Management Strategy
HR
MANAGEMENT AND UNION RELATIONSHIP.
Management Strategy,
Management has
become more powerful by hindering the trade unions through approaches like
downsizing, subcontracting, and outsourcing (Dhal, 2015).
· Downsizing,
The most lucrative
organizations, use downsizing more strategically as part of an overall
workforce policy. Layoffs become just one tool in a portfolio of alternatives
to improve firm performance (Cascio, 2009). Downsizing the
workforce will weaken the trade unions as they lost members, thereby indirectly
adding more power to management (Dhal, 2015).
· Subcontracting
and outsourcing,
Subcontracting/Outsourcing
are based on an obligation to provide results; the service provider takes
entire responsibility for the management of the outsourced activity (Guers, Martin and Wybo, 2015). This will allow
employer to achieve the target with a smaller number of employees directly
under them.
· Contract
labour,
Unions have low
saturation amongst contract workers due to their state of employment. Contracts
are changed regularly at the end of their term. This creates a relationship
directly with the management without involving unions (Kumar, 2015).
Majority of the modern employers formulate their own style of union avoidance, management prefers to have actively strengthened ’alternative forms of worker representation (Dundon, 2002). In a more detailed evaluation, Royle (2000) shows how the McDonald’s Corporation has undermined collective worker representation through its own brand of employee voice, tailored to different geographical, cultural, and statutory frameworks using employee participation scheme. This allows the employee to be engaged in decision making and profit sharing in the company, as a result employee will not have the need of unionization (Pérotin and Robinson, 2000).
In Figure 1, Survey carried out in U.S. shows size and influence of organized labor in the United States has been declining steadily for more than half a century (Milkman, 2020).
HRM has sought to build
its own channels of communication unlike the personnel management which used
trade unions (Sundar, 2017). Good
communication and employee engagement will strengthen the bond between Employer
and Employee and will reduce the need of unions (SHRM 2017).
Video 1, Explains the importance of good communication between employer and employee and how it leads to employee satisfaction. As emphasized in SHRM forum (2017) good communication and employee satisfaction will reduce the unionization.
References:
Cascio, W. F. (2009) ‘Employment downsizing and its
alternatives: Strategies for long-term success’, SHRM foundation’s effective
practice guideline series.
Dhal, M. (2015) HR Practices & Union Management
Relationship on JSTOR. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24547011?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_
contents.
Dundon, T. (2002) ‘Employer opposition and union avoidance in
the UK’, Industrial Relations Journal, 33(3), pp. 234–245. doi:
10.1111/1468-2338.00232.
Guers, C., Martin, C. and Wybo, J. L. (2015) ‘The impact of
the use of subcontracting on organizational reliability and safety’, Safety
and Reliability: Methodology and Applications - Proceedings of the European
Safety and Reliability Conference, ESREL 2014, pp. 1027–1035. doi:
10.1201/b17399-146.
Society for Human
Resource Management. (2017) How
can we prevent a union from organizing in our company?.
Available at: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr qa/pages/
preventunionorganization.aspx. Accessed: 8 August 2021.
Jorgenson, D. W. et al. (2012) ‘Federal Reserve Bank
of New York Raising the Speed Limit : U . S . Economic Growth in the
Information Age’, Information Age, 2000(1), pp. 125–235.
Kumar, V. (2015). “Trade
Unionism & Contract Workers in Selected Industries in Jamshedpur", Indian
Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 51, no. 2.
Milkman, R. (2020) ‘Union Decline And Labor Revival In The
21st Century United States’, Chicago-Kent Law Review, 95(1), p. 273.
Pérotin, V. and Robinson, A. (2000) ‘Employee participation
and equal opportunities practices: Productivity effect and potential
complementarities’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(4), pp.
557–583. doi: 10.1111/1467-8543.00180.
Royel, T. (2000) Working for Mcdonald's in Europe (1st
Edition). Roulledge [Online]. Available at http://www.doi.org. Accessed on
4th Augest 2021.
Stanberry, D. M. (2011) ‘Youth and Organizing: Why Unions
Will Struggle to Organize the Millennials’, Journal of Law, Technology &
The Internet, 2(2), pp. 103–115.
