duncan M. MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching. At Cornell, he teaches undergraduate and graduate core courses in labor relations as well as electives focused on the evolution and impact of technological change on workers, organizations, and society-at-large.

Litwin joined Cornell’s ILR faculty in the fall of 2014 after serving as a standing faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, where he held appointments in the Carey Business School and the School of Medicine. Before earning his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Litwin conducted research on industrial relations institutions in Great Britain as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow at the London School of Economics. He also put in time “inside the beltway” as a research assistant at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington.

Publications

Journal Articles

  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2022. Leveraging Technological Change to Address Racial Injustice and Worker Shortages in Frontline Care Delivery, BMJ Leader . 6(3):228-232.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2022. Technological Change and Frontline Care Delivery Work: Toward the Quadruple Aim, Advances in Health Care Management . 20:99-142.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2022. Technological Change on the Frontlines of Health Care Delivery, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 75(4):829-838.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Jessica HF Hammerling. 2022. Understanding the Impact of Novel Technologies at Work Through an Industry Studies Lens, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 75(4):807-815.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Or Shay. 2022. What Do Unions Do...for Temps? Collective Bargaining and the Wage Penalty, Industrial Relations . 61(2):193-227.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Sherry M. Tanious. 2021. Information Technology, Business Strategy and the Reassignment of Work from In-House Employees to Agency Temps, British Journal of Industrial Relations . 59(3):816-847.
  • Ariel C. Avgar, Adrienne E. Eaton, Rebecca Kolins Givan, Adam Seth Litwin. 2020. Editorial Essay: Paying the Price for a Broken Healthcare System: Rethinking Employment, Labor, and Work in a Post-Pandemic World, Work and Occupations .
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Adrienne E. Eaton. 2018. Complementary or Conflictual? Formal Participation, Informal Participation, and Organizational Performance, Human Resource Management . 57(1):307-325.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2017. Collective Bargaining and Technological Investment: The Case of Nurses’ Unions and the Transition from Paper-Based to Electronic Health Records, British Journal of Industrial Relations . 55(4):802-830.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Ariel C. Avgar, Edmund R. Becker. 2017. Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 70(3):610-641.
  • Ariel C. Avgar, Adrienne E. Eaton, Rebecca Kolins Givan, Adam Seth Litwin. 2016. Editorial Essay: Introduction to a Special Issue on Work and Employment Relations in Health Care, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 69(4):787-802.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2015. Nose to Tail: Using the Whole Employment Relationship to Link Worker Participation to Operational Performance, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations . 21:143-176.
  • Zev J. Eigen, Adam Seth Litwin. 2014. Justice or Just between Us? Empirical Evidence of the Trade-Off between Procedural and Interactional Justice in Workplace Dispute Resolution, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 67(1):171-201.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2013. Not Featherbedding, but Feathering the Nest: Human Resource Management and Investments in Information Technology, Industrial Relations . 52(1):22-52.
  • Ariel C. Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin, . 2013. Explaining the Health Information Technology Paradox, Perspectives on Work . 17(1-2):15-18.
  • Ariel C Avgar, Adam Seth Litwin, Peter J. Pronovost. 2012. Drivers and Barriers in Health IT Adoption: A Proposed Framework, Applied Clinical Informatics . 3(4):488-500.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Ariel C. Avgar, Peter J. Pronovost. 2012. Measurement Error in Performance Studies of Health Information Technology: Lessons from the Management Literature, Applied Clinical Informatics . 3(2):210-220.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Phillip H. Phan. 2012. Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 66(4):833-873.
  • Adam Seth Litwin, Phillip H. Phan, . 2012. The Quality of Jobs Created by Entrepreneurs, Perspectives on Work . 16(1-2):13-16.
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2011. Technological Change at Work: The Impact of Employee Involvement on the Effectiveness of Health Information Technology, Industrial and Labor Relations Review . 64(5):863-888.
  • Marian Baird, Adam Seth Litwin. 2005. Rethinking Work and Family: The Making and Taking of Parental Leave in Australia, International Review of Psychiatry . 17(5):385-400.
  • Betty Barrett, Kevin Long, Lydia Fraile, Adam Seth Litwin. 2004. Counting the Global Aerospace Workforce, Perspectives on Work . 7(2):13-15.

