Industrial Relations
Personnel Management
1st part of 20th C - labour as a commodity to be used efficiently and discarded as appropriate
Standard moderns approach to management
A mixture of pluralist and unitary underpinnings
Shop stewards
A person elected by workers to represent them in negotiations with management
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Accept the role of trade unions in certain areas of joint decision making
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Aim is to institutionalise conflict and minimise disruption
Rigidities
Any type of institution that interfered with the functioning of the market
Standard moderns approach to management
Approach to IR is pragmatic, often opportunistic
Service provision
Assumes that individualism has become more important than collectivism
Where has conflict gone according to Goddard (2011)?
Better management and work designs
Personnel Management
Bureaucratic and concerned with rules
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Bureaucratic regulation (the internal labour market), effective communication and change management
Where has conflict gone according to Goddard (2011)?
Collective action might be dormant
Traditionalist approach to management
Concentrate power in managing employee relations
Discursive of communicative power
Conception of social change and a vocabulary which makes this conception persuasive
Personnel Management
Concerned with staffing, performance & administration
Radical perspective on conflict
Conflict can only be temporarily solved
Unitary perspective on conflict
Conflict is abnormal
Pluralist perspective on conflict
Conflict is legitimate and solved through negotiations
Social dialogue
Consultation and discussions involving the government, trade unions and employer organisations
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Consultors and constitutionalists
Codetermination
Cooperation between management and workers in decision-making, especially by the representation of workers on management boards
Financial Liberalisation
Countries opening their capital accounts
Financial Globalisation
Cross border flows
Marketplace bargaining power
Derived from location of those workers organised in a specific union; may possess scarce skills or competencies, making them valuable to the employer and difficult to replace (e.g. engineers, doctors, pilots etc.)
Workplace bargaining power
Derived from occupying a strategic position within the production process, such that disruptive action will impose serious costs on employer (e.g. unions in assembly lines, workers in key factories in production chains etc.)
Structural power
Derived from the location of those workers organised in a specific union
Social partnership
Developed as a system of institutionalised cooperation between trade unions, employers and governments
Common law systems
Developed through specific cases coming to court
Civil law systems
Developed through statutes and legislation
Labour market dualism
Difference of protection of workers on permanent contracts and workers on temporary contracts
Where has conflict gone according to Goddard (2011)?
Diverted into alternative forms
An Agent of Capital
Dominance over labour control
The Partnership Approach
Emphasis on mutual gains for enterprises, unions and workers
Traditionalist approach to management
Emphasise obedience at the expense of cooperation
Flexible labour markets
Emphasised by international bodies since the 1980s to try to decrease unemployment
Contemporary HRM
Employees are a source of competitive advantage which has to be nurtured by managers
Contemporary HRM
Employees are a strategic resource worth investing in
EPL
Employment Protection Legislation
ETI
Ethical Trade Initiative
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Examples include Ford Motor Company
A Strategic Actor
External environmental influences, born out of limitations of systems of approach, growth in interest in strategy
Liberal Market Economies (LMEs)
Firms primarily coordinate with other actors through competitive markets
Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs)
Firms typically engage in more strategic interaction with trade unions & other actors
The Organising Approach
Focuses on disadvantaged groups that unions tended to neglect (e.g. low-paid migrant workers)
GATT
General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade
Personnel Management
Generally fulfils a reactive role having a short-term micro-level orientation
Sophisticated paternalists approach to management
Generally offer good terms of employment and a degree of employee involvement
GUF
Global Union Federations
GVC
Global Value Chain
New forms of financialisation
Hedge funds, Private equity funds, Sovereign Investment Funds
Standard moderns approach to management
Industrial relations is seen as a fire-fighting activity
A Systems Actor
Influence of historical and institutional factors
Complementary institutions
Institutional interdependence in which the good functioning of one institution is conditioned by the existence of other institutions
IFAs
International Framework Agreements
IMF
International Monetary Fund
Strategic or logistical power
Making more effective use of limited resources
MNCs
MultiNational Corporations
Collective bargaining
Negotiation conditions of employment by an organised body of employees
Social pacts
Negotiations between employers, trade unions and governments
Personnel Management
Not concerned with the overall direction of the organisation
Traditionalist approach to management
Oppose unions an collective bargaining
Personnel Management
Personal function is largely an administrative one
Institutional power
Power derived form legislative supports, the powers of statutory works councils, the administration of social welfare
The Washington Consensus
Privatisation and liberalisation of markets were essential preconditions for economic growth
Sophisticated paternalists approach to management
Recruitment, selection, training, counselling, good pay and fringe benefits are put in place to meet individual employees' aspirations (IBM, Hewlett-Packard)
Traditionalist approach to management
Seek compliance, not commitment
Associational power
Simply having members gives unions power, not least financial
Personnel Management
Still practiced in some organisations
Official strikes
Strikes that receive the support of the relevant trade union
Sophisticated paternalists approach to management
Such companies typically refuse to recognise trade unions
Where has conflict gone according to Goddard (2011)?
Suppression of conflict has encouraged societal 'dysfunctions' (e.g. low levels of political engagement, drug abuse)
Managerial prerogative
The 'right' of managers to manage i.e. exercise control over employment relations
ILO
The International Labour Organisation
Standard moderns approach to management
The approach is pluralist. It describes large sections of the public service and large companies in manufacturing, retail, and financial services
Organisational power
The capacity of trade union to cultivate and synthesize the 'social capital' of their members
Strike duration
The length of time a strike lasts
Strike incidence
The number of separate stoppages
Strike breadth
The number of workers involved
The number of days lost to strikes
The number of workers multiplied by the duration of the strike
Psychological contracts
The perceptions of employer & employees of what their mutual obligations are to each other
Standard moderns approach to management
The standard modern approach was the most common before the decline of union membership and influence
Corporatist unionism
Trade unions become 'social partners' with employers in national development and decision-making
General unions
Trade unions that organise across different industries and occupations
Industrial unions
Trade unions that organise in one industry
Gig economy
Trading individual tasks online in exchange for small fees
Traditionalist approach to management
Treat employees as a factor of production, often exploitative
Sophisticated moderns approach to management
Union organisation and recognition provide stability, promotion of consent
Standard moderns approach to management
Unions are perceived as legitimate
Radical unionism
Unions define themselves as actors in a class struggle; might be linked to/support revolutionary parties or movements
Business unionism
Unions focus on wages and conditions through collective bargaining (no political or social policy agenda)
Traditionalist approach to management
Unitary framework can be used to understand their role and behaviour
Sophisticated paternalists approach to management
Unitary perspective (`we all work together for the common interest')
Flexicurity
When flexibility and security support each other like in Denmark in the 1990s
Dual-channel representation
When trade unions exist amongst work councils
Single-channel representation
When trade unions provide the sole means of representation within a workplace or company
Bogus self-employment
Workers who are forced into becoming self-employed
Posted-work
Workers who are sent by their employers to do work in another state
GATT after 1995
World Trade Organisation
Sophisticated paternalists approach to management
`Good' employers that treat employees in a paternalistic way (eg., Marks and Spencer)
Collaboration or coalitional power
develop cooperative Relationships with other groups, movements and organisations which have goals and interest in common but also differ from unions in their structure constituency and agenda
