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Article
Publication date: 30 September 2024

Jereme Snook and Michael Whittall

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate union and non-union’s mechanisms ability to “contest” the realm of workplace employee representation at two UK sites. The paper…

73

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate union and non-union’s mechanisms ability to “contest” the realm of workplace employee representation at two UK sites. The paper directly compares one union and one non-union mechanism of employee representation at separate sites by employing three “dilemmas” of employee representation: confidentiality, challenge and trust. The paper contributes to enduring debates about the efficacy of employee voice in UK organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a qualitative and inductive case study approach in two organisations, drawing upon semi-structured interviews, archival documentation, company meetings and a trade union officer diary to record the employee representatives use of voice to influence company decision-making.

Findings

The paper shows how the union achieved improved pay and a more trusting relationship with managers in comparison to the non-union mechanism, which failed to influence managers’ decisions at the site and fell into demise.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations are that the paper covers one geographical area and interviews were made with employee representatives and HR and management. The access was limited by the respective case study management regime/s. The data are acknowledged as now historical but remain relevant as a means of understanding wider debates on employee representation and voice. These limitations are now acknowledged in the revised edition of the manuscript, as suggested by the reviewers.

Practical implications

The practical implications are that the paper shows how employee representatives face similar dilemmas in their operational roles and activities. If these dilemmas are managed with efficacy for members, then this can result in good outcomes for those members and legitimacy for the workplace employee representatives. We also suggest that the use of employee voice as a practical concept is seen here – the practical use of the factors comprising voice in the literature is used to show representatives' abilities to influence management decision-making.

Social implications

The significance of having a voice at work that raises the profile of employee representatives and their members emerges from this paper. An effective voice mechanism can promote improved employment relations in a workplace setting.

Originality/value

This paper develops knowledge about dilemmas as important and enduring issues for employee representatives, which, when inconsistently managed, can lose them the support of the workforce or, alternatively, empower them to challenge and sometimes alter management decisions.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 46 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1996

Michael Whittall

In the UK the flexibilisation of working time in relation to part‐time working has been one of the key areas identified in the growing polarisation of the workforce along with…

125

Abstract

In the UK the flexibilisation of working time in relation to part‐time working has been one of the key areas identified in the growing polarisation of the workforce along with threatening to produce a reduction in overall employment standards (Brugel & Hegewisch, 1994). The motivation, supervision and co‐ordination of employers with non‐standardised working hours is often recognised as a major new challenge for management.

Details

Management Research News, vol. 19 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0140-9174

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Article
Publication date: 21 February 2020

Valentina Franca and Michael Doherty

The article focuses on the role that ‘confidential information’ plays in relation to the work of board-level worker representatives, and their interaction with other worker…

390

Abstract

Purpose

The article focuses on the role that ‘confidential information’ plays in relation to the work of board-level worker representatives, and their interaction with other worker participation mechanisms. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to explore the implications of confidentiality of board-level information for effective worker participation. The main argument is that if board-level worker representatives are excessively constrained by confidentiality provisions, their capacity to work effectively is brought into question.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research was undertaken on a sample of 12 public limited companies in Slovenia. In each company, three interviews were conducted: with the CEO or board member, with a board-level worker representative and with a works councilor, who was not a board-level worker representative (36 interviews in total). Each of these interviewees has a particular role, and interest, in handling confidential information. Thus, a method of triangulation by groups was employed. The interviews were conducted at the company premises during October and November 2017. The results were analysed by the content analysis method.

Findings

This research confirms that in the majority of companies, nearly all of the material and information discussed by the board is deemed to be ‘confidential’. Consequently, communication between board-level worker representatives and the works council is rendered difficult, if not impossible. The results indicate an urgent need to redefine the concept of confidentiality and to reinforce the level of communication between management boards and works councils.

Research limitations/implications

The research is limited to one country, which, by no means, is fatal, as international comparisons, although of greater breadth, often lose some depth of analysis (especially, for example, where there are differences in legal contexts). Although the issues discussed in the paper are of relevance to all those with an interest in worker participation mechanisms, they cannot be generalised mostly due to national specificities.