Book Chapters

  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2023. Confronting Technological Change on the Frontlines of Health Care Delivery. in Research Handbook on Contemporary Human Resource Management for Health CCare. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2023. Aoife M. McDermott, Paula Hyde, Ariel C. Avgar, and Louise Fitzgerald. (90-107)
  • Thomas A. Kochan, Adam Seth Litwin. 2011. The Future of Human Capital: An Employment Relations Perspective. in Oxford Handbook of Human Capital. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Alan Burton-Jones and John-Christopher Spender. (647-670)

Book Reviews

  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2014. Cleaning Up: How Hospital Outsourcing Is Hurting Workers and Endangering Patients. Work & Occupations, book review, 2014. (518-520)
  • Adam Seth Litwin. 2009. Employment Relationships: New Models of White-Collar Work. British Journal of Industrial Relations, book review, 2009. (607-608)

Professional Activities

  • Worker Militancy: The Implications of the Writers Guild Victory. Presented to eCornell. 2023.
  • Labor’s Response to Artificial Intelligence. Presented to Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. 2023.
  • Power Tools: How Employer-Driven Automation Shortchanges Us All. Presented to Griffith Business School. Gold Coast, Australia. 2023.
  • Generative AI for Managers and Instructors. Presented to Griffith Business School. Gold Coast, Australia. 2023.
  • Power Tools: How Employer-Driven Automation Shortchanges Us All. Presented to University of Sydney Business School. Sydney, Australia. 2023.
  • Technological Change and the Pluralist Turn. Presented to Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand. Magnetic Island, Queensland, Australia. 2023.
  • Technological Change and the Pluralist Turn. Boston, MA (though I presented online from Perth, Australia). 2022.
  • Wall Street Comes to Main Street: The Financialization of Community Veterinary Practice. Presented to Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. Ithaca, NY (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2022.
  • Technological Change and Frontline Care Delivery Work. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Cambridge, MA (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2021.
  • Employment Consequences of Workplace Automation. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Cambridge, MA (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2021.
  • Competing Ideas on a Way Forward for America’s Workers. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. (virtually due to Covid-19). 2021.
  • Union Responses to New Technology. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. (virtually due to Covid-19). 2021.
  • What Do Unions Do...for Temps? Collective Bargaining and the Job Quality Penalty. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. (virtually due to Covid-19). 2021.
  • Technological Change in Health Care Delivery: Its Drivers and Consequences for Work and Workers. Presented to UC Berkeley Labor Center and SEIU California State Council. Berkeley, CA (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2020.
  • Challenges and Opportunities Arising from Covid-19: The Case of Healthcare. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Cambridge, MA (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2020.
  • Final Report: Technological Change in Health Care Delivery: Its Drivers and Consequences for Work and Workers. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Cambridge, MA (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2020.
  • Final Report: Technological Change in Health Care Delivery: Its Drivers and Consequences for Work and Workers. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Portland, OR (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2020.
  • The Future of Work and Evolving Forms of Collective Agency . Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Portland, OR (but virtually due to Covid-19). 2020.
  • Eulogy for MGMT 104: Labor Relations and Human Resource Management. Presented to Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 2019.
  • Technological Change in Healthcare Delivery: Its Drivers and Consequences for Work and Workers. Presented to The Worker Institute. New York. 2019.
  • Interim Report: The Impact of Recent Technological Change on Healthcare Delivery. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Cleveland. 2019.
  • Interim Report: Technological Change in Healthcare Delivery: Its Drivers and Consequences for Work and Workers. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Nashville. 2019.
  • Managing Healthcare Workspaces. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Nashville. 2019.
  • Labor/Management Collaboration on Technological Change and the Healthcare Workforce. Presented to Healthcare Career Advancement Program. Washington, DC. 2019.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Queen’s University. Kingston, ON. 2019.
