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Article
Publication date: 3 January 2017

Samantha Evans, Amanda Pyman and Iona Byford

The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of a managerial approach to renewal for a union’s behaviour by analysing the UK’s fourth largest trade union – The Union

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of a managerial approach to renewal for a union’s behaviour by analysing the UK’s fourth largest trade union – The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW).

Design/methodology/approach

The findings draw on in-depth semi-structured interviews with union officials.

Findings

The research findings show the significance of a managerialist approach to UDSAW’s renewal strategy and its correlation with existing renewal strategies of organising and partnership. However, this approach was not immune to context, with tensions between agency and articulation challenging the basic concept of managerialism and influencing union behaviour.

Research limitations/implications

The data were collected from a single case with a small sample size.

Practical implications

The authors’ findings suggest that tensions between bureaucracy and democracy will mediate the extent to which managerialist approaches can be used within unions adding support to the strategic choice theory and underlying arguments that unions can influence their fortune. However, institutional and external pressures could see managerialism becoming more prevalent, with oligarchic and bureaucratic forces prevailing, which could be particularly applicable to unions operating in challenging contexts, such as USDAW. The managerialisation of unions has consequences for union officers; with officers facing increasing pressure in their roles to behave as managers with attendant implications for role conflict, identity and motivation.

Social implications

If managerialism is becoming more prevalent with unions, with oligarchic and bureaucratic forces prevailing, this has potentially wider societal implications, whereby collectivism and worker-led democracy could become scarcer within unions and the workplace, thus irretrievably altering the nature of the employment relationship.

Originality/value

This paper brings together disparate themes in the literature to propose a conceptual framework of three key elements of managerialism: centralised strategies; performance management and the managerialisation of union roles. The authors’ findings demonstrate how there is scope for unions to adopt a hybrid approach to renewal, and to draw upon their internal resources, processes and techniques to implement change, including behavioural change. Consequently, theories and empirical studies of union renewal need to better reflect the complexities of approaches that unions are now adopting and further explore these models within the agency and articulation principles that underpin the nature of unions.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 39 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

Sandra Cockfield

This paper aims to examine the relationship between union renewal strategies and the adoption and implementation of information and communication technologies by trade unions.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the relationship between union renewal strategies and the adoption and implementation of information and communication technologies by trade unions.

Design/methodology/approach

The research centres on a case study of an Australian trade union, exploring the fit between recent changes to the industrial strategy and information technology strategy. It involved interviews with union officials and a review of union documentation.

Findings

Information and communication technologies have the potential to promote union renewal by enabling new forms of participation and activism. However, to achieve these outcomes the technologies must be part of an integrated union renewal strategy. The internal political processes of the union will shape both the union renewal strategies and the role and use of technology in implementing these strategies.

Research limitations/implications

The research is based on a single trade union, thus limiting the generality of the conclusions drawn.

Originality/value

The paper concerns a relatively new research area on trade unions and offers a critical perspective on the use of information and communication technologies by trade unions.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 1 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 October 2003

Edmund Heery, Rick Delbridge, Melanie Simms, John Salmon and David H Simpson

As trade unions have continued to decline in membership and influence across the developed economies, so academic attention has turned to the prospects for renewal and a search…

Abstract

As trade unions have continued to decline in membership and influence across the developed economies, so academic attention has turned to the prospects for renewal and a search for the conditions under which it might plausibly occur (Fairbrother, 2000; Martin & Ross, 1999; Turner, 1999). One leg of this search has been directed towards the changing context which unions face and has resulted in the prescription that unions must change their policies, structures and culture to accommodate a “new workforce” (Cobble, 1994; Heckscher, 1988; Wever, 1998). A second leg has been directed within unions themselves and has been concerned more with the internal processes through which renewal can take place (Fiorito et al., 1995; Hurd, 1998; Pocock, 1998). In the U.K., two distinctive theories of change in trade unions have emerged along this second line of inquiry, one of which, the “rank and file” model, holds that significant change occurs from the bottom-up and requires the mobilisation of members against a conservative leadership (Fairbrother, 1996). The other, the “managerial” model, claims the opposite is true and that renewal is conditional on effective systems of union management and occurs from the top–down (Willman et al., 1993). Both theories are venerable and in Britain their roots can be traced on the one hand to the Webbs and their conviction that effective unions required professional leadership and on the other to the apostles of industrial syndicalism (Fox, 1985, pp. 66, 256–260). They continue to structure debate, however, and the purpose of this article is to provide an empirical examination of each with regard to an issue, which seemingly is critical to the internal renewal of unions, the development of organising activity.

