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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1985

J.R. Carby‐Hall

It will be recalled that the last monograph treated the significance of the collective agreement in society. If solely a function in society, (though having a legal basis), were…

Abstract

It will be recalled that the last monograph treated the significance of the collective agreement in society. If solely a function in society, (though having a legal basis), were to be attributed to the collective agreement, this would mean that no rights or obligations whatsoever would be created between the parties to it. This is not so in practice. It is of course a fact that no legally enforceable rights and obligations normally accrue, and as already indicated, those are moral ones and are only enforceable in honour, i.e. a gentleman's agreement. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the collective agreement has no juridical significance. Even agreements which are binding in honour only, as for example the kind of agreement found in Balfour v. Balfour, have a known juridical nature. Furthermore, though the collective agreement is only binding in honour, its incorporation into the individual contract of employment makes its terms legally enforceable even though recourse to the courts is seldom had. As a source of rights and obligations of considerable importance the collective agreement must therefore have some juridical significance and cannot remain entirely in the realms of society.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1993

Jo Carby‐Hall

Whatever debates may have taken place in the past in the courts and elsewhere on the status of trade unions, current legislation provides that a “… trade union … is not a body…

Abstract

Whatever debates may have taken place in the past in the courts and elsewhere on the status of trade unions, current legislation provides that a “… trade union … is not a body corporate …” and “…shall not be treated as if it were a body corporate…” For practical reasons however, a trade union is, inter alia, “… capable of making contracts …” which includes the entering into a collective agreement.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 35 no. 4/5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2004

Joanne M. Roch

The diversification phase observed in the American economy since 1975 (Leontiades, 1980) has led to significant questioning about the dimensions constituting related…

Abstract

The diversification phase observed in the American economy since 1975 (Leontiades, 1980) has led to significant questioning about the dimensions constituting related diversification. During the 1980s, the disappointing performances of businesses that had implemented related diversifications pushed researchers to take a closer look at the challenges involved in integration to discover commonalities in progressing from potential synergy to synergy achieved. As a result, many recent research endeavors have attempted to describe the management and integration process best suited to the context (Haspelagh & Jemison, 1991; Marks & Mirvis, 1998; Pablo, 1994; Shrivastava, 1986). Obviously, their attention focused primarily on initiatives targeting integration on the functional, structural, and operational levels, without really taking into account the historical, cognitive, and cultural baggage that each business carries around with it.

This research is intended to provide a better understanding of the factors that contribute to creating synergies between companies undertaking an integration process involving related diversification. Based on the cognitive approach, it is premised on the notion that creating synergy primarily depends on reconciling the collective representations of the companies involved rather than on simply implementing measures designed to achieve technical and operational integration.

This study places particular emphasis on the concept of collective representations, which recognizes that organizational players come to adopt a relatively homogeneous view of the world. It proposes an analysis framework and research method enabling it to go beyond the limits of attempts that, up until now, have strived to quantify and substantiate the mental schemata of organizations involved in merger acquisition. Moreover, these attempts have been criticized as being too vague (Côté, Langley & Pasquero, 1999; Grant, 1988; Lampel & Shamsie, 2000).

In order to characterize the content of collective representations specific to each of the organizations undergoing integration, we propose applying a new approach in the sociology of organizations called the theory of conventions (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1991, 1994). The convention theory posits that organizational players share representation systems that help forge interaction rules. Collective, concerted action is made possible by mobilizing common frameworks, that is, conventions. These conventions are characterized by higher principles specific to each city. The outcome can be agreement or conflict, depending on whether player justifications are rooted in the same city or not.

Through the longitudinal analysis of the case of related diversification, specifically a Canadian chartered bank’s acquisition of two brokerage subsidiaries (1987, 1994), this study examines the evolution of the integration initiatives and collective representations of the businesses involved. We made two significant observations in examining the various integration initiatives undertaken by the bank during the period under study. First, the integration initiatives could be described as falling into the technical, structural, and operational categories. Second, their outcomes, both qualitatively and quantitatively, were far from conclusive.

Concurrent analysis of justificatory fragments of the three organizations, during the period under studied, revealed divergence between the justification modes that each of the businesses opted for. This divergence of dominant collective representations enabled us to interpret the issues encountered during these initiatives and posit a new explanation for their qualified success.

