Adapting to survive: The case of Danish employers' organisations

Scholars often characterise Danish employers' organisations (EOs) as relatively stable, with a continuing role in the coordination of industrial relations and corporatist policymaking. This article shows that, beneath surface stability, Danish EOs have significantly adapted structurally and functionally to survive environmental pressures. However, rather than converging onto a liberal market trajectory, we find that Danish EOs have layered new functions onto traditional collective functions. We also find significant variations in functional adaptation depending on the employer constituencies' exposure to international competition and position in value chains. We argue that these adaptations imply that the provision of collective goods, especially in collective bargaining, is no longer sufficient for the survival of EOs.     

Employers' organisations as social movements: Political power and identity work

The literature on employers' and business organisations (EOs) has failed to analyse them as contentious organisations that apply identity work as a power resource to mobilise resources and members. This article is based on a qualitative case study of Islamic EOs in Turkey. Developing a social movement model of EOs, I analyse the mechanisms through which identity work with local religious collaborators facilitated collective action and political power. I find that the role of identity work was threefold: providing internal solidarity, securing external legitimacy, and supporting contentious institutional change by developing new policy ideas. This model can be applied more widely as EOs have increasingly shifted from traditional roles to take on social movement characteristics.     

Small change,big impact? Organisational membership rules and the exit of employers' associations from multiemployer bargaining in Germany

German employers' associations first introduced a so‐called “bargaining‐free” membership (BFM) category in 1990, giving companies the option to join and access services while avoiding the obligations arising to regular members from industry‐level collective agreements with unions. To explain how this phenomenon contributes to change in the German political economy, we investigate why some associations offer their members BFM status whereas others have refused to introduce this option. Controlling for influences such as size and industry, our multivariate analysis of survey data shows that four sets of influences are positively associated with BFM: the role of courts' judicial decisions as “door openers,” structural characteristics of diverging business environments, the evaluation of multiemployer bargaining by the leadership of the association, and the strategic choices of associations.     

Russia's official trade unions: renewal or redundancy?

Russia's official trade unions claim to have reformed themselves into independent organisations representing workers' interests. This article takes one branch union, the official miners' union, and, on the basis of research in the South Kuzbass mines, considers how far enterprise level unions have changed, and the potential for reform.     

Do European trade unions foster social solidarity? Evidence from multilevel data in 18 countries

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.     

Creating a multilayered representational ‘package’ for subcontracted workers: the case of cleaners at Ben‐Gurion University

Research into the organising of subcontracted workers tends to focus on how such campaigns contribute to union revitalisation, the shortcomings of non‐union organisations in comparison with classic unionism and opposition rather than complementarity between strategies. Analysing the organising of subcontracted cleaners at a university, this article shifts this focus, evaluating the campaign in terms of how it assisted the workers, regardless of whether it contributed to union renewal, and in terms of complementarity between new and traditional industrial relations actors. Drawing on the power resources approach, it asserts that collaboration across different ‘paths to representation’ can create a multilayered representational ‘package’ in which different organisations with different power resources take on different aspects of what was once a (single) union's role, covering each other's shortcomings in a kind of de facto representational ‘division of labour’.     

Relationship marketing,audience retention and performing arts organisation viability

Marketing strategy in performing arts organisations has become particularly important in the increasingly competitive environment in which the arts operate. Since the late 1980s there has been a necessary shift in focus to audience development away from product development. This change in focus is being encouraged to ensure the long‐term viability of performing arts organisations (PAOs) and micro‐economic reform. While government reports have recommended strategies aimed at building audience‐based recognition, this is an expensive approach for many PAOs and does not produce short‐term returns. Little attention has been paid to building enduring relationships with existing audiences as a way of having a more dramatic impact on PAOs' long‐term viability. This paper explores this theme through relationship marketing and the implication of retaining existing audiences. The paper identifies the changing cultural environment which has led to the importance of marketing. It then explains the concepts of relationship marketing and its pertinence to PAOs' viability by presenting a loyalty ladder. The structure is modelled as a dynamic conceptualisation of the relationships (audience and organisation) to assist arts managers to decide whether to focus their efforts on catching or keeping customers to maximise earned income. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