Details

Labor Revitalization: Global Perspectives and New Initiatives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-153-8

Book part
Publication date: 22 December 2005

Amanda Pyman

This paper argues that creative compliance tactics are an innovative union renewal strategy. Creative compliance involves the observance of the letter of the law while undermining…

Abstract

This paper argues that creative compliance tactics are an innovative union renewal strategy. Creative compliance involves the observance of the letter of the law while undermining its spirit. This regulatory inconsistency stems from indeterminate legal outcomes and discretion in legal interpretation and application. Drawing on interviews with senior union officials in four case studies in Australia, this paper reveals that two particular types of creative compliance tactics have been used by the unions to achieve positive outcomes: work-to-rule and the exploitation of loopholes. These opportunistic and proactive approaches to ‘anti-union’ legislation at the national level since 1997 represent a sea change in union tactics and a viable union renewal strategy, because they augment the individual ability of unions to shape and advance an agenda and therefore, adapt and transform at an organisational level. Consistent with adaptation theories on organisational-environment relations and strategic choice theory, the findings reinforce that unions ‘own’ strategic choices and that they can, in response to environmental scanning, adjust their tactics accordingly.

Details

Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-265-8

Article
Publication date: 2 January 2007

Gregor Gall

The purpose of this article is to examine the processes and outcomes under which employers in the magazine industry in the UK ended the collective bargaining agreements for…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine the processes and outcomes under which employers in the magazine industry in the UK ended the collective bargaining agreements for journalists with the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and instituted a unilateral‐based regime in the employment relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The research data were generated primarily via interviews with lay office holders and full‐time paid officials of the NUJ.

Findings

The journalists' union maintained a presence despite employer hostility and has been able to use this as a basis to regain collective bargaining agreements. Nonetheless, the relative weakness of the NUJ has meant that it has been unable to date to force the magazine employers into conducting genuine collective bargaining. This represents a case of impeded but not dissipated “union renewal”, suggesting the union renewal could be termed as being of a “stunted” nature.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the research should be taken as being preliminary given that the NUJ has only recently regained union recognition and begun conducting collective bargaining again. A longer timescale will allow more definitive judgements to be made.

Practical implications

The paper indicates the significant challenges that trade unions face to reassert themselves in the workplace in the face of employer ambivalence and hostility despite regaining formal union recognition rights.

Originality/value

This paper provides empirical evidence of how trade unions are progressing after regaining union recognition.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 36 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 July 2020

Ed Dandalt, Marybeth Gasman and Georges Goma

This study seeks to explore the union perspective of a group of unionized young Canadian teachers to understand their belief system about trade unionism.

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to explore the union perspective of a group of unionized young Canadian teachers to understand their belief system about trade unionism.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used herein consists of collecting and examining the interview data of participants (n = 37) through the theoretical lens of radical perspective.

Findings

The findings suggest that participants positively associate unionism with bargaining for their special interests, providing professional development services and opportunities for professional socialization. But this pluralist perspective has not translated into an engagement in the union life.

Research limitations/implications

So far, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to the whole population of Canadian young teachers because the participants’ sample size is not large enough. In consideration of this limitation, unions need to survey the union opinions of their young rank and file members at a large scale to draw a clear understanding of the needs of these members to adequately adjust their renewal and revitalization strategies to those needs.

Originality/value

The findings of this study are significant because the intersection between young teachers and organized labor is underresearched in Canada.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 50 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2013

Denise Thursfield and Jean Kellie

The purpose of this paper is to explore management development in five trade unions. It investigates senior trade union managers' interpretations of management development, in…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore management development in five trade unions. It investigates senior trade union managers' interpretations of management development, in particular, the extent to which they view management development as relevant to trade unions. The article also explores the link between managers' interpretations and the external environment for trade union activity. It considers the potential discord between the unitarist values and assumptions that arguably frame much management development literature and the democratic and pluralist values of trade unionism.

