This paper seeks to complement the work on community unionism by arguing criticality is the core human capacity required to convey and share experiences of community.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to complement the work on community unionism by arguing criticality is the core human capacity required to convey and share experiences of community.
Design/methodology/approach
An over emphasis on historical materialism and a fetish with dialectics in critical theory more generally has had an impoverishing impact on understandings of the democratic reason and practice which offers the potential to reinstate communal values and democratic reason in individuals, organisations and society writ large. More recently, these limitations have led some writers to critically reflect on ways in which to reinstate communal values and democratic reason in individuals and in society writ large.
Findings
Only by conceding to the communal value of criticality and in particular the value of critical consensus in organising and the employment relationship will it be possible to bring community and indeed unions back into play.
Originality/value
A crucial point is the shift from conflictive employment relations to a consensus framework but without the loss of democracy. Moreover, this criticality is accessible to both the organisers of unions and to potential members.
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Carla C.J.M. Millar and Chong Ju Choi
This paper aims to analyse the concept of worker identity and the liability of foreignness caused by over‐reliance on expatriate managers and under‐reliance on local managers, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the concept of worker identity and the liability of foreignness caused by over‐reliance on expatriate managers and under‐reliance on local managers, and explores the implications for foreign enterprises and global organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors posit that being a successful global organization in the twenty‐first century requires a greater appreciation of local managers' institutional value and the overcoming of psychic distance towards the identity of such local managers. This in turn will combat the social exclusion and the weakening of worker identity of local managers. This will increasingly become an issue for multinational corporations as in the twenty‐first century they accelerate their expansion into large emerging markets such as China.
Findings
It is argued that multinational enterprises need to assess local managers' knowledge and contributions as having not only operational and market value, but also institutional value, such as access to local social capital.
Originality/value
This paper has original value in looking at community unionism as a way of overcoming the isolation of local managers.
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Denise Faifua and Sandra Harding
The purpose of this paper is to argue that the legacy of instrumental rationality has had a profoundly impoverishing effect on rational accounts of organisation, and that even…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that the legacy of instrumental rationality has had a profoundly impoverishing effect on rational accounts of organisation, and that even though non‐rational accounts move beyond instrumental rationality, they remain tied to economist assumptions. The paper outlines the broader Weber and Habermas's model of rationality, and demonstrates its application.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on verbatim quotes from a sampling of 35 in‐depth interviews, the paper reveals the range of very different rationalities expressed in the social relations of work, of four very specific types of organisation: a bureaucracy, an entrepreneurial unit, a producer co‐operative and a worker co‐operative.
Findings
The paper outlines two ideal sets of findings, ideal in the sense that in two of the organisations the rationalities, social relations of work and associated outcomes fit well with the Weber and Habermas model of instrumental strategic action and social strategic action.
Research limitations/implications
This study shows the potential for broader rationality as it plays out in the workplace. The notion of workplaces that free workers to contribute in socially strategic ways points to new approaches to management and organisation.
Practical implications
The paper offers practical insights into social relations built on co‐operation, moral judgement and communication.
Originality/value
The power of the idea of broader rationality is that being more rational, i.e. attending to more than a narrow impoverished view, provides the prospect of action advancing the social and the economic in a profound way.
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Monique Marks and Jenny Fleming
Efforts by police organisations to unionise and to increase their social and labour rights is an international phenomenon, and one that is becoming more vigorous in the Southern…
Abstract
Purpose
Efforts by police organisations to unionise and to increase their social and labour rights is an international phenomenon, and one that is becoming more vigorous in the Southern African region. However, many governments are wary of police unions and limit their rights, or refuse to recognise them at all. This paper aims to discuss the issues involved.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on face‐to‐face and telephone interviews, as well as e‐mail correspondence, with police unionists from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and the USA.
Findings
The efforts of the unions involved gave impetus to the formation of the International Council of Police Representative Associations (ICPRA), in September 2006. Two of ICPRA's aims are to assist and advise police unions all over the world and to provide the international police union movement with a voice for influencing policing futures. In South Africa, the Police and Civil Rights Unions is assisting police in the subregion and has become a symbol of what is possible for police even in repressive states.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates how, in a rapidly changing police labour environment, police unions have the capacity to confront existing (undemocratic) occupational cultures, to promote organisational accord and to forge positive reform.
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Despite being increasingly touted as the kind of fundamental transformation needed for union survival, “community unionism” is typically ill‐defined and poorly explained. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite being increasingly touted as the kind of fundamental transformation needed for union survival, “community unionism” is typically ill‐defined and poorly explained. This paper seeks to provide greater precision of terminology and context through a series of geographically‐informed historical studies.