Details

Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-172-9

Book part
Publication date: 19 July 2016

Alexander J. S. Colvin

The decline of collective representation and rise of individual employment rights is a transformative shift in employment relations that has changed the landscape of workplace…

Abstract

Purpose

The decline of collective representation and rise of individual employment rights is a transformative shift in employment relations that has changed the landscape of workplace dispute resolution. I propose a model that seeks to provide a new approach to understanding how workplace dispute resolution functions in the era of individual employment rights.

Methodology/approach

The model I propose focuses the analysis on the elements that connect the structure of rights that are enacted to the patterns of employment practices in the workplace.

Findings

My argument is that the systems for enforcement of individual employment rights and the mechanisms of representation for the employees affected are as important as the substantive rights themselves in determining the impact of the individual rights regime. These three elements combine to determine the degree to which the individual employment rights serve as an effective source of power for employees in relation to their employers.

Research implications

The establishment of these sources of power is what then results in the individual rights regime producing an effect on the employers’ patterns of practices in the workplace and ultimately determining the nature and character of the employment relationship.

Details

Managing and Resolving Workplace Conflict
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-060-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2015

Paul Marginson

The purpose of this paper is to survey developments in four aspects of collective employment relations (ER) since the mid-1960s: collective representation and organisation;…

5434

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to survey developments in four aspects of collective employment relations (ER) since the mid-1960s: collective representation and organisation; collective bargaining coverage and structure; the collective bargaining agenda; and joint consultation arrangements. It considers the reasons underlying change.

Design/methodology/approach

A range of published sources are drawn on, including quantitative, survey based and qualitative, case-study and other evidence.

Findings

The landscape of collective ER has changed markedly over the past half century. Membership of trade unions has fallen from around half of the workforce to one-quarter. Employers who mainly conducted collective bargaining through employers’ associations now negotiate, if at all, on a firm-by-firm basis. Collective bargaining coverage has sharply declined and now only extends to a minority of the private sector workforce. The bargaining agenda has been hollowed out. Joint consultation arrangements too are less widespread than they were around 1980.

Originality/value

The paper contends that change has been driven by three underlying processes. “Marketization” of collective ER entailing a shift from an industrial or occupational to an enterprise frame of reference. The rise of “micro-corporatism”, reflecting increased emphasis on the common interests of collective actors within an enterprise frame. Finally, the voluntarism, underpinning Britain’s collective ER became more “asymmetric”, with employers’ preferences increasingly predominant.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 37 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Ida Regalia

The purpose of this paper is to highlight a series of critical points in the traditional theory (and practice) of ER/IR, in search of a more comprehensive paradigm.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to highlight a series of critical points in the traditional theory (and practice) of ER/IR, in search of a more comprehensive paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach

After an introduction based on a literature review, the paper draws on the results of recent empirical research, and particularly of a survey of employment relations in Italian small firms, in order to explore the extent to which practices conform to traditional expectations on the functioning of collectively mediated IR systems.

Findings

Through the combination of two dimensions – the representation of labour and the degree of workplace welfare – a typology of ER models in small firms is thus delineated unveiling the diffusion of “anomalous” configurations, in which labour organization and workplace welfare are disconnected from one another.

Research limitations/implications

The research results, which are here instrumentally used as an example of a much broader range of facts and behaviours that challenge the traditional wisdom, disclose a number of implications at theoretical level, that still need to be fully appreciated. They include the need to consider: the structure and composition of resources available to ER/IR actors both within and beyond workplaces; and the conditions for good labour relations also in absence of representation.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the debate on the possibilities of positive and socially acceptable ways of setting the rules of work in the globalized scenario by focussing not on new, fashionable issues, but on an old problem often neglected by classic studies on industrial relations in the golden age.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Frédérique Grazzini

As a result of the global financial crisis, the meaning of action has reemerged as a central focus of the current debates. This paper seeks to analyze the meaning given by…

4878

Abstract

Purpose

As a result of the global financial crisis, the meaning of action has reemerged as a central focus of the current debates. This paper seeks to analyze the meaning given by managers to their contribution to the strategy development process.

Design/methodology/approach

The core underlying assumptions in this research are that social phenomena such as strategy are determined by representations shaped by discourse and that education is a major vector for promoting strategic discourses. Through the concepts of social representation and strategy lens, the paper examines the beliefs and paradigms underlying the strategy development process. Based on a sample of 1,033 managers, this research constructs a holistic typology of the social representations of strategy among managers.

