Industrial Relations Strategies Research Articles

Analysis of The Influence of Technology, Latest Working Equipment Usage, and Industrial Relations Strategies Towards Business Sustainability

This research aims to contribute to modern business, new work systems, and industrial relations. This research is a longitudinal study involving manufacturing companies. Researchers collected data at two different periods. Researchers surveyed by sending a questionnaire to the company's human resources managers. Research findings show a reasonably strong relationship between implementing new work practices and better company results. However, according to the dominant theory, this result does not always occur in every case. These results indicate a greater focus on small businesses, which play a significant role in the fabric industry. The third result shows the durability or sustainability of individual practices. These new practices have proven effective in improving company performance, which may be why groups are more confident implementing them. Discriminant analysis reveals that firms' structural and market characteristics account for most of the variability in their orientation toward organizational innovation. The intensity of relationships with other companies positively correlates with using new work practices, mainly if the company operates internationally. The competition level in the company's market is also related to the use of new work practices and intense, innovative activities, especially those related to technology and the coordination of activities within the organization, such as information technology.

Employee Relations Strategy in Increasing The Work Motivation of Employees of PT. Esaputlii Prakarsa Utama Barru Regency

This study aims to determine the development of an industrial relations strategy program as an effort to increase employee motivation and to determine the condition of the organizational communication climate that exists between management and employees at PT. Main Initiative Esaputlii. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The results showed that PT. Esaputlii Prakarsa Utama has succeeded in carrying out the industrial relations program because it has received a fairly good response from employees as well as employees who are quite satisfactory through programs, special events programs, award programs, and internal communication media programs. Likewise with the organizational communication climate applied by PT. Esaputlii Prakarsa Utama with behavior that shows to the core, warm but still responsible.

An American oil multinational in the U.K.: its formal review of industrial relations strategy

ABSTRACTThis paper is a case study chronicling and analyzing the strategic considerations given to industrial relations in a proposal to develop a coherent and deliberate strategy for industrial relations by the U.K. subsidiary of an American multinational oil company. The study is based on interviews and substantial internal documents provided by the case study managers. This represents a unique illustration as to the extent a major company goes through in considering the way in which it needs to consider industrial relations issues. Seldom has a document such as this been able to be analyzed by industrial relations researchers, and it illustrates the lack of strategic thinking, even in such a large sophisticated organization.

Industrial relations (Union) issues at Asian Paints Ltd.

Subject area Human Resources Management (HRM), Industrial Relations and Strategic Management. Study level/applicability Post-graduate students or executive post-graduate students, Core course in Human resources Management (HRM), Industrial Relations or Strategic Management or in elective courses in Industrial Relations and Strategic HRM. Case overview The Personnel manager of Asian Paints Ltd., Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu) factory, found himself in a Catch 22 situation when a Union leader of the manufacturing unit refused to work. The Union leader had been transferred from the Quality Assurance department to the Production department. The case describes the sequence of events and the backdrop in which the aforementioned situation had unfolded. Given the circumstances that prevailed in the factory, the personnel manager’s decision was likely to have significant impact on the factory’s output. Expected learning outcomes The student will be able to understand the industrial relations/Union issues in a company and the role of different stakeholders, namely, management, Union, workmen and the government in a conflict scenario. The student will learn the application of principles of natural justice and will be able to evaluate the Industrial Relations (IR) strategy adopted by the organizations to prevent labor unrest at the workplace. The student will understand the impact of critical management decisions on the organization’s performance in an uncertain global environment. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Industrial relations strategy and construction in the UK oil industry: the case of the national agreement

This paper is a case study chronicling and analyzing the strategic considerations given to industrial relations in a proposal to upgrade and renew a major production unit in a UK oil refinery. The study is based on interviews and substantial internal documents provided by the case study managers. This represents a unique illustration as to the extent a company goes through in considering the way in which a major capital project needs to consider industrial relations issues before being considered acceptable to the Corporate-level audience and its decision-makers. In particular, the context is interesting – that of an American multinational taking up a national agreement from a process of sector-wide multi-employer bargaining.

