WEEK 11: PARTICIPATIVE MODELS AND UNIONS Flashcards
What is a “participative organizational model”?
Participative organizational models involve using the entire capacity of workers, and are designed to encourage employee commitment to organizational success
- More simply put, a participative organizational model is a leadership structure that encourages people form multiple levels of a company to contribute to management
How is “participativeness” measured?
4 key features are used to analyze the degree of participation of an organization:
1) Worker Knowledge- to what degree is the organization drawing on knowledge of the employees to make decisions within the workplace and to facilitate meeting goals
2) The reward system - what kind of rewards are given out? Do the rewards match the values of the organization? Is the organization rewarding participatory processes ?
3) Organizational performance - to what degree is the employee responsible for organizational performance ? Are the workers responsible at all? Are the managers? Or only the CEOs?
4) Power to act and reach decisions that influence organizational practices and procedures
What are the 3 principles of participative organizational models?
1) Human Relations- when people are treated fairly and respectfully, they will be more inclined to participate, which will allow them to be more accepting of change, be more satisfied in the workplace, and will increase organizational commitment
2) Human Resources- acknowledging that people bring different skills, ideas, and knowledge into the workplace. If we can use these skills to our advantage, we will improve our ability to make decision and find solutions
3) High Involvement- encouraging members of the organization to build on their skills, and acknowledge that they can be trusted to further develop their knowledge and skills to make good decisions → continued involvement and participation
List the types of Participatory Approaches (from least→most participative)
Worker input
Quality Control Circles
Self-managed Work Teams
Total Quality Management
Free-form Adhocracy
Explain the Worker Input approach
Worker input: surveys, suggestion boxes, brainstorming, focus groups,
no real structural mechanisms to ensure that the input of workers will actually affect changes being made
Explain the Quality Control Circles approach
Quality Control Circles: involve 7-10 employees who will meet regularly to identify work-related problems and to generate ideas that can increase productivity or product quality
- Often initiated by management, meeting times allotted during work hours, no extra pay given (usually)
- A voluntary problem solving mechanism
- Most useful when workforce has knowledge that managers do not
- Members of quality control circles work together, and seek to have their ideas and solutions to adopted and implemented by management
- Short term groups (~ 6-18 months) are most successful
- Small pool of ideas, becomes expertise driven
- Lack of support due to small groups
- Ideas and solutions are not always implemented by management
- Not fully participatory
Explain the Self-Managed Work Teams approach
Self- Managing Work Teams: teams that are formed within the organization of production as an improved way to re-design work.
- These groups have control over a variety of functions within the workplace such as…
planning shift operations, allocating work, determining work priorities, performing a variety of actual work tasks, and making recommendations regarding the recruitment, hiring, and training of new work group members, etc.
- Directly from socio-technical system theory
- Also known as “work cels” or “mini-businesses”
- Have personal responsibility and accountability for all work outcomes
- Members of these groups have the opportunity to perform all the jobs within the groups, therefore they have a richer work environment and more opportunity to develop multiple skills
- Personal characteristics matter→ need individuals who are mature, multi-skilled, self-organizing, have strong interpersonal, technical, decision making, and problem solving skills
- Extensive training is required → all members must be well versed in various tasks
- Clear direction → supervision from leader is important
Advantages: meets many principles of the sociotechnical systems theory, healthy individuals, organizations and society
Problems: negative team processes, often development for production reasons rather than for developing a healthy environment, more stress, more responsibility, not good for unions (argue that workers do not get paid enough to take on these managerial positions) , can take a long time to develop, poor success rate (given the literature)
Explain the Total Quality Management approach
Total quality management (TQM) is defined as a “cooperative form of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both workers and management to continually improve quality and productivity using work teams”
- Pioneered by Deming (1986)
- Rather than concentrating on the volume of production, TQM focuses on quality and customer demands and expectations.
- Emphasizes team-base behaviour, innovation and creativity in order to improve quality
- more easily implemented in collectivist vs individualistic cultures
Basic Assumptions:
1. Improved quality is profitable
2. People want to do a high-quality job
3. All parts of the organization are interdependent
4. Quality is the responsibility of all stakeholders
What the advantages and disadvantages of Total Quality Management (TMQ)?