Originality/value

The question of confidentiality as between the board, board-level worker representatives, works councils, trade unions and other form of worker representation, despite its importance, has been raised quite rarely in research. In this research, three groups of stakeholders (CEO/board member, board-level workers representative and works council members) have been covered, with the aim to extend the understanding of how confidentiality obligations impact relationships between these.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 42 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1951

WE do not apologize for devoting space this month to the Scottish Government Report on Libraries. It is, as our writers affirm, an important document and many themes for debate…

31

Abstract

WE do not apologize for devoting space this month to the Scottish Government Report on Libraries. It is, as our writers affirm, an important document and many themes for debate may emerge from it. If a reading circle of young librarians were formed in any district it could consider this document page by page with much profit. It is, for an official document, interesting in style. It starts many old ideas, it has the verve and certainty which we look for in the amateur rather than the professional writer. To some of its statements, for example its assertion that “libraries have reached or are approaching a temporary limit to their usefulness, because the schools have not yet given adequate training in the use and power of books,” librarians may well ask “why?” in relation to the second part of this statement; and they certainly refuse to admit or believe the first part of it. In fact, the use of libraries in such universal manner is largely the result of the work of modern libraries for children. The librarian teaches children what to read. We have not reached any such limit as is affirmed ; we are indeed only on the margin of our possibilities.

Details

New Library World, vol. 53 no. 14
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1975

H. SPENCER, L. REYNOLDS and B. COE

Bibliographical materials are often produced on a low budget and against a deadline, and the design of the material often does not adequately represent the structure of the…

40

Abstract

Bibliographical materials are often produced on a low budget and against a deadline, and the design of the material often does not adequately represent the structure of the information or facilitate its use. Two studies concerned with optimizing the effectiveness of design given certain practical constraints are reported here. In the first study, ten coding systems suitable for distinguishing between entries in typewritten bibliographies were tested. Subjects were given sections of author index typed in different styles, together with lists of authors' surnames to be found in the test material within a set time. The most effective system made a clear distinction between entries, and between the first element of each entry and the rest of the entry, by indentation. In the second study, the effectiveness of six spatial and three typographic coding systems for distinguishing between entries and between elements within entries in typeset bibliographies was tested for two different search tasks. In Experiment I, subjects were given lists of authors' surnames to find in the test material; in Experiment 2 they were given lists of titles. Spatial coding was more effective than typographic coding in Experiment 1; the reverse was true for Experiment 2. The most effective spatial coding systems in both experiments were those which clearly distinguished the start of each entry by line spacing or indentation. The use of capitals for authors' surnames was the most effective typographic coding system in Experiment 1; the use of bold for titles was the most effective in Experiment 2. The best compromise for both search tasks is likely to incorporate line spacing between entries with elements within entries running on, and bold titles.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 1978

Application of the numerical method to the art of Medicine was regarded not as a “trivial ingenuity” but “an important stage in its development”; thus proclaimed Professor…

196

Abstract

Application of the numerical method to the art of Medicine was regarded not as a “trivial ingenuity” but “an important stage in its development”; thus proclaimed Professor Bradford Hill, accepted as the father of medical statistics, a study still largely unintelligible to the mass of medical practitioners. The need for Statistics is the elucidation of the effects of multiple causes; this represents the essence of the statistical method and is most commendable. Conclusions reached empirically under statistical scrutiny have mistakes and fallacies exposed. Numerical methods of analysis, the mathematical approach, reveals data relating to factors in an investigation, which might be missed in empirical observation, and by means of a figure states their significance in the whole. A simplified example is the numerical analysis of food poisoning, which alone determines the commonest causative organisms, the commonest food vehicles and the organisms which affect different foods, as well as changes in the pattern, e.g., the rising incidence of S. agona and the increase of turkey (and the occasions on which it is served, such as Christmas parties), as a food poisoning vehicle. The information data enables preventive measures to be taken. The ever‐widening fields of Medicine literally teem with such situations, where complexities are unravelled and the true significance of the many factors are established. Almost every sphere of human activity can be similarly measured. Apart from errors of sampling, problems seem fewer and controversy less with technical methods of analysis then on the presentation and interpretation of figures, or as Bradford Hill states “on the application of common sense and on elementary rules of logic”.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 80 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1967