Findings

Four different groups of social representations of strategy are identified and characterized. Links are established between these groups and a range of socio-demographic, social, occupational and structural variables.

Practical implications

By clarifying various paradigms and providing reference points, this research encourages increased awareness of these paradigms among managers in order to promote emancipation from them.

Originality/value

The study is primarily synthesis-based at a theoretical level, but also in the analysis and interpretation of the role of strategists. It also helps to close the gap between research, teaching and practice.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 December 2022

Roslyn Wallach Bologh

This work addresses what Michael E. Brown calls the immanence of sociality to individuality. It does so by focusing on the essentially social nature of human consciousness. I…

Abstract

This work addresses what Michael E. Brown calls the immanence of sociality to individuality. It does so by focusing on the essentially social nature of human consciousness. I explore Durkheim’s analysis of human consciousness, beginning with totemism and concluding with his analysis of German consciousness at the time of World War I. I do so in order to provide some insight into the rise and nature of political movements, with a focus on extreme right wing political groups and leaders today as well as the spirit of the French Revolution in European and American history. With reference to Marx’s early writings on consciousness, spiritual nourishment, and the fettering of forces of production and his later writings on the critical significance of fetishism, and the role of “fictitious” capital, I conclude by claiming that bringing together the insights of Durkheim, Marx, and Spinoza can provide a way to analyze and address the interlocking social, political, economic, and cultural crises of today.

Details

The Centrality of Sociality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-362-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2005

Carole Bonner and Paul J. Gollan

This paper aims to examine union and non‐union consultation and representative arrangements at South West Water (SWW) over a ten‐year period, from 1992 to 2002.

1806

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine union and non‐union consultation and representative arrangements at South West Water (SWW) over a ten‐year period, from 1992 to 2002.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper attempts to fill the gap in the current research by examining the processes leading from union derecognition, non‐union employee representation (NER), to recognition of union representation using SWW as an example.

Findings

The SWW experience suggests that any representative structures within firms need to have full support of the majority of employees and to have been seen as being organic to the workplace rather than an imposed arrangement by management. Without such a bottom‐up approach, the legitimacy and respect for such arrangements will diminish, creating obstacles for developing meaningful dialogue and trust between management, staff and unions. For unions, maintaining high membership density, while no guarantee of continuing recognition, creates an environment of strong union organisation and representation at workplace level.

Originality/value

As the experience at SWW has shown, where unions have been excluded from the workplace, maintaining a presence through the representation of individual employee interests and through colonisation of NER structures has been shown to pay dividends in the long run. However, a recognition agreement is not enough on its own to secure new members and unions need to be effective and relevant to the workforce.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 August 2008

Hazel Conley and Paul Stewart

Drawing on literature that examines trade union representation of “non‐standard” workers, this paper aims to analyse the attempts of the Association of University Teachers (AUT…

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Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on literature that examines trade union representation of “non‐standard” workers, this paper aims to analyse the attempts of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) to integrate the interests of contract research staff (CRS) employed on fixed‐term contracts between 1974 and 2002. The paper examines the union campaign under five areas identified in the literature as important to the development of representation of non‐standard workers: trade union orientation to non‐standard workers; recruitment; participation; collective bargaining; extending representation beyond collective bargaining.

Design/methodology/approach

The main sources of data are drawn from analyses of union documentation, including internal memoranda and reports dating back to 1974, which chart the antecedents and progress of the AUT campaign against casualisation. This is supported by participant and non‐participant observation of 14 union meetings and events coupled with data from 20 semi‐structured interviews with a range of national officers and local activists conducted between 1999 and 2002.

Findings

The data support previous research that has identified changing union orientations to non‐standard workers. In the AUT, recruitment of CRS was propelled by instrumental needs to build and extend a declining membership base, but active participation of members employed on fixed‐term contracts has influenced union democracy and the collective bargaining agenda. However, the results, in terms of concrete gains in job security for CRS, have been limited.

Research limitations/implications

The paper examines a case study of one union in particular circumstances. Although the findings add to the general knowledge of union representation on non‐standard workers, the outcomes are specific to the case study union. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the AUT campaign against casualisation whilst highlighting the implications for the development of conceptual and theoretical frameworks on the representation of “non‐standard” workers.

Originality/value

The paper provides unique and detailed historical data on one trade union's attempts to integrate the interests of academics employed on fixed‐term contracts into union structures originally designed to service one of the most secure sectors of the British workforce.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

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