Following the expansion of the European Union (EU) in 2004 with the accession of the A8 countries namely, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Estonia, the United Kingdom (UK) experienced an influx of nationals from these countries. This was down to two main factors, firstly the UK was one of only three EU nations, alongside Sweden and Republic of Ireland, to place no restrictions on the right of these individuals to travel and secondly, they were given the right to join the labour market and seek work. This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the impact these arriving A8 migrant workers had on those organisations with the manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland who employed them. An initial phase of quantitative data collection was utilised to create a research framework, that was then used to select those organisations and individuals who participated in the qualitative phase(s). It considers management and organisational issues by considering the literature on the use of human resources giving competitive advantage (SHRM) and the key aspects of diversity and equality including sameness/difference, the business, social justice and legal cases for diversity management. Results showed that issues such as language are key in aiding inclusion and reducing friction in the workplace, indigenous workers can feel threatened when migrants speak in the native language and conversely on many occasions, migrant workers do not have the required language skills to communicate confidently without an interpreter. This lead to the evolvement of ‘informal leaders’, those migrant workers who, found themselves acting as spokesperson for their colleagues and used as interpreters and or a negotiator. In conclusion, an employer typology is developed that visualises the behaviour and outlook of organisations in relation to the key aspects of diversity as previously mentioned.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:728646 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | McPeake, Steve |
| Publisher | Ulster University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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