IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v44y2006i2p215-237.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Union Co‐operation in a Context of Job Insecurity: Negotiated Outcomes from Teamworking

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Bacon
  • Paul Blyton

Abstract

This paper explores the ‘mutual gains’ argument that employees benefit when teamworking is introduced alongside employee involvement in problem‐solving and within a co‐operative industrial relations climate. It reports worker outcomes from negotiations to introduce teamworking across two steelworks. Moderate union branches and employees at one of the works (Scunthorpe) co‐operated with managers in joint problem‐solving teams to redesign work. However, contrary to mutual gains expectations, greater job insecurity at this works coerced union branches to accept teamworking agreements containing extensive demanning and a pay increase for fewer employees. Employees perceived greater job security at the other works (Teesside) and by rejecting joint problem‐solving with managers, militant union branches protected more jobs and extracted higher payment for teamworking. The findings indicate that job insecurity can lead co‐operative unions down a slippery slope of coerced co‐operation restricting employee benefits from teamworking.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Bacon & Paul Blyton, 2006. "Union Co‐operation in a Context of Job Insecurity: Negotiated Outcomes from Teamworking," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(2), pages 215-237, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:44:y:2006:i:2:p:215-237
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2006.00495.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2006.00495.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2006.00495.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William N. Cooke, 1990. "Labor-Management Cooperation: New Partnerships or Going in Circles?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number labor, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mark Bray & John W. Budd & Johanna Macneil, 2020. "The Many Meanings of Co‐Operation in the Employment Relationship and Their Implications," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 114-141, March.
    2. Wenchuan Liu & James P. Guthrie & Patrick C. Flood & Sarah Maccurtain, 2009. "Unions and the Adoption of High Performance Work Systems: Does Employment Security Play a Role?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(1), pages 109-127, October.
    3. Sheikh Raheel Manzoor & Hafiz Ullah & Murad Hussain & Zulqarnain Muhammad Ahmad, 2011. "Effect of Teamwork on Employee Performance," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 1(1), pages 110-126, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miguel Martinez Lucio & Mark Stuart, 2005. "‘Partnership’ and new industrial relations in a risk society," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(4), pages 797-817, December.
    2. David G. Meyer & William N. Cooke, 1993. "US Labour Relations in Transition: Emerging Strategies and Company Performance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 531-552, December.
    3. Monica Rolfsen, 2013. "Transfer of labour-management partnership in multinational companies," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 316-331, May.
    4. Peter Haynes & Mick Marchington & Peter Boxall, 2006. "Workplace Union--Management Partnership: Prospects for Diffusion of Contemporary British Approaches in New Zealand," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 225-241, April.
    5. Ariel C. Avgar & Julie Anna Sadler & Paul Clark & Wonjoon Chung, 2016. "Labor–Management Partnership and Employee Voice: Evidence from the Healthcare Setting," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 576-603, October.
    6. Saul A. Rubinstein, 2000. "The Impact of Co-Management on Quality Performance: The Case of the Saturn Corporation," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(2), pages 197-218, January.
    7. Strauss, George, 1991. "HRM in the USA," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt64v588z3, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    8. Lee Adler & Lowell Turner, 2001. "Awakening the giant: the revitalization of the American labor movement," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 7(3), pages 466-479, August.
    9. Joel Rogers, 1995. "United States: Lessons from Abroad and Home," NBER Chapters, in: Works Councils: Consultation, Representation, and Cooperation in Industrial Relations, pages 375-410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Aurora Trif & Malcolm Brady, 2013. "Implications of game theory for theoretical underpinning of cooperative relations in workplace partnership," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 258-275, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:44:y:2006:i:2:p:215-237. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.