THE appointment of a Vice‐Chancellor for the University of Warwick was announced towards the end of 1962. The Registrar was next appointed and then the librarian, who arrived on…

68

Abstract

THE appointment of a Vice‐Chancellor for the University of Warwick was announced towards the end of 1962. The Registrar was next appointed and then the librarian, who arrived on the scene in July 1963. The building which is described in this article was envisaged in a programme handed to the architects, Messrs. Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, early in December 1963.

Details

New Library World, vol. 68 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1971

FOR the student who has to choose a field of study in which to learn and exercise his bibliographic skills Sociology affords an interesting and attractive challenge. Indeed, to…

61

Abstract

FOR the student who has to choose a field of study in which to learn and exercise his bibliographic skills Sociology affords an interesting and attractive challenge. Indeed, to understand his chosen profession it must necessarily be placed within its social context. Most students at some stage of their development reflect on the social problems that beset the human situation, and some, as the mass media would have us believe, are anxious to remould the “sorry scheme of things” as represented by the existing social structure.

Details

New Library World, vol. 72 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1967

DURING much of the Second World War, the affairs of the Library Association were conducted for the Council by an Emergency Committee. The record of its meeting on 10th June 1941…

68

Abstract

DURING much of the Second World War, the affairs of the Library Association were conducted for the Council by an Emergency Committee. The record of its meeting on 10th June 1941, includes the following: “A resolution having been received suggesting that a committee be formed to consider post‐war reconstruction, it was resolved that by means of a notice in the LIBRARY ASSOCIATION RECORD, Branches and Sections should be invited to formulate suggestions for the consideration of the committee. A draft questionnaire for the purpose of an enquiry into the effects of the war on the public library service was approved”. In July, the Committee reported “further arrangements … for carrying out an exhaustive survey designed to give the necessary data for full and detailed consideration and ultimate recommendation as to the future of public libraries, their administration and their place in the social services”. The promised notice appeared as an editorial in September.

Details

New Library World, vol. 69 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Book part
Publication date: 14 March 2023

Rita Trivedi

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) creates rights for covered employees, defines conduct that violates those rights, and deems that conduct an unfair labor practice. But…

Abstract

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) creates rights for covered employees, defines conduct that violates those rights, and deems that conduct an unfair labor practice. But while given broad remedial powers under the Act, the Board's options were curtailed by the Supreme Court's limit on the use of deterrence as an express remedial justification. The Board was left with a strongly make-whole, i.e., ex-post, focus to undo the consequences of a violation.

Put differently, the current NLRA remedies reflect a pay-or-play philosophy. The goal is restoration after the fact, using ex-post remedies to give parties the benefit or status quo that they expected. An actor willing to pay may use a cost–benefit analysis and strategically choose to violate the Act, accepting the make-whole remedies later. But the Act created ex-ante statutory rights, not agreed-upon contractual terms. By statutory enactment, employees are given something of value deemed worthy of protection. Assigning value to compliance with the law in the first instance not only prevents sometimes irreparable harm but also reaffirms the inherent value of the right itself.

The impact of the Board's limited remedies is therefore a broad value-driven one. Without ex-ante deterrence, the available ex-post make-whole remedial options make a normative statement about individuals' rights under the Act: those rights may not be inherently worth enough to incentivize legal compliance. The make-whole focus can imply that financial compensation for the portion of harm that can be calculated and “undoing” some nonfinancial effects is sufficient. There is little drive to deter infringement before the fact. By examining the remedial philosophy behind contrasting approaches in the common law of torts and contract, this Article asserts that the current remedial strictures and framework undermine both the Act and the worth of its rights in the eyes of the public and the employees who hold them.

Details

Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-922-2

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