Britainís trade unions may not be a barrier to employer use of Human Resource Management, according to new research from the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) and the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP).
The study by Alex Bryson, Dr. Rafael Gomez, Professor Paul Willman and Professor Tobias Kretschmer, examines the links between HRM policies and forms of union and non-union worker voice at the workplace.
Among the findings:
In the last two decades of the 20th Century unionization was in decline in Britain. However, employers were keen to listen to the voice of workers choosing to substitute union voice with non-union voice mechanisms such as team briefings, regular meetings with senior management and problem-solving groups.
Workplaces with no mechanisms for listening to workers had the lowest incidence of HRM.
Previous research has found no association between HRM and union voice. However, this research overlooked the fact that union voice frequently co-exists with non-union voice. When it does so, it is strongly positively associated with HRM incidence and intensity. When unions are the only voice mechanism at the workplace, HRM incidence and intensity is very low.
The intensity of HRM, its distribution and the relative frequency of its components differ across the union and non-union sectors and within the union sector. In particular, financial incentives are less prevalent in the union sector whereas self-managed teams and information sharing are more prevalent in the union sector.
Trades Unions supporting HR Management
Unions can help support employer human resource management