Advantages:
– Employee Involvement
* Sharing of Information
* Developing Knowledge
* Rewarding Organizational Performance
* Redistributing Power
– Meant to improve satisfaction, motivation and commitment (in theory, if done properly)
Disadvantages:
– Training times (all workers must be multi-skilled so they can switch tasks/roles if necessary)
– “decision” opportunities are often just elaborate opportunities for suggesting improvements–> employees become discouraged
– Psychosocial stress–> workers take on a lot of responsibility, and feel obliged to contribute to the performance of the organization and to identify with its competitive success
– Poorly accepted by organized labor (unions) –> unions believe workers are not fairly compensated under TQM
What is 6 Sigma?
What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Six sigma is an approach to quality management (TQM) that provides training for employees and managers in statistical analysis, project management, and problem- solving methods in order to reduce the defect rate of products.
- Created by the CEO of Motorola in 1986 in attempts to reduced error rates such that defect levels were less than 3.4 per million opportunities (i.e., 6 SDs (or sigmas) occur before a defect)
Advantages:
- engages whole workforce
- enhanced profitability because of the dual contributions of lower rejection/rework rates and lower production costs that result from “doing it right the first time.”
- common language- whatever the unit of effort is—a product, customer invoice, statement in a computer program, response to a customer complaint—the number of defects can be calculated and compared to the total number of units
Disadvantages:
- requires strong leadership
- can be misused
- not easily transferable to other sectors
- requires near perfection from employees
What is lean production?
What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Lean production is another approach to Total Quality Management which focuses on reducing waste in every form, including overproduction, lengthy waiting times
for materials, excessive transportation costs, unnecessary stock, and defective products.
- Developed by Japanese automakers (Toyota and Honda) in the 1980s
- Based on the principle of “Kaizen” which means change for the better or continuous improvement
- Central tenant is just-in-time (JIT) production- a system that depends on the detailed tracking of materials and production so that the materials and human resources necessary for production arrive just
in time; central to the reduction of waste in lean production processes.
Advanatges:
- draws both customers and suppliers t the organizational table
- workers are highly skilled
- reduction of wastes–> higher profits and higher customer satisfaction
- low rates of absenteeism (not affordable !)
Disadvantages:
- can make jobs repetitive
- ergonomic risk factors associated with reducing wastes
- sensitive to disruptions such as absenteeism
-requires more training so that workers can be multi-skilled
- requires a great deal of trust between customers and organization
- workers have a stronger sense of responsibility for the success of the organization –> increased psychological stress
Explain the Free-Form Adhocracy/ Holocracy approach
Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, which claims to distribute authority and decision-making through a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy.
- structure of organization is very flat–> no hierarchal distribution of power
- all members of the organization have the same levels of autonomy and responsibility
- no authoritative power, so resolution of conflict occurs by means of a constitution of rules
Advantages:
- provides high role clarity
- high autonomy
- controls issues close to the source
Disadvantages:
- lacks clear leadership
- works must be self motivated
Briefly explain the history of unions in Canada
Unionized labour in Canada emerged after WWI
- 1912 Vancouver Coal mine strike (Ladysmith, BC) (due to unsafe working conditions)
1919 Winnipeg General Strike (transportation strike)
1930’s mass unionization in the USA (not Canada)
Relief Camps formed their own unions (Mothers Day March)
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) 1956–> CLC is a founding partner in the NDP and the top labour org in Canada
Describe the hierarchal organization of unions
There are three levels to the union structure: 1) National Union 2) Local 3) Certification Union
1) National or International Unions: not all locals have a National or International Union
- These unions have elected positions
- The union president is usually a salaried position
- Examples include: CAW,CUPE,UFCW, Teamsters etc
- At the national or international levels, unions are less specific; more diversified
- Give direction to the locals about bargaining, important issues, etc
2) Local - smaller divisions of the union
- At the national level, each union is comprised of several locals
- aim to have uniform positions between units
- elected positions are mostly salaried
- have multiple certification units
- give direction to certifications to instruct them about what to bargain for
- Local branches are organized to represent the union’s members from a particular geographic area, company, or business sector.
- Local unions have their own governing bodies which represent the interests of the national union while at the same time responding to the desires of their constituents, and organize regular meetings for members.
3) Certification Unit
- exist at the workplace or employer level
- where actual bargaining/change occurs
- power is held here –> “bargaining unit “ with exclusive bargaining rights
- all employees are members, they pay dues deducted from their salaries
- receives direction from locals
- “ shop steward” represents the union at this level, they sit at the bargaining table
How are unions formed?