Design/methodology/approach

This research takes an interpretive qualitative approach. In‐depth interviews with nine key “elite” individuals representing five trade unions were carried out, in order to elicit their subjective interpretations of management development.

Findings

Trade union managers view management development as necessary in the context of environmental uncertainty. Moreover, although management development in trade unions retains some unitarist assumptions, it is also linked to core trade union values of fairness and justice.

Research limitations/implications

The in‐depth qualitative interview design allows for exploration of management development activities in a small number of unions and from a management perspective. Further research is needed to explore the issues in a wider context.

Practical implications

The paper begins to highlight and theorise management development in trade unions.

Social implications

The article has implications in relation to the role of trade unions as employers.

Originality/value

The article explores and theorises management development in relation to trade union management practices. It explores trade union education from the management development perspective rather than from an industrial relations or political education paradigm.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2002

Edward L. Zammit and Saviour Rizzo

Trade union members, on the basis of their work experiences and aspirations, tend to develop an implicit paradigm within which they expect their trade union to function. The…

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Abstract

Trade union members, on the basis of their work experiences and aspirations, tend to develop an implicit paradigm within which they expect their trade union to function. The survey conducted by the Workers’ Participation Development Centre (WPDC) of the University of Malta reveals how trade unions are perceived by their members thus attempting to decode this paradigm. The data emanating from this survey suggest that solidarity rather than viewed as an intrinsic value is seen as a means for attaining instrumental values. Yet, despite the growing heterogeneity of trade union constituents there is still a significant group of workers who uphold the traditional and ideal vision of trade unionism. The survey suggests that, while undergoing renewal trade unions should hold on to the principles of workers’ representation upon which they were founded. Nevertheless the changes taking place in the labour market also require that new recruitment initiatives be undertaken. Failing this, the trade union movement may end up representing merely a “labour aristocracy” rather than a wide section of contemporary workforce.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1996

Peter Fairbrother

The question of health and safety at work is a central issue for trade unions. In Britain it is an area of concern where there were important legislative initiatives in the 1970s…

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Abstract

The question of health and safety at work is a central issue for trade unions. In Britain it is an area of concern where there were important legislative initiatives in the 1970s and 1980s, although surprisingly this has received relatively little attention in the debates about trade unionism. This neglect results in an aspect of union activity about which little is known. Explores through a detailed longitudinal study of a middle‐range engineering firm, from the late 1970s into the 1990s, the ways in which trade unions organize and act on health and safety questions. Argues that it is almost “routine” that workers face dangers and hazards at work, a central feature of the work and employment experience of most workers. However, this is often difficult to deal with as individual issues, or as matters which are subject to collective consideration. On the one hand, workers often appear to accept the dangers and hazards they face. On the other hand, managements are preoccupied with questions relating to production and finance, rather than the day‐to‐day problems faced by workers. This tension suggests that the future wellbeing of workers in unionized workplaces lies not so much with legislative provisions and rights at work, but in education and the organizing ability of workplace unions, raising and addressing what often seem like individualistic problems in collective ways.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

Miguel Martínez Lucio and Steve Walker

The article aims to look at the development of the internet in terms of its implications for the labour movement and its international activities.

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Abstract

Purpose

The article aims to look at the development of the internet in terms of its implications for the labour movement and its international activities.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper brings together conclusions and findings based on the previous work of the two individual authors who have studied the role of the internet from a national and international perspective, using a range of methodologies.

Findings

The impact of the internet in terms of facilitating communication and renewal strategies has been highly significant. However, the authors argue that such developments are also mediated by trade union structures and organisational traditions/ideologies at the national level where there is still a considerable degree of variety. It also looks and focuses on some of the challenges of international labour co‐ordination through the use of the internet, noting some of the difficulties faced by trade unionists. The paper therefore brings together insights into the way organisations such as trade unions interact with such developments both at the national and international level.

Originality/value

The article emphasises the need to develop a political and sociological understanding of the internet within industrial relations and in terms of future research.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 1 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 5000