Sundar, K. R. S. (2017) ‘HR and Trade Unions are they
Incompatible? No!’, NHRD Network Journal, 10(1), pp. 48–52. doi:
10.1177/0974173920170110.
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ReplyDeleteAgreed with the argument. The relationship between HR practices and Union are bonded together since long ago and union leaders are challenged for wrong or lack of HR practices and union leaders re join hands with employees and employees are motivated with union relationship since they feel that no more aloneness in the organization( Dhal, 2015). Furthermore, research outcome of Mackenzie & Forde(2020), HRM systems typically interact with union partnership arrangement and trade unions are examine how activities of HRM interact with employees.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Mahadevan (2001), If the partnership is based on true intention of common goals of the organisation the employees will not feel left out, instead they will feel motivated.
DeleteAs an above argument, it is an actual state that trade unions have lost their growth and the track because of globalization with open market let the organizations power to control the employees. Further, downsizing of the employees may cause the lost trade union to their members, and influence indirectly transform more power to the organization and force unions to join together to drive business success (Manoranjan, 2019).
ReplyDeleteWith reference to Cascio (2009), downsizing of employees are used as a strategic move by the management to reduce power of unions. By doing that organisations can look in to outsourcing as a solution to full fill the manpower need. This additional manpower will not help the union numbers due to them not being employees of the company (Guers, Martin and Wybo, 2015).
Deleteyes. In 1985, Richard E. Walton published “From control to commitment in the workplace.” The argument was simple: there are often two radically different strategies for managing a workforce. For simplicity, Walton spoke of these profound differences as reflecting the choice between a strategy based on control of workers and a strategy based on eliciting commitment from them. He began the article with a tale of two real-life establishments, each under the control of the same parent firm, but with vastly different management practices, outcomes and employee satisfaction levels (Walton, 1985)
ReplyDeleteCorrectly said Chandana, commitment-based approach caused a lot of changes. Jobs were broader for planning and implementation, and goals were shared in organisations, making all employees accountable for whatever happens. Hierarchy statuses also were flattened. Above all, everyone in the workforce was given equal opportunities. This management approach caused improvements and advancement on the outputs (Gilbert, 2017).
DeleteYes however according to Machin & Wood (2005) there is no clear evidence o unions decline in workplace very soon with rapid adoption of HRM practices.
ReplyDeleteJayashi, Unions have been slow in embracing strategic outlook on human resources and adopt practices that could improve effectiveness and rejuvenate the movement (Rau,2012). This is evident in modern day unions that membership is not motivated to participate in union activity, Gallup, 2019 explains how union membership decreased through time.
DeleteFurther, Union-management cooperation characterizes a relationship between employers and labor unions that has the mutual aim of improving organizational performance and sustainability, which in turn benefits both the employer and employees (Chron, 2020)
ReplyDeleteRightly said Nuwan, Union - management partner ship will benefit both employer and employee not only in salary or profit, but also in job satisfaction and stability (Ostrowsky, 2005).
DeleteAs for management strategy in employment relations (Osterman 1987;
ReplyDeletePurcell and Ahlstrand 1994), it is possible to identify certain broad patterns of strategic choice when analysing trade union strategy in a neo-liberal environment. Unlike analysis, which examines three types of union–member relations, our patterns are based on the nexus between worker relations and employer relations (Heery and Kelly’s, 1994).
As per Vachon el at (2016) era of neo-liberalism has created tremendous challenges for workers throughout the world, including those in the most affluent capitalist democracies. Unionized and nonunionized workers alike are confronted by competition within new, globalized markets that extend the logic of comparative advantage to include differences in wages and working conditions.
DeleteYes Nimna, In an Union free environment management can take decisions based on organisational needs and goals, But in reality if the management dose not take employee needs in to consideration in the long run that business plan will fail (Nickson, 2013).
ReplyDeleteAgree and in addition to that the increase in the global shortage of highly skilled workforce especially in the knowledge based sectors has also made the competition to hire and retain the necessary talent more difficult (Manuel , 2016) As a result, the focus of Human Resource Management is on hiring and managing those employees considered most relevant to the long term interests of the companies or in other words employees who are “Talented” (Tarique, 2011).
ReplyDelete