The G & K O'Connor Lockout (1999) and its Aftermath: A Case Study of a Union Avoidance Campaign in the Australian Meat Processing Industry

The G & K O’Connor lockout of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (AMIEU) members in 1999 was an example of a change in employer strategy with the objective of removing the union from its Pakenham abattoir. Chris Briggs’ research on the recurrence of the lockout in Australia sees it as an example of a “big bang lockout” which occurs against the background of legislative changes, a downturn in the meat processing industry, and other factors. This article examines the G & K O’Connor lockout in detail. It identifies legislative change in the form of the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) under theWorkplace Relations Act 1996in providing the company with the opportunity and legal framework to change its industrial relations strategy and weaken the AMIEU. This upsurge in employer militancy was also associated with use of the Federal Government’s apprentice and traineeship scheme, anti-union consultants, and tactics such as industrial spies and labour espionage. The lockout, which the stakeholders described as a “baseball bat lockout,” and subsequent actions by the employer introduced a “Pinkerton Incorporated” style of culture into Australian industrial relations in which the employer adopted an offensive position against the union using a range of union avoidance tactics.

Gramsci at the miners' strike: remembering the 1984–1985 Eurocommunist alternative industrial relations strategy

The great British miners' strike of 1984–1985 began 30 years ago. This personal reflection centres on the debate over trade union strategy during the strike. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CP) had long been an important influence in the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers, but the strike also coincided with and exacerbated divisions within the CP and the wider left about how to respond to the ‘New Right’ Thatcher Conservative Government. This article focuses on the distinctive Eurocommunist analysis of the journal Marxism Today. The political atmosphere of the time is recalled, and then the Gramscian industrial relations strategy of winning the political argument through a ‘broad democratic alliance’ is reconstructed. Arguably, this ‘social movement’ approach could have produced a better outcome to the strike, while it provides lasting lessons about the limitations of a narrowly economistic view of trade union power.

Employer and Employer Association Matters in 2011

During 2011, employer associations have been very active in lobbying for legislative change in industrial relations. The changes they are seeking are in line with past policies to diminish collective bargaining and increase managerial control in the workplace. The political and economic contexts have provided opportunities and, with the impending review of the Fair Work Act, encouraged such lobbying for change. While the major employer bodies are adopting similar stances on the need for change, there is diversity in the industrial relations strategies being engaged by employers in individual workplaces.

Dealing with oil and gas unions

Since the commencement of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) on 1 July 2009, there has been a significant increase in union activity in Australia’s oil and gas industry. Recent case examples concerning the Pluto Project and various other disputes flag the importance of project managing industrial relations to ensure project delivery dates are met. Due to the contract interdependencies on large scale oil and gas projects, industrial action taken by a union in relation to a single sub-contractor can have ripple effects—causing budget blow-outs. Emerging union influence is such a concern that some of Australia’s leading companies operating in the oil and gas industry now identify industrial activity as a key project risk. Furthermore, many Australian leading financial institutions now assess a company’s potential exposure to industrial action as part of their key lending criteria. New innovative industrial relations strategies are now part of the weaponry Australian unions use when representing their members—this includes global union strategies. Moreover, there is already evidence that the FW Act can promote the occurrence of demarcation disputes between unions. This type of industrial activity leads to poor outcomes for employers and can prove to be very costly—especially in a multi-million dollar a day industry. Providing insight into the recent union activities in the industry are the following cases: Heath v Gravity Crane Services Pty Ltd Boskalis Australia Pty Ltd v Maritime Union of Australia CFMEU v Woodside Burrup Pty Ltd Offshore Marine Services Pty Ltd v Maritime Union of Australia There are a number of strategies oil and gas companies and sub-contractors can use to mitigate the effects of union influence in the workplace.

A comparative analysis of restructuring employment relationships in Qantas and Aer Lingus: different routes, similar destinations

This paper examines the experiences of Qantas and Aer Lingus. The two companies have a shared history as national, ‘legacy’ (full-service) carriers and strategically important, ‘benevolent’ employers. More recently, both airlines have been forced to change in the face of competition from low cost carriers (LCCs) and external threats to their existence. In this paper, we examine how the two airlines have reacted to these pressures. We look at the role played by institutional frameworks and competitive circumstances in determining industrial relations strategies. The entry of LCCs and changes (or potential changes) to ownership structures through privatization and takeover bids have led to downward pressure on pay and conditions at both airlines. Accordingly, a key issue considered is whether a collectivist model of employment relations can survive in the face of low cost competition.

