Showing papers in "Industrial Relations Journal in 2019"
TL;DR: In this article, the role played by workplace unions' framing of lean production was investigated in a case study of the automotive parts industry in Italy and the United States, and it was found that unions' framings are derived from their identities in interaction with available resources in institutional and organisational terms.
Abstract: Several studies have acknowledged that lean production is implemented in diverse ways across workplaces, thereby generating different outcomes for workers. However, explanations for this variability needs further development. The present article addresses this issue by considering the role played by workplace unions' framing of lean production. It finds that unions' framing is derived from their identities in interaction with available resources in institutional and organisational terms. A case study comparison of the automotive parts industry in Italy and the United States was conducted.
36 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the first attempt to locate zero-hour contract (ZHC) jobs within theoretical frameworks of the employment relationship and occupational class was made and empirically explore their characteristics using successive UK Labour Force Survey.
Abstract: We present the first attempt to locate zero‐hour contract (ZHC) jobs—jobs that lack a guaranteed minimum number of hours—within theoretical frameworks of the employment relationship and occupational class and empirically explore their characteristics using successive UK Labour Force Survey. In line with these theories, we find this contentious form of employment to be strongly differentiated by the nature of occupational tasks and to overlap with nonstandard employment features (e.g. part‐time and temporary). They are also highly concentrated in a small number of occupations and sectors, with over half of ZHC jobs found in just 10 occupations. We further show that ZHCs are associated with indicators of inferior job quality such as low pay and underemployment. Although we find no evidence that ZHCs are a particularly pervasive feature of the UK labour market, further growth cannot be ruled out in certain occupations.
24 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that three principles need to be followed in choosing the right measures and shown how these principles have been used to create a short job quality quiz ( www.howgoodismyjob.com).
Abstract: The government has accepted the Taylor Review's recommendation that it should report annually on job quality in the UK. This article argues that three principles need to be followed in choosing the right measures and shows how these principles have been used to create a short job quality quiz (www.howgoodismyjob.com).
19 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a specific path through which authoritarian neoliberalism was materialised in the governance of Turkey's industrial relations under AKP rule is explained, and it is claimed that the governance under AKPNP leadership embodies spatially and temporally distinct characteristics integrating long-established authoritarian institutional structures and practices with neoliberal ideology, powerful political alliances, Islamic values, repressive practices and mounting resistance, thus rendering it a unique form of authoritarianoliberalism.
Abstract: Authoritarian neoliberal governance of industrial relations is on the rise around the world, displaying remarkable similarities across countries with similar democratic political structures. However, despite a certain degree of resemblance, countries have been following divergent paths rendering each case unique in terms of its experience. This article explains the specific path through which authoritarian neoliberalism was materialised in the governance of Turkey's industrial relations under AKP rule. It is purported that AKP's pursuit of authoritarian neoliberalism in its governance of industrial relations shares certain similarities with the emerging market economies, which have a less democratic political system. However, it is contended that the governance of Turkey's industrial relations under AKP leadership embodies spatially and temporally distinct characteristics integrating long‐established authoritarian institutional structures and practices with neoliberal ideology, powerful political alliances, Islamic values, repressive practices and mounting resistance, thus rendering it a unique form of authoritarian neoliberalism.
13 citations
TL;DR: In a survey of 682 Australian organisations, the authors found that employee participation influences organisations' behaviours to reduce carbon emissions and that representative forms of participation and mechanisms dedicated specifically to environmental management are particularly important.
Abstract: Based on a survey of 682 Australian organisations, we find that employee participation influences organisations' behaviours to reduce carbon emissions. Representative forms of participation and mechanisms dedicated specifically to environmental management are particularly important. Utilisation of a range of forms of participation is also associated with a broader suite of emission reduction activities.
11 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that vice chancellors use their internal power within organisations to extract a disproportionate amount of the value created by the institution, highlighting the extent to which not only contextual but also internal dynamics drive wage inequality.
