In January The Liffey Press, with support from the Labour Relations Commission, published my book ‘Organisational Change through Partnership: Promise, Prospects and Performance for Irish Firms’. This book is based on a comprehensive survey of all known cases of partnership in the unionised parts of the private sector in Ireland. It adds to the already significant body of research into workplace partnership in Ireland. The book was reviewed recently in the specialist publication Industrial Relations News.
Partnership – the early days: readers will recall that in the late 1990s in Ireland there was a surge of interest among employers, trade unionists and policy makers in the idea that workplace relationships and organisational performance could be significantly enhanced through a ‘partnership’ approach to organisational change. By a ‘partnership’ approach was meant that managers, union representatives and employees would work together through joint bodies to effect changes and to resolve difficulties using a ‘problem-solving’ as opposed to a conflictual approach. This book describes in considerable details the main features of these ‘pioneering’ cases and also looks at their survival rates over a ten year period. It is in a way, then, a ‘history’ of these early cases of experimentation with partnership as a new way of involving employees and trade unions in organisational changes.
Partnership structures: partnership structures broadly followed the ‘two-tiered’ US pattern of higher level groups involving senior managers and trade union representatives coupled with ‘working groups’ or ‘task groups’ devoted to operational changes and improvements. More than half of all cases had strategic partnership bodies and more than eight out of ten had operational bodies.
The issues dealt with: agendas focused more on ‘hard’ issues such as financial performance, changes in work practices etc than on ‘soft’ issues such as communications and relationships. Most agendas reflected the concerns of management and unions. However, agendas tended to focus to a greater extent on issues of concern to management than to employees and trade unions. Issues of importance to employees and trade unions such as job security and staffing levels featured very low down in order of importance on partnership agendas. Industrial relations issues were not precluded from partnership agendas in most cases.
Outcomes for employers, employees and trade unions: the main areas of improvement for employers included business performance, workforce productivity, union members’ understanding of business issues, union members’ flexibility and support for change. There was no evidence that partnership either slowed decision-making down or caused confusion around managerial authority.
Less than half the respondents considered that security of employment was higher as a result of partnership. Slightly more than half considered that job satisfaction and pay and conditions were higher. Partnership had no obvious effect on staffing levels.
In most cases there were positive outcomes in terms of union influence on management decision-making and management involvement of the union and there appeared to be no negative outcomes for trade unions.
In most cases there were positive relationships outcomes, e.g. the quality of communications and level of trust. In most cases the incidence of industrial disputes and grievances was lower, and collective bargaining was more effective and less adversarial.
Taken together, the findings confirmed that through partnership management, employees and trade unions could achieve positive outcomes, i.e. ‘‘mutual gains’’. However, benefits appeared to be skewed somewhat in favour of management as opposed to employees. In addition, the full potential of the partnerships had not yet been realised and most respondents expected more from partnership in future than had been achieved to date.
Types of partnership: the book explores if particular types of partnership deliver more significant gains than others. It emerges that having partnership structures at different levels of organisation—typically at strategic and shop floor levels—makes a difference. As does having direct forms of involvement such as teams alongside indirect forms involving union representatives.
What about the future: My conclusions are upbeat as to the potential for partnership as a robust approach to organisational change. The evidence gathered here, as well as in other Irish studies, shows clearly that partnership can be an effective way of tackling significant changes to the benefit of employers, employees and trade unions.
My conclusions are downbeat as to the likelihood of partnership spreading in the private sector in this recession. This is an issue to which I will return in a later post.
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