John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School on Industrial Relations Strategy and Policy

The field of industrial relations in the United States is largely rooted in the early twentieth-century writings of John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School. The author documents and describes their strategy and recommended policy approach for improved industrial relations. The three core components of their strategy were stabilization of markets, equalization of bargaining power, and constitutional government in industrial enterprise. The author also shows that the thinking of Commons and his associates on the best way to achieve these three goals—and, in particular, their view of the appropriate mix of trade unionism, labor law, personnel management, and macroeconomic monetary/fiscal policy—evolved through four distinct phases, starting about 1900 and ending in the late 1930s.

John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School on Industrial Relations Strategy and Policy

The field of industrial relations in the United States is largely rooted in the early twentieth-century writings of John R. Commons and the Wisconsin School. The author documents and describes their strategy and recommended policy approach for improved industrial relations. The three core components of their strategy were stabilization of markets, equalization of bargaining power, and constitutional government in industrial enterprise. The author also shows that the thinking of Commons and his associates on the best way to achieve these three goals evolved through four distinct phases, starting about 1900 and ending in the late 1930s.

The management of labour in Japanese manufacturing plants in China

While there is now considerable scholarship concerning Japanese management practices in their overseas production operations in Europe and North America, little is known about Japanese investment in other parts of the world, especially in Asia. This paper draws on on-going research into the nature and operations of Japanese manufacturing investments in China. The paper focuses on interviews primarily with Chinese managers in twenty plants in three locations within China, to examine their personnel polices and practices, and draw from this their overall industrial relations strategies. The main findings were, first, that, despite claims of cultural similarity between China and Japan, personnel management practices were generally not transferred from Japan to the plants in China. Second, practices that may appear as Japanese inspired were often informed by local practices. Third, there was diversity in the forms of practices used, indicating neither sophistication nor a singular recipe of management methods. Thus, the paper seeks to challenge proponents of Japanization who claim, essentially, that Japanese management techniques are predicated on the construction of particular forms of social relations around work that allow sophisticated, and integrated, production-management systems to function. Instead, depending on a complex interrelation between location industry and the history of each plant, managers sought to use various local and 'universal' (generic to capitalism) strategies and practices to control and utilize labour.

The Stupidest Men in England? The Industrial Relations Strategy of the Coalowners between the Lockouts, 1923-1924

The Stupidest Men in England? The Industrial Relations Strategy of the Coalowners between the Lockouts, 1923-1924

The Metal Trades Industry Association, Bargaining Structures and the Accord

As part of his more general argument about employer reactivity in Australia, David Plowman has asserted that the disunity of Australian employer associations has inhibited their success in initiating policy debates or strategically reshaping bargaining structures. However, this paper, in examining the industrial relations strategies and policies of the Metal Trades Industry Association under the Accord, argues that the association seized substantial initiative in policy debates relating to bargaining structures and in influencing the pace and direction of change regarding the progressive implementation of enterprise bargaining in Australia. This had nothing to do with unity or disunity among employer groups, but related to factors internal to the association, its industry-and, in particular, the associa tion's evolving relationship with the industry's unions-and to circumstances regarding the public policy-making process.

Strategy in Context: The Impact of Changing Regulatory Regimes on Industrial Relations Management in the Australian Vehicle Industry

A significant problem with the industrial relations strategy literature of the late 1980s which focused on matching business and labour relations strategies is its highly prescriptive notion that the formulation of sophisticated and well- developed internally focused industrial relations/human resources management (IR/HRM) strategies as a feature of management practice is always necessary and desirable. The purpose of this article is to explore how and why IR/HRM strategies actually emerged historically in the Australian vehicle industry and, more particularly, to situate their development in the context of the changing relationship between the major vehicle industry employers and the Australian state in its various branches. This relationship changed from one of dependency in the first post-war decades to semi-autonomy by the 1980s and 1990s with respect to product markets, labour supply and Indus trial relations. As reliance on the state became less intense, so companies in the industry were forced to devote significantly greater attention to IR/HRM strategies to take account of the new circumstances.