Abstract: Wage inequality has increased across most developed nations; this has been manifested in a wide range of organisations and sectors, with implications for well‐being and sustainability; within UK universities, this has become increasingly visible. There is increasing pressure on universities to deliver social and economic impact in an increasingly market‐driven and metric‐driven environment. In the UK context, increasing financial pressure has led to both an escalation of student fees and constrained wage growth for faculty. In contrast, most Vice Chancellors have secured substantive pay packages raising concerns that regulatory failures may be contributing to the rise. We show that Vice Chancellors use their internal power within organisations to extract a disproportionate amount of the value created by the institution. However, we encountered much diversity according to the quality of governance, highlighting the extent to which not only contextual but also internal dynamics drive wage inequality.
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a local labour control regime employed by Chinese crewing agencies to restrict the mobility of newly graduated officer seafarers is discussed, based on existing institutional practices in China, structural weaknesses of seafarers and the disjunctions between the local institutional setups and the global chains of labour supply.
Abstract: This article documents and discusses a local labour control regime employed by Chinese crewing agencies to restrict the mobility of newly graduated officer seafarers. The shipping industry relies on a stable and skilled seafarer workforce on flexible employment, assembled globally with the help of local crewing agencies. A stable workforce and flexible employment do not seem easily compatible. This article examines how Chinese crewing agencies help manage this tension in China through analysing the experience of seafarers. It argues that to cater for the demand of international shipping companies, Chinese crewing agencies adopt a particular local labour control regime that re/produces unfree labour relations. The local control regime is built on existing institutional practices in China, structural weaknesses of seafarers and the disjunctions between the local institutional set‐ups and the global chains of labour supply.
10 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the impact of trade union membership on social attitudes of solidarity and found that, at European level, union membership still has a significant effect on all dimensions of social solidarity, but these relationships vary significantly across industrial relations regimes.
Abstract: Trade unions have been analysed quantitatively primarily in their role as vested interest organisations, attempting to quantify the excludable benefits they provide to members rather than examine their wider impact in an institutional context. Power resource theory acknowledges unions as social agents but assumes the willingness to oppose neoliberalism is constant, limited only by scarce power resources. Whilst true in general terms, this fails to explain trends of increasing labour market dualism in resource‐rich industrial relations regimes. This article examines social solidarity as a union power resource, measuring the impact of trade union membership on social attitudes of solidarity. Data were collected from the 2016 European Social Survey for 18 countries, grouped into five distinct industrial relations regimes. The findings suggest that, at European level, union membership still has a significant effect on all dimensions of social solidarity, but these relationships vary significantly across industrial relations regimes.
9 citations
TL;DR: The House of Lords decision in 1964 that, in threatening to strike to secure Douglas Rookes's removal from the Heathrow design office of the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation after his resignation from the union, Alfred Barnard and others had used unlawful means because a threat to break a contract of employment came within the tort of intimidation that was unprotected by the Trade Disputes Act's statutory immunities as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the 1950s, given the scope of the Trade Disputes Act 1906 that had granted immunity against specific torts (civil wrongs) to organisers of industrial action, the courts had little role in industrial relations. Hence, the importance of the House of Lords decision in 1964 that, in threatening to strike to secure Douglas Rookes's removal from the Heathrow design office of the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation after his resignation from the union, Alfred Barnard and others had used unlawful means because a threat to break a contract of employment came within the tort of intimidation that was unprotected by the Trade Disputes Act's statutory immunities, and thus, they were liable to pay damages to Rookes. The legal arguments deployed are analysed within growing unease in the Conservative Party and among employers at the emergence of workplace union organisation and national strikes. Despite being partially neutralised by the Trade Disputes Act 1965, Rookes was a harbinger of a new judicial activism that outflanked trade unions' tort immunities by creating novel common law liabilities. This in turn laid the political basis for subsequent Conservative legislation to restrict and regulate trade unions and industrial action, a project that is ongoing.
