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Book part
Publication date: 11 September 2012

Paola Gritti and Riccardo Leoni

This paper examines the influence of high performance work practices (HPWPs) and industrial relations (IR) on firm propensity for product and process innovation. The authors…

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of high performance work practices (HPWPs) and industrial relations (IR) on firm propensity for product and process innovation. The authors distinguish between two styles of workplace governance – democratic and autocratic – based on whether the management is willing to cooperate with workers’ representatives, and two styles of IR – participatory or advocatory – based on the extent of their influence. The estimates carried out indicate that HPWPs always have a significant and positive effect on both product and process innovation, while IR has a positive effect only in respect of product innovation, and provided the style is of participatory type. An interpretation of the IR effects could be that process innovation makes workers feel insecure about their jobs, while product innovation represents the path that can better protect workers’ prospects in an uncertain and unstable competitive environment. In respect of the style of IR, the effect is positive when workers’ representatives adopt a participatory role; the effect is instead cancelled out when employing an advocatory role. Participatory style IR is very likely to contribute to creating a positive attitude towards change, with workers willing to share the adjustment costs (such as learning new competencies), while advocatory style IR generates, in the minds of managers, a perception of the risk that investments in product innovation may turn into sunk costs for the firm through a likely appropriation of quasi-rent by workers (‘hold-up problem’).

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Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-221-9

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Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2006

David Metcalf and Jianwei Li

China has, apparently, more trade union members than the rest of the world put together, but the unions are subservient to the Party-state. The theme of the paper is the gap…

Abstract

China has, apparently, more trade union members than the rest of the world put together, but the unions are subservient to the Party-state. The theme of the paper is the gap between rhetoric and reality. Issues analysed include union structure, membership, representation, and the interaction between unions and the Party-state. We suggest that Chinese unions inhabit an Alice in Wonderland dream world and that they are virtually impotent when it comes to representing workers. Because the Party-state recognises that such frailty may lead to instability it has passed new laws promoting collective contracts and established new tripartite institutions to mediate and arbitrate disputes. While such laws are welcome they are largely hollow: collective contracts are very different from collective bargaining and the incidence of cases dealt with by the tripartite institutions is tiny. Much supporting evidence is presented drawing on detailed case studies undertaken in Hainan Province (the largest and one of the oldest special economic zones) in 2004 and 2005. The need for more effective representation is appreciated by some All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) officials, but it seems a long way off, so unions in China will continue to echo the White Queen: “The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today” and, alas, tomorrow never comes.

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Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-470-6

Book part
Publication date: 11 April 2009

Vidu Badigannavar

In Britain, labor−management partnership has been the fulcrum of the Labor Government's employment relations programme since its election in 1997. The Involvement and…

Abstract

In Britain, labor−management partnership has been the fulcrum of the Labor Government's employment relations programme since its election in 1997. The Involvement and Participation Association (IPA, 1997; website: http://www.partnership-at-work.com) − the influential employers’ organization − has been at the forefront of promoting labor−management partnership to improve productivity in UK firms through greater employee involvement and participation (see http://www.partnership-at-work.com). The Trades Union Congress (TUC; partnership institute website: http://www.partnership-institute.org.uk) and several of its constituent unions have also endorsed partnership with employers as a route to promote employee ‘voice’ at work, secure better bargaining outcomes and improve union membership levels and density (Undy, 2001). Union density in the UK private sector has declined from 19.9 per cent in autumn 1997 to 17.2 per cent in autumn 2005, while in the public sector it has declined from 60.9 per cent to 58.6 per cent over the same period of time (Grainger, 2006). Advocates of partnership argue that such arrangements deliver mutual gains to the parties involved, viz. higher productivity and profits for employers, better wages and higher employment security to workers and greater influence over management decisions for unions, which in turn help them to attract and recruit new members (e.g. Haynes & Allen, 2001; Deery & Iverson, 2005).

Details

Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-397-2

Book part
Publication date: 2 October 2003

Graciela Bensusán and Maria Lorena Cook

The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) as president of Mexico marked an historic turning point in that country’s…

Abstract

The July 2, 2000, electoral victory of Vicente Fox of the opposition National Action Party (PAN) as president of Mexico marked an historic turning point in that country’s political development. The ouster from power of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after seventy-one years promised to rupture the long-time alliance between organized labor, the state, and the PRI. A transition to a democratic political regime would create new opportunities for the struggling independent labor movement in Mexico. More importantly, a political transition would make possible for the first time a shift away from an authoritarian-corporatist system of industrial relations toward a democratic model of labor governance.

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

Book part
Publication date: 18 February 2008

Jane Pitcher, Rosie Campbell, Phil Hubbard, Maggie O’Neill and Jane Scoular

Measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and nuisance to residents, particularly in urban areas, have been a major focus of UK Government policies over recent years. The Crime and

Abstract

Measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and nuisance to residents, particularly in urban areas, have been a major focus of UK Government policies over recent years. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and subsequent legislation such as the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 introduced stricter powers, particularly through the use of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), as a means of addressing problems in residential neighbourhoods. While there is clearly a need to tackle problem behaviour that impacts seriously on the quality of life of community members, evidence also suggests that behaviour previously tolerated by many is now targeted through enforcement measures, leading to increased polarisation and stigmatisation of some groups (Rowlands, 2005). At the same time, national agendas around Neighbourhood and Civic Renewal1 aim to minimise conflicts in neighbourhood renewal areas through fostering understanding and building bridges between different groups within diverse communities. There is thus some tension between the different agendas which impacts on how such issues are addressed within localities.