Miners and Managers: Workplace Cultures in a British Columbia Coal Mine

A model developed specifically for organizational culture analysis is tested in an industrial relations case study of social change. The progression and deterioration of worker and management relations is seen within the context of changing world coal market contingencies, company adaptation to those changes, and workers' response to management's actions. From an organizational culture perspective, both management's and workers' responses are generated by their culturally formed interpretations of, and adaptations to, their environments. The research identifies two distinctive cultures within the organization which partly account for the conflictual interactions (e.g., oppressive industrial relations strategies, illegal strikes, etc.). The model is useful within organizational contexts, especially clinical or consultancy contexts, but some modifications are required to gain a more complete understanding of organizational culture.

Strategic Analysis of Organizations: A Model from the Complexity Paradigm1

This paper intends to explore in detail a theoretical path based on the complexity paradigm, establishing the basic premises to found firmly an approximation that tries to reconcile structure and event. In such a sense, the analysis of organizations will find its basic elements in complexity, uncertainty, and self-organization. Its starting point is located in the reconceptualization of strategy, as one of the most important axis of action in and around organizations. This will be done from the discussion of our proposal of Strategic Analysis of Organizations. We must depart from the discussion of the strategy concept in its amplest meaning. This will allow us to clarify its meaning and unravel its conceptual richness at a corporate level through the strategic analysis of its circuits of power, related with corporate strategy and industrial relations strategy. Also, we analyze the imbrications between the two identified circuits.

“Three Days Down the Pit and Three Days Play”: Underemployment in the East Midland Coalfields between the Wars

SummaryConflicting interpretations of economic and social conditions in inter-war Britain are a staple diet of the historiography of the period. Can it be best characterized as one of social deprivation and economic decay or of social and economic improvement? The level of unemployment and its effects on those who experienced it is a critical element in the debate and this study will contribute to it in a number of ways. It will, through a case study of the East Midland coalfields, emphasize that underemployment (or short-time working) has been comparatively neglected in accounts of unemployment and the “real” incidence of the latter therefore underestimated. Moreover, the effects of underemployment were no less real in terms of depressing living standards than more permanent forms of unemployment. The traditional view of the relatively prosperous underemployed East Midlands' miner compared to his fully employed Durham or South Wales counterpart is, therefore, no longer tenable, The view, popularized recently by Benjamin and Kochin, that this form of unemployment was voluntary in nature will also be questioned as will the generalization that miners' trade unions preferred wage maintenance to maximising employment levels in their industrial relations strategies. Trade union officers gave a high priority to achieving an employment situation which combined work spreading and the receipt of statutory unemployment benefit by their members. The partial failure of these endeavours to mitigate the full impact of short-time working on miners' income is further evidence of the need to qualify the “optimistic” interpretation of living standards in inter-war Britain.

Does unionization lead to corporate changes in productivity practices?–insights from Singapore

This paper explores the role of trade unions in influencing corporate change towards productivity improvement for a newly industrialized country– Singapore.Empirical analysis of a sample of firms found unionization to be positively associated with certain productivity practices.The more significant and stronger correlations being the sharing of productivity gains, role Specialization (productivity manager) and productivity as part of corporate policy. Implications of these findings are discussed. A Sunday Times commentary 2 suggested that, drawing from the Singapore industrial relations experience, trade unions could play a positive role in generating economic growth. If that is seen to be occurring from the macrolevel, it will naturally be interesting to inquire further what effects unionization can have on internal organizational practices, such as in productivity improvement. There may also be practical benefits from having insights into the dynamic forces that are at work when trade unionism is present. A perspective on the direction (whether positive or negative) and scale of change in the emphasis on productivity improvement practices could help multinational enterprises formulate more effective employee relations policies when operating in Singapore –where tripartite co–operation is the key industrial relations philosophy. Corporations that are in the process of being unionized may be able to appreciate that resulting change to their operating environments as a consequence of unionization need nor always be unfavourable.Management operating in unionized contexts could rethink their industrial relations strategies in light of the findings here –that it is quite possible to work with trade unions to enhance corporate productivity. Most significantly, such findings could foster a greater determination by both the management and unions in engendering a co-operative industrial relations climate.This is particularly relevant for corporations operating in countries such as Britain, where industrial relations are traditionally less harmonious.To survive in the increasingly global competition of the 1990s and beyond, Western businesses will need co-operative industrial relations that help to foster productivity improvement efforts. This theme isfurther explored in the last section of the paper.