  • Technological Change and the Future of Work. Presented to Cornell University. Ithaca. 2018.
  • Capital vs. Labor & Humans vs. Robots. Presented to Aspen Institute Business & Society Program. Ann Arbor. 2018.
  • Technological Change and the Future of Work. Presented to Cornell University. Ithaca. 2018.
  • Job Classification, Union Status, and Frontline Worker Voice in U.S. Hospitals. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Baltimore. 2018.
  • Winner’s Reflections on the Paper “Superbugs vs. Hospital Cleaners”. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Seattle. 2018.
  • Business and Employment Relations Strategies and Their Consequences for Employees and Firms. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Seattle. 2018.
  • Labor Market Institutions for the Gig Economy. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Seattle. 2018.
  • Will This Robot Take My Job?. Presented to Cornell Institute for European Studies and Cornell Architecture, Art, and Planning. 2017.
  • Collective Bargaining and Technological Investment: The Case of Nurses' Unions and the Transition from Paper-Based to Electronic Health Records. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Anaheim. 2017.
  • Transformations in US Healthcare and Their Effects on Patients, Workers and Labor Relations. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Anaheim. 2017.
  • Skill Demands and Job Requirements in Evolving Industries . Presented to Industry Studies Association. Washington, DC. 2017.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, University of Toronto. Toronto, ON. 2017.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Vanderbilt University. Nashville. 2016.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Association for Conflict Resolution--Workplace & Healthcare Sections Joint Webinar. 2016.
  • Work and Employment Relations in Healthcare: Papers from the Special Issue of the <i>Industrial and Labor Relations Review</i>. Presented to Industry Studies Association/Labor and Employment Relations Association. Minneapolis. 2016.
  • Health System Changes and Their Effects on Workers, Trade Unions, and Organizations. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Minneapolis. 2016.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to College of Business & Economics, Lehigh University. Bethlehem, PA. 2016.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to ILR School, Cornell University. Ithaca. 2016.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. Minneapolis. 2015.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. Nashville. 2015.
  • Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Pittsburgh. 2015.
  • Employee Ownership and Shared Capitalism: The Proponents, the Skeptics, and the Evidence. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Portland, OR. 2014.
  • Participative Management or Managed Participation? Frontline Worker Participation and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University. New Brunswick, NJ. 2013.
  • Participative Management or Managed Participation? Frontline Worker Participation and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois. Urbana-Champaign, IL. 2013.
  • Participative Management or Managed Participation? Frontline Worker Participation and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to ILR School, Cornell University. Ithaca. 2013.
  • Participative Management or Managed Participation? Frontline Worker Participation and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University. East Lansing. 2013.
  • Electronic Health Records and Hospital Performance: Changing the Score or Leveling the Playing Field?. Presented to Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia. 2013.
  • Participative Management or Managed Participation? Frontline Worker Participation and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2013.
  • Frontline Employee Involvement and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to Academy of Management. Orlando. 2013.
  • Frontline Employee Involvement and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. St. Louis. 2013.
  • Frontline Employee Involvement and the Mystery of the Missing Performance Effects. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Kansas City, MO. 2013.
  • The White Whale in Human Resource Management: Searching for the Link between Employee Involvement and Organizational Performance. Presented to School of Business, George Washington University. Washington, DC. 2013.
  • Towards an Explanation for the Muted Impact of Frontline Employee Involvement: An Example from the Healthcare Industry. Presented to International Association for the Economics of Participation. Rutgers University. 2012.
  • Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation. Presented to Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Kansas City, MO. 2012.
  • Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Pittsburgh. 2012.
  • Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation. Presented to School of Business, George Washington University. Washington, DC. 2012.
  • Entrepreneurship, Good Jobs, Successful Enterprises, and 21st Century Prosperity. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2012.
  • A Bicephalous Model of Procedural Justice and Workplace Dispute Resolution. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Chicago. 2012.
  • Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link Between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation. Presented to Labor and Employment Relations Association. Chicago. 2012.
  • Quality over Quantity: Reexamining the Link Between Entrepreneurship and Job Creation. Presented to ILR School, Cornell University. Ithaca, NY. 2011.
  • Measurement Error in Performance Studies of Health Information Technology: Lessons from the Management Literature. Presented to Academy of Management. San Antonio. 2011.
  • The Role of Frontline Workers in the Adoption and Deployment of Health Information Technology. Presented to Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Berlin, Germany. 2011.
  • Operationalizing Partnership on the Frontlines of Healthcare Delivery: The Impact of Unit-Based Teams on Service Quality at Kaiser Permanente. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Pittsburgh. 2011.
  • Not Featherbedding, but Feathering the Nest: Human Resource Management and Investments in Information Technology. Presented to School of Labor and Employment Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Urbana-Champaign, IL. 2011.
  • Technological Change at Work: The Impact of Employee Involvement on the Effectiveness of Health Information Technology. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Chicago. 2010.
  • Partnership at the Front Line: Unit-Based Teams at Kaiser Permanente. Presented to ILR School, Cornell University. New York, NY. 2010.
  • Technological Change at Work: Employee Involvement in the Deployment of Health Information Technology. Presented to ILR School, Cornell University. New York, NY. 2010.
  • Technological Change at Work: Employee Involvement in the Deployment of Health Information Technology. Presented to Stern School of Business, New York University. New York, NY. 2010.
  • Organizational and Work-Related Issues Surrounding Health Information Technology. Presented to Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore. 2010.
  • Employee Involvement in the Deployment of Health Information Technology. Presented to School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore. 2009.
  • The Adoption of Health Information Technology in Primary Care. Presented to Industry Studies Association. Chicago. 2009.
  • The Adoption of Health Information Technology in Primary Care. Presented to Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore. 2009.
  • The Adoption of Health Information Technology in Primary Care. Presented to Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore. 2009.
  • Information Technology and the Employment Relationship: Examining Physicians’ Adoption of Health Information Technology. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2006.
  • Information Technology and Industrial Relations in Firms and Organizations. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2006.
  • Employment Policy and Technology Strategy. Presented to Industrial Performance Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2005.
  • Unpacking the High-Performance Production Function. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2004.
  • The Emergence of a High-Performance Work Organization. Presented to Institute for Advanced Labour Studies, University of Amsterdam. Amsterdam. 2004.
  • Parental Leave in Australia: Policy, Practice, and Prospects. Presented to Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA. 2003.

Honors and Awards

  • top 10% of authors by number of downloads, Social Science Research Nework.
  • Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Award, J. William Fulbright Scholarship Board/Institute of International Education’s Council for International Exchange of Scholars (IIE/CIES). 2021
  • Luis Aparicio Prize, International Labour and Employment Relations Association. 2018
  • Ralph Gomory Best Industry Studies Paper Award, Industry Studies Association. 2018
  • Selected Faculty Mentor for the “400 Club” (i.e., NCAA Division I student athletes with perfect GPAs), Department of Athletics, Cornell University. 2018
  • “Ideas Worth Teaching”, Aspen Institute, Business & Society Program. 2018
  • Duncan M. MacIntyre Award for Exemplary Teaching, Cornell University—LR School. 2017
  • Honored Speaker, CIRHR Director’s Debate Series, Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. 2017
  • “Technology and the Evolution of Work” theme project selection/grantee (for “The Impact of Technological Change on Work and Workers in Healthcare: An Industry Studies Approach”), Cornell University—ILR School. 2017
  • John T. Dunlop Outstanding Young Scholar Award, Labor and Employment Relations Association. 2015