Final answer:
Boulwarism, named after GE's vice president Lemuel Boulware, refers to the hard bargaining approach meant to bypass union negotiation and was found to be a violation of good faith bargaining.
Step-by-step explanation:
The bargaining approach adopted by a vice president at GE, which was designed to circumvent union power by directly offering a company's final offer to the employees and refusing to negotiate further, is known as Boulwarism. This approach was named after Lemuel Boulware, GE's vice president of industrial relations during the 1960s.
Boulwarism was considered a violation of good faith bargaining because it attempted to bypass the employees' exclusive bargaining agent, typically a union, by cutting off the possibility of negotiation. This practice goes against the principles of collective bargaining where the employer and the union have to negotiate employment terms on behalf of the employees the union represents. It was challenged and ultimately deemed to violate labor laws that require good faith negotiation between employers and unions.