Union Presence and Corporate Productivity Practices: Evidence from Singapore
| Author | Foo Check‐Teck |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1991.tb00232.x |
| Date | 01 March 1991 |
| Published date | 01 March 1991 |
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
29:l
March
1991 0007-1080
$3.00
Union Presence and Corporate
Productivity Practices: Evidence
from
Singapore
Foo
Check- Teck*
Final version accepted
10
October 1990.
Abstract
This paper explores the influences that unionisation may have
on
managerial
processes to improve productivity. Unionisation
is
cast as a contextual
variable, along with sector, size and culture.
A
recently established Singapore
data base
of
employees’ perceptions
of
corporate productivity practices is used
to
detect such possible influences. Regression analysis, with productivity
practice
as
a dependent variable, suggests that unionisation explains some
of
the variations
in
such practices,
1.
Introduction
In
Singapore the philosophy
of
industrial relations is ‘tri-partism’
-
co-
operation at the national level between government, unions and employers.
This makes that city an attractive setting for testing the following
hypothesis:
Given a co-operative system
of
industrial relations (as in Singapore), does the
union’s presence explain corporate behaviour in seeking higher productivity?
What makes this line
of
enquiry even more pertinent is the recent transition
in industrial relations from national to micro-level focus. For example, there
has been a structural change in Singapore’s system
of
industrial relations
(Blum and Pataranapich 1987) to house unionism. This implies a more direct
union influence in shaping corporate work-place practices. Evidence
of
this
shift is also reflected in the recently published 1990 Nitional Wages Council
Recommendation, where the suggestion is made of linking built-in wages to
productivity
(Straits Times
1990). Thus, one can reasonably expect that
management may be influenced in some productivity practices as a
consequence of the union’s presence.
*Nanyang
Technological
Institute,
Singapore
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