Employee Relations: An International Journal

John Gennard

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888259

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to examine the implementations of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in December 2007 on the Laval case in Sweden for trade unions. Design/methodology/approach – The editorial outlines the ECJ decision and then examines the response of the European Trade Union Confederation and the social partners and governments in Sweden and Denmark. Findings – The ECJ upholds in European Union (EU) law the right to strike as a fundamental right and the right of a union to undertake industrial action against wage dumping. The judgement, however, restraints these rights to ensuring that foreign service providers are complying with the minimum employment standards as laid down in the host country legislation. Trade unions in the host county cannot undertake industrial action to force a foreign service provider to provide better terms and conditions of employment than that provided by the laws of the host country. The judgement implies that trade unions cannot in host countries by means of collective action, demand more than the legal minimum rate of pay from a company coming from a different EU member state. Originality/value – The editorial offers insights into EU law and its implementations for preventing wage dumping between EU member states.

Thomas Turner; Daryl D'Art; Michelle O'Sullivan

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888268

Purpose – The paper's purpose is to examine the propensity of recent immigrants to join Irish trade unions compared to Irish workers. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on the 2005 Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), a quarterly survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office. Findings – Results show that immigrant workers are less likely to join Irish trade unions than comparable native workers. Length of residency is an important factor in the likelihood of immigrants being unionised but employment in the public or private sector assumes even greater importance than nationality in determining union membership. Research limitations/implications – While the QNHS is generally a robust representative sample survey of the population, errors may occur in the proportion of non‐Irish nationals surveyed due to difficulties of ensuring their inclusion in the sample population. Language may also be an obstacle, particularly for recently arrived immigrants. Practical implications – From a trade union perspective the results highlight the need for trade unions to regularly conduct organising campaigns targeted at immigrants. Government policy aimed at integrating immigrants into the Irish labour force and ensuring adequate labour standards would be well served by ensuring greater union availability to immigrant workers. Originality/value – The paper provides a profile and analysis of the extent to which immigrants are joining trade unions compared to Irish workers.

J. Bret Becton; William F. Giles; Mike Schraeder

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888277

Purpose – The paper aims to address a topic that has not been systematically studied in the organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), performance appraisal and rewards literature. Specifically, this paper seeks to examine the potential effects of rewarding OCBs by explicitly incorporating them into performance appraisal and reward systems. Design/methodology/approach – A review of relevant theory and literature is provided and propositions concerning the possible effects of assessing and rewarding OCBs are offered. Findings – The findings show that there are potential advantages and disadvantages of formally incorporating OCBs into performance appraisal systems and that it seems likely that more organisations will move toward formally measuring and rewarding OCBs. Originality/value – While most research indicates that OCBs are associated with positive outcomes, this paper also addresses potential negative consequences of formally evaluating and rewarding OCB.

Hazel Conley; Paul Stewart

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888286

Purpose – Drawing on literature that examines trade union representation of “non‐standard” workers, this paper aims to analyse the attempts of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) to integrate the interests of contract research staff (CRS) employed on fixed‐term contracts between 1974 and 2002. The paper examines the union campaign under five areas identified in the literature as important to the development of representation of non‐standard workers: trade union orientation to non‐standard workers; recruitment; participation; collective bargaining; extending representation beyond collective bargaining. Design/methodology/approach – The main sources of data are drawn from analyses of union documentation, including internal memoranda and reports dating back to 1974, which chart the antecedents and progress of the AUT campaign against casualisation. This is supported by participant and non‐participant observation of 14 union meetings and events coupled with data from 20 semi‐structured interviews with a range of national officers and local activists conducted between 1999 and 2002. Findings – The data support previous research that has identified changing union orientations to non‐standard workers. In the AUT, recruitment of CRS was propelled by instrumental needs to build and extend a declining membership base, but active participation of members employed on fixed‐term contracts has influenced union democracy and the collective bargaining agenda. However, the results, in terms of concrete gains in job security for CRS, have been limited. Research limitations/implications – The paper examines a case study of one union in particular circumstances. Although the findings add to the general knowledge of union representation on non‐standard workers, the outcomes are specific to the case study union. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the AUT campaign against casualisation whilst highlighting the implications for the development of conceptual and theoretical frameworks on the representation of “non‐standard” workers. Originality/value – The paper provides unique and detailed historical data on one trade union's attempts to integrate the interests of academics employed on fixed‐term contracts into union structures originally designed to service one of the most secure sectors of the British workforce.

