This research aims to examine worker and union outcomes of labourmanagement partnership and, to assess whether partnership provides a viable option for union revival. The research was carried out using a large-scale employee data from two matched pairs of partnership and non-partnership organizations in the health and civil services in Britain. Worker and union outcomes of formal partnership arrangements were measured at the organizational level and those of informal partnership arrangements were measured at the workplace and employee levels (Oxenbridge 2002, 2004). The analysis of quantitative data was supplemented with a large numbers of in depth interviews of workers, union representatives and managers from the case study organizations. Primary data analysis was supplemented with the analysis of a secondary data set called the British Workplace Representation and Participation Survey (BWRPS). The BWRPS is a large representative data set of the UK workforce (Diamond and Freeman 2001). The empirical data was analysed by using two contrasting theoretical approaches to labour-management partnership namely: the institutional theory and the political economy approach (Kelly 2004a, b). Findings from this research indicate that workers and unIOns In partnership arrangements had better access to information on employment related matters and greater direct employee participation in workplace level decisions. However, access to information or direct employee participation did not translate into better bargaining outcomes such as payor job security nor did partnership help unions to improve their membership levels and organization. To the contrary, unions who engaged in partnership with management suffered a 2decline in their membership levels and erOSIOn of shop steward structures. Compared to partnership. rank-and-file organizing offered better prospects of union revival. These findings have been discussed within the competing theoretical frameworks of the institutional approach and the political economy approach to partnership
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:419940 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Badigannavar, Vidyadhar Ishwar |
| Publisher | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0012 seconds