Do Trade Unions have a role to play in organizations that practice unitarist management techniques?

Résumé du document

Organisations tend to have an increasingly individualistic management. Indeed, since wages have been individualised and workers paid according to individual appraisals, collective bargaining has lost weight in the employment relationship and the employee representation is hence weakened as Unions have less power to negotiate. The current organisational culture stresses on individualism and removes collective representation through Trade Unions (Noon & Blyton, 1999). However, some organisations try to keep this individualism even though they practice unitarist management. This kind of management aims, for both employer and employees, at sharing a common organisational goal. Employees are required to play the ‘needed role behaviour' as Bratton & Gold (1999) explained, and seek recognition and good employment relationship. They also emphasise on the importance of training rather than promotion in pluralist organisations (Personnel Management, 1993). The pluralist organisations are opposite to unitarist ones since employees tend to obtain the best they can from the organisation without investing themselves in a strong culture and their interests are contradictory with those of management. The main difference between those two types of management regarding the representation system is that Trade Unions are accepted as a legitimate challenge to managerial rule in pluralist organisations whereas Industrial Relations are no longer perceived by management as the central activity and representation of employees and negotiation with trade unions are avoided in unitarist organisations (Collins, 1995). The moot point that stems for unitarist companies is whether Trade Unions have a role to play in such organisations where no conflict appears...

Extraits

[...] - Noon & Blython (1999), The Realities of Work, - Senior, B., (1997), Organisational Change, Essex: Prentice Hall. - Towers, B., (1997), The Represenation Gap, New York: OUP. Journals: - Guest, D., (1987), Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations, Journal of Management Studies - IPD, (1997), Employment Relations Into the 21st Century, People Management (supplement), London. - Hopfl,H., & Smith, S., (1993), Values and valuations: The conflicts between culture change and job cuts, Personnel Review Internet Websites: - Collins,K., The Forward of march of Labour Halted? [...]

[...] Do trade unions have a role to play in organizations that practice unitarist management techniques? Organisations tend to have an increasingly individualistic management. Indeed, since wages have been individualised and workers paid according to individual appraisals, collective bargaining has lost weight in the employment relationship and the employee representation is hence weakened as Unions have less power to negotiate. The current organisational culture stresses on individualism and removes collective representation through Trade Unions (Noon & Blyton, 1999). However, some organisations try to keep this individualism even though they practice unitarist management. [...]

[...] Besides, efficiency gains are more likely to be reached in a unionised workplace where employee participation is rewarded by the security of employment –mainly implemented by union representation- (Kelley & Harrison quoted in Towers, 1997: 138). Involvement and productivity can be strongly associated, although this relationship does not seem to require cooperative Industrial Relations (Metcalf, quoted in Towers, 1997: 138). Therefore, to be productive, an organisation has to commit its staff but Trade Union is not needed to achieve a high level of productivity. Although organisations that practice unitarist techniques try to avoid Industrial Relations and communicate directly with their staff, it does not mean that Trade Unions have no role to play. [...]

[...] This creates a good climate in the workplace and they feel secure. As they serve the management's interests, they may provide an appropriate ground for anti-union activity (Towers, 1999: 118). Employees may not feel the need of being represented as they are committed to their company, which will give them back recognition. The form of control is cultural rather than hierarchical in pluralist organisations (Senior, 1999: 167-8), which are influenced by both management and employees, Unions are not expected to intervene and disturb the running of the company. [...]

[...] They would be obliged to be committed to the organisation and share its values even if they did not feel involved, whereas in the fist proposition –which is the first sight when analysing a unitarist organisation- employees are really committed. This deficiency in representation is associated to a privation of Industrial Democracy, which was favoured by the British government until 1999, when the Employment Relation Law was voted in. The legal defenses of workers are weak because Trade Unions are inexistant or cooperate with management; their traditional roles are inefficient. It might be suggested that Unions should diversify their roles (dealing with individual problems for example, or having a legal right to influence how an organisation is run). [...]