Design/methodology/approach
Through explaining and synthesising the work of a number of scholars from different disciplines, the paper develops a framework for a “geo‐historical” analysis. It begins not with community unionism as such but with a more open exploration of the relationship between unions and social formations at, for the most part, the local scale. Empirical material, based on original qualitative studies, is presented for one industry, Australian mining, across different places and time periods but concentrating most upon the iron ore regions in Western Australia where recent struggles over union renewal and form have been particularly intense.
Findings
This paper argues two things about community unionism: that this union form is not without historical antecedents and, more importantly, that its structure, nature and prospects can be better understood if analysed through a number of concepts which geographers have recently developed to explore the intersections between work, community and employment relations. More needs to be done to explain not only the nature and emergence of community unionism but also the very real problems it faces in sustaining itself, let alone transforming union movements overall. The findings point to the varied forms which so‐called community unionism may take as well as to the challenges to its current forms, including from within the labour movement itself.
Originality/value
The value of the paper lies in its theoretical innovation, drawing on a range of disciplines, and its attempt to situate community unionism precisely – conceptually, historically and geographically.
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Rebecca Ryland and David Sadler
This paper aims to present an exploration of grassroots perspectives on trade union methods of organisational change management through internationalism. A case study of UNISON…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an exploration of grassroots perspectives on trade union methods of organisational change management through internationalism. A case study of UNISON (one of the largest UK trade unions, representing public sector workers) is explored with the intention of identifying whether or not there are opportunities for the rebuilding of grassroots‐led collective identities, solidarity and community beyond national borders.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based upon a case study of UNISON's North West region in England. Participant observation was conducted and semi‐structured interviews were held with UNISON key informants. Focus group sessions were conducted with UNISON grassroots members.
Findings
There remains a big divide between the aspirations of unions such as UNISON, and the grassroots perspectives upon labour internationalism of many members. Nonetheless, as some trade unions increasingly recognise that the choice is between organisational change and growing irrelevance, we show that the way in which organisational change is understood by the grassroots is of growing significance.
Research limitations/implications
The research raises implications for understanding the relationship between international officials and others within union leadership roles; the meaning of internationalism at union branch level; and the impacts of new or emergent civil society agendas such as global climate change.
Practical implications
The research equips trade unions with a deeper understanding of how their organisational change management strategies are supported, or questioned, by members. It demonstrates the level of grassroots support for internationalism, enabling the identification of how members position themselves with respect to cross‐border solidarity, and how they interpret organisational change strategies.
Originality/value
There has been great debate as to the effects of globalisation and neoliberalism on trade unions and the strategies available to achieve renewal. One such strategy is trade union internationalism. Very little is known, however, about the extent and manner of membership understandings of internationalism. Do members support internationalism, or do they perceive it as a distraction from a core agenda? The paper explores this grassroots perspective.
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There is now considerable evidence that “community unionism” is emerging as a new form of worker organization in many quite different national contexts. This paper aims to look at…
Abstract
Purpose
There is now considerable evidence that “community unionism” is emerging as a new form of worker organization in many quite different national contexts. This paper aims to look at the conceptual underpinnings of the relationship between ideas about community and union organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is particularly concerned with the impact “community” in two types of national context might have when it is applied to union organization. The contrast provides an interesting demonstration of the relationship between organisational change and contextual specificities.
Findings
In the western market‐oriented democracies of first world nations, community unionism may be seen as part of a broader (re‐)discovery of the power of community factors in these highly individualistic societies. In third world nations pursuing accelerated economic growth and social development “community” finds expression in communal loyalties based on localised social relations.
Originality/value
This paper considers differences in how “community” impacts on unionism differ in these varied historical contexts.
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Union‐community collaboration is an increasingly common practice in industrialised nations where union power and density have declined. This paper proposes a framework for…
Abstract
Purpose
Union‐community collaboration is an increasingly common practice in industrialised nations where union power and density have declined. This paper proposes a framework for defining and evaluating community unionism, through a definition of the term “community.”
Design/methodology/approach
The author explores this framework drawing on campaigns in Sydney and Chicago.
Findings
It defines the term community in three discrete but mutually reinforcing ways, as (community) organisation; common interest identity, and local neighbourhood or place. The term is used to then define community unionism as three discrete union strategies, and finally to examine one type of community unionism – coalition unionism. Successful coalition practice is defined by partner organisational relationships (coalition structure, bridge brokers, and coalition offices); common concern (common interest operates as mutual direct interest of organisation and members), and the element of scale (where success increases as coalitions operate at multiple scales such as the local, as well as the scale of government and/or business decision makers).
Originality/value
The paper identifies three elements of coalition unionism.