Independent Collective Representation: Providing Effectiveness, Fairness, and Democracy in the Employment Relationship

Protection against arbitrary management action has always been a concern of employees. Enlightened managerialism has been one approach to addressing these concerns. This approach is compromised by the conflicts of interest that characterize the employment relationship in a market system. We argue in this paper that independent collective representation functions to protect employees while leaving the employer with sufficient freedom to manage. Trade unions, as a counter weight to the exercise of absolute managerial power, complement a pluralist democratic system. The exercise of absolute power, the absence of accountability and countervailing checks and balances, are foreign to any democratic polity. At enterprise level, trade unions manage the ongoing tensions and conflicts between democratic humanistic values and market values.     

Does labor–management partnership deprive union members of activism toward their unions? Evidence from union members in Korea

This study aims to analyze whether partnership ideology really deprives union members of the willingness and passion to act for their union, resulting in union decline, and whether militant unionism, which includes adversarial ideology against employers is more effective for igniting members' activism for their unions rather than labor–management partnership. The survey data were obtained from union members working in Mechanical and Metal Manufacturers Complex, Changwon, Republic of Korea. Judging from the overall results of the data analysis, Kelly's (1996) claim that moderate unionism based on partnership ideology would undermine members' activism for their unions was not supported; on the contrary, partnership ideology had positive effects on both members' activism for their unions and decision-making practices. The difference between partnership and militancy is that militancy had an intensive effect on the narrow focus of union activities, but the impact of partnership achieved a better balance between participation in union activities and in management decision making.     

Membership,influence and voice: a discussion of trade union renewal in the French context

Union density in France has fallen to exceptionally low levels, yet unions are able to mobilise millions of supporters against government austerity measures. Some authors therefore argue that the union revitalisation literature overemphasises density over other power resources. The article first confirms the decline of density and the scale of the challenges unions face in organising in the face of restructuring and casualisation. Second, it is argued that unions have retained some policy influence by forming strategic alliances among themselves, although pressures for fragmentation remain strong. Third, unions' mobilising capacity indicates the need to find new ways of coordinating action at all levels. The article thus not only confirms the inadequacy of density alone as a measure of union vitality but also highlights the challenges, and some opportunities, facing unions in hostile economic conditions.     

A dance of excellence,accessibility, money and national identity: A discourse analysis of the Royal New Zealand Ballet's website

This paper explores how the Royal New Zealand Ballet's (RNZB's) website is used to construct the organisation's identity. Recent changes to the New Zealand government's cultural policy regarding accessibility, accountability, and funding have seen arts organisations need to consider economic sustainability. We posit that the changing demands placed on elite arts organisations to accommodate both artistic and commercial values may create conflicting messages and tensions that impact on their identity. To explore these tensions, we applied Dryzek's discourse analysis to the RNZB's website. The study uncovered the key entities constructed on the website as the audience, sponsors, and dancers, then considered the power relationships between these entities as well as the explicit and implicit reasons the website had been constructed. The results of the study highlight that the RNZB has chosen to emphasise its normative identity as a creative arts organisation, which inevitably had to meet utilitarian needs of financial support in order to have longevity. By making money, access, excellence, and national identity a part of their overall identity, the RNZB have perhaps inadvertently created contradictions and ambiguity in their wider identity scheme. We conclude that the until the RNZB can run sustainably without government support, and the contradictions in their presented identity will most likely remain.     

Do Unions Affect Labor's Share of Income: Evidence Using Panel Data

There have been a number of studies analyzing the impact of unions on labor's share of income. Most have relied on either time series or cross‐section data. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of unions on labor's share of income in the U.S. This study adds to the understanding of this topic by developing an analytical model of imperfect competition and estimating the model using panel data for the manufacturing sector. This study finds that unions have a positive impact on labor's share of income. Specifically, this paper finds that labor's share declined 17.9 percent between 1997 and 2006 whereas, if unionization density had remained at its 1997 level, labor's share would have declined only 13.9 percent. Thus, the decline in unionization explains about 29 percent of the decline in labor's share of income. This paper is important for three reasons. First, this paper sheds light on whether social and institutional forces play an important role in determining the distribution of income between labor and capital. Second, it helps to explain recent increases in wage inequality. Third, it has implications for understanding the potential impact of legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, that would make it easier for workers in the U.S. to unionize.     