8 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between work-life policies and female representation and promotion at US doctoral-granting economics departments and found that dual-career policies have a positive effect on female representation at the assistant and associate levels but do not have a statistically significant impact at the full professor level.
Abstract: "This article examines the relationships between work–life policies and female faculty representation and promotion at US doctoral‐granting economics departments. The data were collected in 2012 on tenure‐track and tenured full‐time faculty from 125 departments and updated in 2018 to include promotion status. Variables include individuals and their educational backgrounds, professional experience and publications. Only publications and experience are statistically significant for predicting academic rank for the female subsample, and the impact of publications is much larger for women compared with men. Work–life policies differ in explaining the representation of women across academic ranks. Dual‐career policies have a positive effect on female representation at the assistant and associate levels but do not have a statistically significant impact at the full professor level. National Science Foundation ADVANCE grantee universities have increased female representation across all ranks, but the effect is the smallest at the full professor level. Work–life policies are insignificant in predicting promotion."
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined lower levels of satisfaction among union members and examined how this relationship varies geographically across the nations and regions of Great Britain using three nationally representative data sets.
Abstract: Evidence of spatial variance in the relationship between trade union membership and job satisfaction is limited. Using three nationally representative data sets, we examine lower levels of satisfaction among union members and considers how this relationship varies geographically across the nations and regions of Great Britain. The analysis demonstrates that the union satisfaction gap can largely be accounted for by relative characteristics of union members and the jobs that they hold. However, there is evidence of geographical variance. The union satisfaction gap is generally found to be highest within Scotland and North of England. Despite high levels of union membership, evidence of a union satisfaction gap in Wales is relatively weak. These differences relate to differences in the perceptions of industrial relations among employees across these areas, which appear to be related to geographical variance in worker heterogeneity.
TL;DR: In this paper, a qualitative study examines frontline home support workers' perceptions of their power following recent legislative change from a traditional agency-directed aged care model to consumer-directed care.
Abstract: "Workplace relational dynamics change when the customer or client takes on greater power in the relationship. Adopting a typology of the service triangle, this qualitative study examines frontline home support workers' perceptions of their power, following recent legislative change from a traditional agency‐directed aged care model to consumer‐directed care."
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the labour supply chain of Indian technical immigrants in the United States and reveal a latent phenomenon of broker-induced precarity that results from the labor supply chain and explore how aspirational jobs are becoming precarious ones.
Abstract: The primary purpose of this article is to investigate the labour supply chain of Indian technical immigrants in the United States. The two important findings that emerge are as follows: First, the study unearths a latent phenomenon of broker‐induced precarity that results from the labour supply chain and explores how aspirational jobs are becoming precarious ones. Second, the study provides a foundation for devising policies and interventions to make the process of the labour supply chain less detrimental to the Indian technical immigrants. This article draws on a seven‐month‐long field‐based qualitative study and ensures a meticulous triangulation of the findings through an analysis of archival data and actual artefacts related to manpower movement across the labour supply chain.
TL;DR: Worker representation in occupational health and safety (OSH) laws has a long history in coal mining from a century earlier in some countries as mentioned in this paper and the purpose of this paper is not so much to fill this historical gap as to examine this earlier development in terms of its contribution to better understand worker representation in OSH at present time.
Abstract: The decade from 1970 witnessed major reforms of occupational health and safety (OSH) laws in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. The establishment of worker representation in OSH was one of their most significant features. Largely overlooked in commentary then or since however was the fact that worker representation in safety had a far longer history, having operated in coal mining from a century earlier in some countries. The purpose of this paper is not so much to fill this historical gap as to examine this earlier development in terms of its contribution to better understand worker representation in OSH at the present time.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the decline of collective bargaining in Portugal during the recent economic crisis and why, following significant improvements in the economic and political contexts, the number of collective agreements published each year remains lower than before.
