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Working co-operatively with unions and egalitarian HR systems: A source of competitive advantage for co-ops?. Agenda. Introduction Overview of My Research on Impact of Unions and HR practices Application to Co-operatives Co-operative values and principles in alignment with findings
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Working co-operatively with unions and egalitarian HR systems: A source of competitive advantage for co-ops?
Agenda • Introduction • Overview of My Research on Impact of Unions and HR practices • Application to Co-operatives • Co-operative values and principles in alignment with findings • Co-operatives can have a source of competitive advantage in attraction, retention, and motivation of employees (whether unionized or not)
What Do Unions Do? • Monopoly face • increase wage and benefit costs, lower profitability • introduce restrictions on management practices (and reduce management’s ability to get rid of “dead wood”) • engage in strike activity • create inefficiencies, • distort labour market • lower employment • contribute to inflation • reduce wealth in society
What Do Unions Do? • Voice face • ensure a more equitable distribution of income in society • protect worker rights, democratize the workplace • have a positive effect on productivity • increase employee satisfaction • create greater information flow in organizations between management and employees • create economies of scale in contract negotiations • “shock” management into reducing other inefficiencies
Monopoly or Voice Face? • Which is it? Empirical research is conflicting • The concept of labour-management cooperation has only recently began to be examined as a factor that would determine union impact • Unions are largely reactive institutions • Management makes choices that greatly alter the workplace climate through strategic business decisions and implementation of particular workplace practices
We are big believers in dentist chair bargaining. For those of you not familiar with this approach, it is inspired by the story of the man who walks into his dentist's office, grabs the dentist by the balls and says, 'now, let's not hurt each other.' - Ron Bloom, former assistant to President of United Steelworkers Union
Major Propositions • Positive management responses will mitigate the negative monopoly effects of unions and enhance the positive voice effects • There will be differential effects of management response between unionized and non-unionized situations; unionized situations will exacerbate any positive or negative impact
Research Design • Workplace and Employment Survey (Statistics Canada) • Nationally representative sample of employees and (for-profit) organizations in Canada • Employee Study (2001-2002; 2003-2004) • Satisfaction, conflict, paid sick days, unpaid overtime • Organization Study (2001-2006) • Conflict, climate, turnover, dispute resolution, employment growth, profitability
A Competitive Advantage? • Valuable: unions can have a positive impact on organizational outcomes (depends on management’s response) • Rare: historical management approaches do not involve cooperation with unions and adversarial models of collective bargaining enshrined in legislation • Not easily imitated: management averse to sharing power and control with the union; unions militant and distrustful; past hostility difficult to overcome • (Some) Co-op values shared by unions • Democracy and Equality • Solidarity • Education, training and information
Interesting Tensions • Unionized co-op workers are often members as well (2 sources of power) • Move in co-ops toward models more closely aligned with the private sector may have prompted more unionization?? • Important stakeholder • Balancing interests • Aligning the interests of the union and the co-op so employees don’t have to choose
(Very) Recent Research • Tourism industry surveys this past year • HR systems • Extent of differentiation between occupation groups (supported as a best practice) • Greater variance in HR practices in organizations leads to lower employee perceptions of organizational support • This negative effect is less for employees on the high receiving end (as we would expect) • Some evidence to suggest this leads to lower overall organizational performance
(Very) Recent Research • When I worked at Saskatoon Co-op: • very rigorous selection procedure (right down to courtesy clerks and pump attendants) • more equity in benefits • access to training/education opportunities for all employees
(Very) Recent Research • You do not need to pay all employees the same or treat them completely equally • You do need to be cautious if creating huge disparity between occupation groups and individual employees • Employees may perceive this to be fair, but it still undermines their perceptions of support