David Farnham

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888295

Purpose – This paper has the aim of revisiting the works of Beatrice and Sidney Webb in the field of industrial relations and assessing their intellectual contributions to the study of the labour market, unions and collective bargaining in Britain. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the Webbs' studies of trade union history and union organisation, policy and methods that were first published at the end of the nineteenth century. Findings – In refuting critiques of unions in the market economy by English classical and neo‐classical economists, and drawing on the ideas of the German school of historical economics, the Webbs incorporated organised labour into mainstream economic and political thought. Their major theoretical propositions were to set out an “agency model” of trade unions and an advanced system of democracy, in politics and at work, which unions would play a major part in promoting. In justifying the collectivisation of the employment relationship, the Webbs provided the intellectual foundations of the pluralist‐institutional model of industrial relations, which was built upon by other scholars following the end of the World War II. Their prediction that collective bargaining would decline in importance, as democracy matured, and be replaced by legal regulation, has taken place for reasons unforeseen by themselves. Originality/value – The value of this paper is its reassessment of the Webbs' contribution to theory in the field and to the British collectivist tradition of industrial relations.

Ingi Runar Edvardsson

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888303

Purpose – This paper sets out, first, to integrate HR strategies into knowledge management (KM) systems; second, to examine the type of HR strategies to be pursued and third, it looks at the probable behaviour effects of such a strategy in the creation, distribution and use of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses recent literature on the link between KM and human resource management (HRM). Findings – The HRM strategy and the general strategy of a firm make up the general KM strategies. Two were identified in this paper: exploitative strategy and explorative strategy. Both strategies have behaviour effects, which have some impact on the KM process. Thus, the exploitative strategy will put greater emphasis on knowledge storage, technical skills, as well as distributing explicit knowledge via IT solutions. This increases the risk that firms adopting such strategy will be locked into past design and to be unable to reach for future applications. Explorative strategy places greater weight on knowledge creation, as well as on human interaction to transfer tacit knowledge and use knowledge to increase innovation and new learning. Firms adopting such strategy tend to lack structure and processes to utilise the innovations into competitive advantages. Research limitations/implications – The analysis of the paper is based on literature review, therefore the concepts developed in the paper need empirical testing. Originality/value – This paper attempts to integrate HRM into KM systems.

Jane Parker

2008 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450810888312

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine why and how the Trades Union Congress (TUC) – the labour movement's peak body, “think tank” and exemplar – engages in alliance building with civil movements and groups. In particular, it investigates: the rationale for such; the nature of the alliances and the extent to which they inform TUC revival efforts or a new approach to trade unionism. Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with eight senior TUC personnel. Most interviewees provided documentary evidence to elaborate on their comments. The dimensions of a thematic analysis of this and web site evidence were structured to reflect the above areas of inquiry. Findings – The findings are that: interest in the TUC and labour movement in alliance building with civil groups is building at all levels; TUC engagement with, promotion of and guidance on civil alliances is largely emergent and sporadic; notwithstanding this, certain parts of the TUC have increased its promotion of and to a lesser extent direct engagement with alliances. It also is shown that: such engagement looks likely to continue to grow as a feature of other revival strategies and there is little assessment of whether alliance building can help strengthen the British labour movement. Practical implications – The findings inform the paper's discussion of potential TUC and union revival purpose, policy and practice. Originality/value – This paper provides an in‐depth empirical study of the TUC's involvement in alliance building with other social movements and groups. Policy‐maker and practitioner interest in such is growing rapidly, particularly in light of the debatable effectiveness of familiar British union revival strategies.