Abstract: This article examines the decline of collective bargaining in Portugal during the recent economic crisis and why, following significant improvements in the economic and political contexts, the number of collective agreements published each year remains lower than before. Drawing on theoretical work on institutional change by Streeck and Thelen (2005) and Baccaro and Howell (2017), it argues that industrial relations institutions in Portugal have been subject to an incremental but transformative process of liberalisation. The analysis of national data and in‐depth interviews with key informants reveals that serial legal amendments since the 1990's weakened unions, converted bargaining into a mechanism to introduce flexibility and wage austerity and reduced incentives for the parties to conclude agreements. While these changes were gradual, their consequences became clear during the crisis. By improving understanding of recent developments in Portuguese collective bargaining, the article enriches knowledge of processes of liberalisation of industrial relations in Europe.
TL;DR: In this paper, the strategies adopted by Irish unions in responding to zero hours work in four sectors were examined and it was concluded that rather than adopting either a passive or a uniform approach, unions have pragmatically varied their strategies to curtail zero-hours work through actively combining both bargaining and regulatory approaches.
Abstract: This paper examines the strategies adopted by Irish unions in responding to zero hours work in four sectors. It concludes that rather than adopting either a passive or a uniform approach, unions have pragmatically varied their strategies to curtail zero‐hours work through actively combining both bargaining and regulatory approaches.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of Unison is presented to analyse the organizing strand of new unionism. But the authors identify how top-down approaches to organizing are distorted by union bureaucracy for the priority of recruitment, not only limiting the possibility of emerging union radicalisation but also restricting the ability of trade unions to represent their members.
Abstract: In the mid‐1990s, the TUC relaunched itself with a strategy for renewal labelled ‘new unionism’. The strategy had two strands: partnership with employers and the promotion among affiliate unions of grassroots union organising. The latter, heavily influenced by US and Australian experience, saw possibilities for a more radical trade unionism in the UK. This article draws on a case study of Unison to analyse the organising strand of new unionism. It identifies how top‐down approaches to organising are distorted by union bureaucracy for the priority of recruitment, not only limiting the possibility of emerging union radicalisation but also restricting the ability of trade unions to represent their members. The article also identifies that the position of union Full‐time Officers is complex and not necessarily within a uniform union bureaucracy juxtaposed to and restraining a more radical union rank and file.
TL;DR: Understanding of career ambitions amongst low‐paid, low‐status workers is deepened, while adding weight to a literature suggesting that career aspirations can be driven by values and norms, not only by a means‐end rationality.
Abstract: "This article engages with a literature that views the limited career aspirations of low‐paid, low‐status workers as a reasonable response to material and structural constraints. Based on four hospital trust cases studies, the article contests this view, revealing how healthcare support workers in NHS England have retained the cognitive capacity to override such constraints to develop a strong and authentic career goal to become a nurse. This goal is acknowledged by the healthcare support workers themselves as unlikely to be achieved and is therefore presented as a flight from rationality. Its emergence is explained by workplace interactions that allow such an ambition to become taken‐for‐granted. The article deepens understanding of career ambitions amongst low‐paid, low‐status workers, while adding weight to a literature suggesting that career aspirations can be driven by values and norms, not only by a means‐end rationality."
TL;DR: The authors examined disability discrimination cases at British Employment Tribunals, examining the characteristics of claimants and the factors associated with the failure of cases: restrictive judicial decisions, complex legal tests, inequality of arms between claimant and employer and the stigma attached to claimants with mental impairments, providing some evidence for a hierarchy of impairments.
Abstract: This article explores disability discrimination cases at British Employment Tribunals. Analysing over 750 judgments, it examines the characteristics of claimants and the factors associated with the failure of cases: restrictive judicial decisions, complex legal tests, inequality of arms between claimant and employer and the stigma attached to claimants with mental impairments, providing some evidence for a hierarchy of impairments.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the potential for using whistleblowing by both workers and non-workers as a method of enforcing labour standards and suggested that enhancing the protection given to whistleblowers who report suspected wrongdoing might deter employer noncompliance and prove cost effective.