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Qualitative Urban Analysis: An International Perspective
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1368-6

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2016

Wei Huang, Jingjing Weng and Ying-Che Hsieh

The missing employee voice has become a salient topic in China. This paper aims to document the newest developments relating to the topic by reviewing the recent literature on…

Abstract

The missing employee voice has become a salient topic in China. This paper aims to document the newest developments relating to the topic by reviewing the recent literature on employment relations and employee voice. The findings of this paper suggest that the purposes of and channels for the employee voice in China have been undergoing significant changes. Different stakeholder groups have approached the issue. ‘Democratic management’ in China, the country’s home-grown concept of employee voice, has been resurrected to encourage more effective employee representation. Apart from this top-down influence from the government and All-China Federation of Trade Unions, this paper also identifies the bottom-up approach driven by the workers, and the external influence from the global corporate social responsibility campaign and nongovernmental labour organizations. Based on the review of the newest developments in workplace democracy and the employee voice in China, this paper proposes a stakeholder framework incorporating these developments. The authors also suggest some directions for future research.

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Employee Voice in Emerging Economies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-240-8

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 December 2021

Phoebe V. Moore

Most scholarly and governmental discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) today focus on a country’s technological competitiveness and try to identify how this supposedly new…

Abstract

Most scholarly and governmental discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) today focus on a country’s technological competitiveness and try to identify how this supposedly new technological capability will improve productivity. Some discussions look at AI ethics. But AI is more than a technological advancement. It is a social question and requires philosophical inquiry. The producers of AI who are software engineers and designers, and software users who are human resource professionals and managers, unconsciously as well as consciously project direct forms of intelligence onto machines themselves, without considering in any depth the practical implications of this when weighed against human actual or perceived intelligences. Neither do they think about the relations of production that are required for the development and production of AI and its capabilities, where data-producing human workers are expected not only to accept the intelligences of machines, now called ‘smart machines’, but also to endure particularly difficult working conditions for bodies and minds in the process of creating and expanding the datasets that are required for the development of AI itself. This chapter asks, who is the smart worker today and how does she contribute to AI through her quantified, but embodied labour?

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The Quantification of Bodies in Health: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-883-8

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Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Carlos Diaz-Moreno and Jose E Galdon-Sanchez

In this paper, we build a complete information bargaining model of collective negotiation that can explain delays in reaching agreements. We structurally estimate the model using…

Abstract

In this paper, we build a complete information bargaining model of collective negotiation that can explain delays in reaching agreements. We structurally estimate the model using firm-level data for large Spanish firms. For this type of firm, the assumption of complete information seems a sensible one, and it matches the collective bargaining environment better than the one provided by private information models. The specification of the model with players having different discount factors allows us to measure their relative bargaining power, a recurrent question in the theory of bargaining. Our model replicates the data on delays at the sectoral and aggregate level. We also find that both entrepreneurs and workers have high discount factors, and no evidence that entrepreneurs have greater bargaining power, as usually assumed.

Details

Accounting for Worker Well-Being
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-273-3

Book part
Publication date: 9 December 2013

Anthony Jensen

This article describes the practical and theoretical implications relating to the labor managed firm (LMF), which has been formed from an insolvent company purchased by its…

Abstract

Purpose

This article describes the practical and theoretical implications relating to the labor managed firm (LMF), which has been formed from an insolvent company purchased by its workers. The research focuses on an international comparison and the cultural context of six LMFs – two each in the United States, Spain, and Italy where legislation supports worker buyouts from insolvency. Adopting a critical theoretical approach it draws on the scholarship of industrial relations and human resource management, grounded in a historical analysis to predict when a transformative or integrative LMF will be formed.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking a case study methodology to enable an in-depth understanding of the firms internal processes and relationships the use of semi-structured interviews of blue- and white-collar workers (with the use of a translator) and the administration of a structured questionnaire are used to gather and triangulate qualitative and quantitative data. The research limitations relate to the small number of respondents in each firm, which prevented more rigorous analysis, and calls for further research with larger numbers of respondents.

Findings

The results reveal that at macro level the theoretical model predicts that the LMF will have a propensity to emerge when there are market failures, when there is support from the state and the labor movement. The type of LMF was found to depend on the national context of industrial relations. At the micro level a core set of practices were found to work together to lead to high member commitment and positive behavioral outcomes.

Social implications

The research has important social implications by informing public policy aimed at redressing the injustice to employees when a business fails and jobs and entitlements are lost.

Originality/value

The article advances an understanding of the theoretical nature of the LMF.

Details

Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-Making in the 21st Century
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-750-4

Keywords

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