Industrial relations

There will always be matters about which employees will want to talk to the management. In small busi­nesses the boss will probably work alongside his or her workers. Anything, which needs to be sorted out, will be done face-to-face as soon as a problem arises. There will be no formal meetings or procedures. The larger the business, the less direct contact there will be between employees and management. Special meetings have to be held and procedures set up, to say when, where, how and in what circumstances the employees can talk to the management. Some companies have specially organized consultative committees for this purpose.

In many countries of the world today, particularly in large firms, employees join a trade union and ask the un­ion to represent them to the management. Through the union all categories of employees can pass on the com­plaints they have and try to get things changed. The process through which unions negotiate with management on behalf of their members is called 'collective bargaining'. Instead of each employee trying to bargain alone with the company, the employees join together and collectively put forward their views. Occasionally a firm will refuse to recognize the right of a union to negotiate for its members and a dispute over union recognition will arise.

Where there is disagreement, bargaining or negotiating will take place. A compromise agreement may be reached. Where this is not possible, the sides can go arbitration and bring in a third party from outside to say what they think should happen. However, sometimes one of the sides decides to take industrial action. The management can 'lock out' the employees and prevent them from coming to work. This used to be quite com­mon, but is rarely used today.

The main courses of action open to a trade union are: a strike, a ban on working overtime, 'working to rule' (when employees work according to the company rule book), 'go-slows' (employees may spend more time do­ing the same job) and picketing (employees stand outside the entrance to the business location holding up signs to show that they are in conflict with the management).

Every country has its own tradition of industrial relations, so it is difficult to generalize. In some busi­nesses, unions are not welcomed by the management. But in other countries the unions play an important role both in the everyday working relations in individual companies and also in the social and political life of the country.

SUMMARY AND MANAGEMENT SOLUTION\

Change is inevitable in organizations. This chapter discussed the techniques available for managing the change process. The trend today is toward the learning organization, which embraces con-tenuous learning and change. Managers should think of change as having four elements–the forces for change, the perceived need for change, the initiation of change, and the implementation of change. Forces for change can originate either within or outside the firm, and managers are responsible for monitoring events that may require a planned organizational re­sponse. Techniques for initiating changes include designing the organization for creativity, encouraging change agents, and establishing new-venture teams. The final step is implementation. Force field analysis is one technique for diagnosing restraining forces, which often can be removed. Managers also should draw on the implementation tactics of communication, participation, negotiation, coercion, or top management support.

This chapter also discussed specific types of change. Technology changes are accomplished through a bot­tom-up approach that utilizes experts close to the technology. Successful new-product introduction requires horizontal linkage among marketing, research and development, manufacturing, and perhaps other departments. Structural changes tend to be initiated in a top-down fashion, because upper managers are the administrative experts and champion these ideas for approval and implementation. Culture/people change pertains to the skills behaviors, and attitudes of employees. Organizational development is an important approach to changes in peo­ple's mind-set and corporate culture. The OD process entails three steps–unfreezing (diagnosis of the problem), the actual change (intervention), and refreezing (reinforcement of new attitudes and behaviors). Popular OD techniques include team building, survey feedback, intergroup activities, and process consultation.

These concepts apply to the Preston Trucking Company discussed in the chapter-opening problem. Preston, hammered by deregulation and unhappy employees, decided to revise its corporate culture and encourage bot­tom-up change in its production process. The survey results indicating how bad things were unfroze manage­ment. Consultants were brought in, and meetings were held to determine the best way to proceed and to gain employee participation. A new mindset was introduced that made employees equal partners in the trucking business. Improved production efficiency occurred through weekly idea meetings from which suggestions flowed from lower-level employees. In one year, more than 4,000 moneymaking ideas were proposed, worth about $1.5 million. One idea helped decrease truck service maintenance from 23 hours to 11 hours. With both a new corporate culture and a steady bottom-up flow of modifications in production technology, Preston has be­come the darling of the trucking industry. Growth is rapid, sales and profits are up, and grievances are way down. Preston is a model for how to change effectively.

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