Abstract: Labour market enforcement can be achieved through a variety of mechanisms. On the basis that inspectorates in the UK have been under‐resourced historically and that reliance on self‐regulation is particularly objectionable in sectors that have a record of providing low pay and poor working conditions, this article explores the potential for using whistleblowing by both workers and non‐workers as a method of enforcing labour standards. The author believes that, in principle, policing by inspectors working in conjunction with unions is particularly important in industries where small firms are prevalent and individuals may feel particularly vulnerable to retaliation if they speak up. Nevertheless, given the low likelihood of government inspections and low levels of unionisation in the private sector, it is suggested that enhancing the protection given to whistleblowers who report suspected wrongdoing might deter employer non‐compliance and prove cost effective.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the outcomes of ESOs in Britain and South Korea during economic expansion and downturn, and find that during an economic expansion, ESOs' effect in increasing employee commitment is stronger in South Korea, while their effect in decreasing employee turnover is strong in Britain.
Abstract: Despite the consensus in the employee share ownership (ESO) literature for the need to explore contexts that influence ESO outcomes, studies examining two important factors, national context and status of the economy, are limited. In this study, the authors compare the outcomes of ESOs in Britain and South Korea during economic expansion and downturn. The results demonstrate that, during an economic expansion, the effect of ESOs in increasing employee commitment is stronger in South Korea, while their effect in decreasing employee turnover is stronger in Britain. However, during an economic downturn, the authors find no evidence for these effects in both societies. The findings lend support to the contingency perspective in managing ESOs and provide meaningful implications and guidance to the literature.
TL;DR: Fair Work Wales as discussed by the authors, the report of the Wales Fair Work Commission, details the characteristics of fair work and recommends how to promote them and its wider significance is that it offers a blueprint for what the UK should be doing.
Abstract: Fair Work Wales, the report of the Wales Fair Work Commission, details the characteristics of fair work and recommends how to promote them. Its wider significance is that it offers a blueprint for what the UK should be doing—a challenge that could hardly be more fundamental. It is a timely reminder for employment relations teachers and researchers that the world of work may be changing but what they do and how they go about it really do matter.
TL;DR: The authors further complements the literature by furthering the understanding of an 'African dimension' of multinational enterprise (MNE) union avoidance, and highlights four transitional issues underpinning the emerging success of 'corridor tactics' in union suppression in a less developed host country.
Abstract: This article complements the literature by furthering the understanding of an 'African dimension' of multinational enterprise (MNE) union avoidance. The evidence suggests that MNEs engaged in both union suppression and union substitution strategies by (i) exploiting young employees' apathy to promote opposition and indifference for union organisation (evil stuff), (ii) implementing union member-centred employee retrenchment (fear stuff), (iii) using enterprise-level collective bargaining arrangement to suppress union bargaining power (fear and fatal stuff), (iv) exploiting the fragmented labour union environment to suppress union organisation (fatal and evil stuff) and (v) promoting individual employee voice and involvement mechanisms (sweet stuff). Although MNEs in Ghana engaged in both union suppression and union substitution strategies, they appear to particularly favour the adoption of 'union suppression' strategies and what might be termed as 'corridor tactics'. Our article highlights four transitional issues underpinning the emerging success of 'corridor tactics' in union suppression in a less developed host country.
TL;DR: The authors locates "lawful" looting of business assets in a framework that builds on Ackerlof and Romer's theory of bankruptcy for profit and connects this to an empirical narrative on business re-structuring at British Home Stores towards administration.
Abstract: On entering administration, British Home Stores owed its pension scheme £571 million—a significant employment relations issue of historical wage theft by investor–owner managers. The article locates ‘lawful’ looting of business assets in a framework that builds on Ackerlof and Romer's theory of bankruptcy for profit and connects this to an empirical narrative on business re‐structuring at British Home Stores towards administration.
TL;DR: The authors examined the extent to which managers and employees perceive management behaviours differently and found that what constitutes bullying depends on one's point of view and implies that reality is socially constructed, which has important implications for organisations and trade unions in the development of bullying policies and procedures.
