Assessing the principles of partnership. Workplace trade union representatives’ attitudes and experiences
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450210428462 |
| Date | 01 June 2002 |
| Published date | 01 June 2002 |
| Pages | 305-320 |
| Author | Miguel Martinez Lucio,Mark Stuart |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Assessing the
principles of
partnership
305
Employee Relations,
Vol. 24 No. 3, 2002, pp. 305-320.
#MCB UP Limited, 0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450210428462
Assessing the principles of
partnership
Workplace trade union representatives'
attitudes and experiences
Miguel Martinez Lucio and Mark Stuart
Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Keywords Trade unions, Partnering
Abstract The article examines the attitudes and experiences of senior workplace trade union
representatives, from the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, against the TUC's six
principles of partnership. The findings suggest some acceptance of the ideological aspects of
partnership, such as the need to move away from adversarial cultures and understand the impact
of market imperatives and pressures on the firm. The results reveal little support, however, for
improvements in job security, transparency and involvement and the quality of working life (the
TUC's so-called ``acid test'' of partnership). Against a backdrop of job insecurity and widespread
work intensification, the article argues that the material and organisational basis to partnership
appears to be undermining various attitudinal changes within the thinking of trade union
representatives regarding their roles and relations at work.
Introduction
Partnership has emerged as a central feature of industrial relations discourse
in the UK. It is often presented as an attempt to broaden the role of trade
unions within corporate and workplace politics, typically developed around a
``new'' capital-labour relationship that recognises the common ``threat'' of the
``market''. A number of organisations have sought to promote the partnership
approach through the development of a series of underpinning principles and
preconditions (such as the Involvement and Participation Association and the
Trades Union Congress). Such principles are considered to be central to the
effective development of partnership-based approaches, acting as a political
counterpoint to the less socially oriented interventions of private consultants
and managerialist information circuits. This paper studies the meaning and
relevance of such principles and then examines their significance for the
evolution of partnership at the workplace. The paper aims, in particular, to
assess whether such principles are engaged with and witnessed on the
ground by trade unionists. The paper draws, empirically, from a unique
survey of workplace representatives of the Manufacturing, Science and
Finance trade union (MSF). We note that a cautiously positive attitude to
``partnership as involvement'' exists among this constituency in terms of
some of the vectors of partnership. However, with regards to broader issues,
such as the commitment of management to a systematic investment in
partnership in terms of training and involvement, there appears to be a
significant level of concern.
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Employee
Relations
24,3
306
The emergence of partnership
The politics of partnership
Partnership has emerged due to a range of factors since the mid-1990s. On the
one hand, we have witnessed in the UK an increasing interest in extending
employee rights and a changing regulatory environment on a range of
employment issues. Employers have, therefore, been faced with the prospect
of having to involve unions and worker representatives within their decision-
making processes. In addition, a new politics of workplace relations has
emerged based on social issues such as work-life balance, employee-led
flexibility at work, and a broad concern with managerial and employee
conduct and behaviour. The combination of these changing regulatory and
labour market circumstances has led certain ``enlightened'' and ``strategic''
employers to rethink their relationships with trade unions (Ackers and
Payne, 1998).
Paralleling these external contributory factors is the emergent belief that
internal organisational change and the adoption of new management
practices requires ongoing ``renewal''. Any attempt to extend the adoption of
new forms of employee relations requires, therefore, new allies and
supports, in particular trade unions, which can provide organisational
change with a degree of legitimacy (Martinez Lucio and Stuart, 2000). It is
our view that the combination of thesefactorshasledtoanincreasing
interest amongst management and employer circles in the role of trade
unions within the management of labour. Finally, such a shift in emphasis,
when compared to the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s, has been
embraced by various union eÂlites, who have seen the possibility for a new
role for organised labour in the regulation and managing of work. For
Ackers and Payne (1998) the partnership agenda forms the basis for union
engagement and can be used to deepen their institutional role at various
levels of the employment relation and the state. In effect, unions should
``play back the rhetoric of employee involvement and become active agents
in the workplace and wider society''(Ackers and Payne, 1998, p. 527).
Partnership represents, then, an opportunity for linking organisational
effectiveness with social considerations through the establishment of a new
voice for labour within the corridors of corporate and workplace life: it
represents in effect a model for creating new working relations across a variety
of organisational issues. It is difficult to trace, however, a clear line in terms of
the development of, and interest in, partnership. In many ways it is a complex
and over-determined phenomenon, with unions and management engaging
with the concept for quite different reasons and in relation to distinct elements
of employment relations. These competing logics within partnership mean that
it is subject to various interventions and uses (Brown, 2000). Hence, the
increasing interest in establishing principles, meanings and approaches to
partnership in a formal and interventionist manner is part of a political
processes to ``regulate'' and manage such developments.
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