Personnel Policies and Practices in British Trade Unions: An Exploratory Study

Full-time trade union professional employees play a significant role in the formulation and implementation of union policy and are, therefore, an important asset of any labour organisation. In recent years, researchers have begun to focus on this important union resource. This study reports the results of a survey of the internal personnel policies and practices of British trade unions in an effort to gain insights into trade unions as organisations.     

Industrial relations in Canada: a search for accommodation

Here the author reviews recent trends and the emerging issues in Canadian industrial relations. The focus is on union organization, the changing economic, labour market and public policy environment, and the key issues facing unions and management. He argues that both unions and management must continue to seek accommodation to survive in the competitive world of the 1990s.     

Revitalising young workers' union participation: a comparative analysis of two organisations in Quebec (Canada)

This paper examines how two trade union organisations in Quebec (Canada) manage to integrate issues of concern to young members (30 years old and under) and spur changes in their agenda, structures and practices. Between 2009 and 2014, 25 interviews were conducted in these two organisations, while 41 focus group discussions were held with more than 430 members. We contend that improving young members' feeling of belonging to the union, enhancing internal network density and implementing more participatory forms of democracy are key elements when it comes to increasing their participation. Our findings reveal that unions must dare to integrate young members, without seeking to mould them to fit with the values and practices they deem to be outdated. It means not only training young members to carry the necessary message to their peers but also allowing them to challenge the strategic orientations suggested therein.     

The changing face of HRM: in search of balance

Current models of HRM suggest that expectations about HR roles are changing as organisations are striving to make the HR function leaner and more ‘strategic’. In our article we explore the changing roles of HRM as they are perceived by different stakeholder groups within the HR profession through the medium of a study examining the diffusion of the concept of ‘the thinking performer’ launched by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2002. We explain how the concept of business partnering dominates respondents' talk about HR policy and practice and raise questions about the impact of this in terms of HRM's relationship with employees, employee well‐being and the career paths of HR professionals. We argue that the profession needs to reflect seriously on the consequences of a dominant business/strategic partner framing of HR work, which fails to address the duality that has historically always been inherent in HR practice. We conclude that there is a need for a more balanced HR agenda addressing human and economic concerns in current and future models of HRM.     

Conflict,militancy and crisis in Italian industrial relations: a response to Terry

Terry's explanation of the role of the law in the flexibility of Italian industrial relations is disputed. Instead the political and social nature of the labour movement is used to explain what amounts to a ‘crisis’ for Italian unions     

The HR function in purchaser–provider relationships: insights from the UK voluntary sector

This article explores how inter-organisational relations with the state impact on the status of human resource (HR) professionals in voluntary organisations. It reveals a constrained and under-resourced HR function in voluntary organisations, implementing few strategic interventions. Explanations centre on the dynamics of power relations, institutional forces, the exercise of strategic choice and management of risk between purchasers and providers and their interaction with competencies among individual actors, attitudes of senior managers and the focus by voluntary sector managers on organisational mission. It warns that these external and internal factors will produce similar outcomes in sectors and economies characterised by arm's-length contractual relations.     

Women's attitudes towards trade unions in the UK: a consideration of the distinction between full‐ and part‐time workers

This article considers the attitudes and experiences of female full‐ and part‐time workers towards trade unions. Expanding upon previous research it suggests that while the attitudes of full‐ and part‐time workers towards trade unions are similar, experiences of trade unions are not: they depend upon the employment context and work history. A life course perspective is advanced, which examines women's employment contexts and transitions between full‐ and part‐time work in order to further explain female part‐timers’ lower likelihood of unionising.     

Exercising power in a prisoner's dilemma: transnational collective bargaining in an era of corporate globalisation?

The extraordinary growth in foreign direct investment coupled with the widespread declination of union penetration has increasingly allowed multinationals to pit unions across borders as competitors for investment and jobs. Based on a theoretical analysis of the exercise of power in a prisoner's dilemma game, the essential conditions and incentives for cooperation among unions across borders for the purpose of collective bargaining with multinationals are identified and practical, strategic‐level implications for transnational interunion partnerships are addressed.