Abstract: Using an experimental design, this research examines the extent to which managers and employees perceive management behaviours differently. Eight simulated employment scenarios were presented to an aggregated sample of managers and non‐managerial employees (n = 435), and the respondents were asked to evaluate the extent to which the behaviours depicted are seen as bullying. It was found that employees are more likely than managers to perceive ‘legitimate performance management’ as bullying but also that managers are more likely than employees to perceive more overt bullying as bullying per se. This divergence in perceptions suggests that what constitutes bullying, ontologically speaking, depends on one's point of view and implies that reality is socially constructed. The research has important implications for organisations and trade unions in the development of bullying policies and procedures.
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the dynamics of activism on pay inequality in the British local authority sector and offered a negative evaluation, calling for a deeper understanding of grass roots agency and third-party representation beyond the workplace.
Abstract: Does mobilisation theory provide telling insights into the collective expression of
gendered grievances? By analysing the dynamics of activism on pay inequality in
the British local authority sector, this article offers a negative evaluation, calling for
a deeper understanding of grass roots agency and third-party representation beyond
the workplace.
TL;DR: In this article, a semi-structured interview with union negotiators active in the Quebec private sector reveals that local bargaining practices, despite their plurality, have tended to change following major trends.
Abstract: Drawing on 45 semi‐structured interviews with union negotiators active in the Quebec private sector, this article shows that local bargaining practices, despite their plurality, have tended to change following major trends. It also reveals, more fundamentally, a redefinition of the ‘rules of the game’. The transformation and stability of these social rules, which are much more focused on the needs of employers, have tended to weaken collective bargaining as a tool for industrial democracy.
TL;DR: The Donovan Royal Commission set new standards in evidence-based policy making as discussed by the authors and put the Commission's research programme in its 1960s context of disorderly workplace labour relations, concluding that case studies, surveys and historical analysis had a powerful influence over the Commissions recommendations.
Abstract: The Donovan Royal Commission set new standards in evidence‐based policy making. The paper puts the Commission's research programme in its 1960s context of disorderly workplace labour relations. It reviews each of the studies, concluding that they were innovative and had a powerful influence over the Commission's recommendations. In retrospect, the scope of topics researched was too narrow to engage with major future challenges. That apart, the precedent of research based on case studies, surveys and historical analysis has continued to enhance employment‐related policy making.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the social relationships between bank workers and customers in the context of changing performance management and argue that moral economy gives voice to the agency of workers and the critical concerns of the social, economic and moral consequences of market-driven and purely profit-oriented workplace regimes.
Abstract: Utilising an analytical framework informed by a moral economy approach, this article examines the social relationships between bank workers and customers in the context of changing performance management. Informed by 46 in‐depth interviews with branch workers and branch managers from UK banks, this article focusses on the interplay of the pressures arising from an intensified and all‐encompassing performance management system and bank workers lay morality. The article seeks to analyse why one group of bank workers engages with customers in a primarily instrumental manner, while another group tends to mediate and engage in oppositional practices which aim to avoid such an instrumentalisation. The article argues that moral economy gives voice to the agency of workers and the critical concerns of the social, economic and moral consequences of market‐driven and purely profit‐oriented workplace regimes.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the extent to which institutional influences account for the transfer of performance management systems in two foreign-owned banks, one German and the other Irish, in Poland, and find that the joint effects arising from the subsidiaries' times of acquisition, their pre-acquisition economic health, the international experience of the MNCs' management, headquarters generated strategic imperatives and the political dynamics that ensued between corporate and local management.
Abstract: We examine the extent to which institutional influences account for the transfer of performance management systems in two foreign‐owned banks, one German the other Irish, in Poland. While we find they were important, more important were the joint effects arising from the subsidiaries' times‐of‐acquisition, their pre‐acquisition economic health, the international experience of the MNCs' management, headquarters‐generated strategic imperatives and the political dynamics that ensued between corporate and local management.