- In Canada, workers have a right to organize (attempt to unionize)
- But also, all employers/organizations have the power to shut down their business to prevent unionization–> “union busting”
- The unionization process takes place in the form of a union election
PROCESS OF UNIONIZATION:
- One employee must seek out a local union they would like to be apart of. The union will support them and will provide them with membership cards
- The cards are distributed amongst the other employees and they are asked to sign the card if they are in favour of unionization
- If 51% or more employees have signed the card, no further actions are required–> the employer has no choice but to allow the workplace to unionize
- If 45-50% of the workforce has signed cards an election is held (at the federal level this margin is larger, 35-50%)
- The election process allows the workers to rethink their decision. The hope is that more employees will hop on board with unionization.
- The employees will then vote again, in attempts to reach 51%
- The Labour Relations Board oversees the election process
- Decertification (de-unionization) is the same process but occurs in the opposite order
Compare and contrast fair vs unfair labour practices
FAIR:
-Employers can tell employees what they think about a union so long as they don’t use threats or undue influence.
- Employers can “sell their company or organization”:
- say how good the working conditions are.
- give everyone a raise or increase benefits during an organizing drive.
- hold monthly, weekly or daily meetings to solve problems. set up a suggestion box.
- can set up a complaint process.
- Employers can send letters to their employees’ homes.
- Employers can close their business (union busting)
UNFAIR:
- Management threats about job loss, layoffs, loss of benefit
-Leaflets from management or anti-union employees if they have been copied on machines at work.
- Anti-union employees holding meetings at work.
- Reassigning union supporters to less desirable shift/work area without cause or reasonable business justification.
- Laying off, fining or transferring Union supporters without business justification.
- Management calling union supporters in for interviews, or intimidating workers by saying she/he knows who’s signed cards.
Define consolidation and diversification
consolidation: trying to consolidate across a particular industry (ex. UFCW as a union mostly contains certification union in the retail and food industries)
diversification: trying to expand the variety of workplaces belonging to the union in attempts to get more members
What is the labour contract?
The labour contract is a collective agreement that comes about after a period of collective bargaining
- A document/contract that lasts 2-3 years and must be renewed ones it runs out
- Negotiating teams come to the table to discuss the contract. Teams contain management, shop steward, local and national representatives
- Contract ratification: once the contract has been created, ratification involves checking with all of the members to determine if the collective agreement is acceptable
What are the 5 common issues associated with the labour contract?
- Compensation & Working Conditions
- Wages typically 10-20% higher in union
- Schedule issues
- non-legislated health and safety issues
- motivation programs
- training programs
- job design issues - Employee Security
- Fair practices, performance appraisals, pre employment screening - Union Security union shop or closed
- closed: wont accept non union members t do the work (common in trades) - Management Rights
- Decision making - Contract Duration
- typically 2-3 years
What is a grievance?
Grievances occur when there is a dispute to the contract agreement that is already in place
PROCESS:
1. Employee reports grievance(dispute) to supervisor
2. Supervisor reports grievance to shop steward, who reports to the local who then helps resolve the conflict
3. Management and union seek out and arbitrator
4. Grievance Arbitration –> arbitrators act as judges and determine what should happen
Explain the methods of Impasse Resolution (i.e., resolving a grievance)
Mediation: the mediator acts as a “catalyst”, a discussion leader and advisor, to assist the parties in settling their differences. Essentially acts as an objective third party. Tries to get both parties to come to an agreement
Fact Finding:
- more formal, for public services
- 3rd party reviews “facts”
- presents facts to public and expect public influence
Arbitration: arbitrators act as judges, and determine what should happen to resolve the solution based on the situation
- a process where two or more parties, who have been unable to negotiate a solution to a problem, agree to put the matter to an independent neutral person to provide an answer, and to be bound by that decision
What are some common responses to impasse?
Strikes–> in Canada, every worker has the right to strike
- Replacement workers - “Scabs”
- Strike Fund - % of wages go to fund strike pay
- Stockpiling Goods
Work Slowdowns –> precedes strike action
“Blue Flu” – provide essential services
Lockout
Saboutage
“Essential Services” in BC - daily services essential to preserving life, health, public safety and basic societal functioning
- government has taken away the tight for essential workers to strike completely in BC (often occurs in healthcare)
- Violence and harassment are illegal and unacceptable
What are the benefits and challenges of unionization ?
BENEFITS:
* Higher Wages
* Higher attention to health and safety
* Higher instrumentality (perceived usefulness of belonging)
* Stronger organizational justice
* Job security
CHALLENGES:
* Reward through seniority rather than performance
* Power struggles
* Grievances
* Less flexibility
* Can be difficult to terminate employees who are not doing their job properly
