Different EU industrial relations system impact on MNCs differently; this would affect the decision made by China to relocate their company. The Chinese industrial relations started off with a Marxist view set by Mao Zedong (1949-1979). This meant that lands and businesses were nationalised and run by collectives. In this type of system there were and are no ‘free’ trade unions. The Communist party created one union whose role is described as a ‘transmission belt’ for party and enterprise management, not collective bargaining on behalf of workers. If the Chinese company decided to move to the UK then there will be radical changes made to the way the company could be run.
UK is classified as an Anglo Saxon industrial relations system. This means that the UK has not yet embraced corporatism but adopted collective bargaining between employers and employees towards industrial relations. This kind of system is described as ‘pluralistic fragmentation’ (Goldthorpe,1984).
An advantage of locating in an Anglo-Saxon industrial relations system is that it allows job mobility and has free market (Needle,2004). This means that there is little to none intervention by the government in reference to supply and demand in the market. Job mobility enables workers to benefit from transferable skills and move from one organisation to another.
However Anglo-Saxon systems has weak trade union power (Needle,2004). In UK; this is very true as the decrease of union influence was seen from 1970s when Margaret Thatcher came into power. With a weak trade union power it means that there will be industrial relations unrest.
But there is an emphasis on managerial autonomy (Needle,2004); this gives managing bodies greater autonomy to respond to a dynamic com...
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...increasing. Sweden’s steel market is profitable but due to Norway’s oil export; most investments are taken by Norway. If the Chinese steel MNC chooses to locate in UK then it will benefit from return on investments through employment level.
Looking at the arguments put in place between UK and Sweden, it is evident that the Chinese MNC should choose to locate in the UK. This is because UK offers a free market, protective private rights and a growing steel industry. The steel market in Sweden is still slow and there is a strong competition which Sweden may succumb to. It is essential that the economical forecast of the nation is positive. Looking at the stable financial grounds of UK; it seems to be the best fit for the MNC. The GDP growth rate for March 2014 is 2.8%; the new unemployment rate has decreased to 6.6% and inflation rate to be 2.9% (HM Treasury,2014).
The primary objective of a trade union is to improve the well being of its members. They were formed to counter the superior economic power of the employers. It has long been recognised that the market dominance of employers could onl...
The rise of industrial age led to the rise of industrial factory systems. As the industries grew larger as well as the workplace, it required more employees. As the employees grew in the workplace, their relationship with the employer became less personal hence individuals lost power. (History of Labor Unions Summary & Analysis, 2014) emphasizes that there was little to nothing an individual could do to pressure a large industrial business to increase his/ hers wages or shorten his/hers hours or provide a better working environment. The increasing migrants in Australia during the 1960’s continually replenished the supply of unskilled workers making it difficult for any employee to attain any leverage in negotiations with their employers. This led to employee’s embracement of collective action which then led to the rise of unions. According to (Burchielli, R 2006) Unions are seen as the power house of employees in the workplace, their role was to give employee a collective bargaining with their employers for better working environment, better wages and benefits such as paid leave. However union membership have decreased over the last couple of decades, according to (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 2013) in 1986 46 % of employees were members of trade unions by 2007 the figures have dropped to only 19%. There...
Labor Unions have been around for since the 1750’s. A union is “ a legally constituted group of individuals working together to achieve shared, job- related goals, including higher pay and shorting working hours ( Denisi Griffin 2015)”. Labor unions work with the employees to get the rights that they believe they deserve. The three laws that impacted unions was the Wagner Act of 1935, the Taft-Hartly Act, passed in 1947 and the Landrum Griffin Act of 1959. The Wagner Act was passed to help put unions “on equal footing as managers for rights of employees” (Denisi, Griffin, pg. 246). This law help to set up National Labor Relations Act and helps to administrate union laws. The Taft-Hartly Act of 1947 was passed to “limit union practices ( Denisi, Griffin, pg. 247) “and it also outlawed “closed shop (
China has become the second largest foreign direct investment recipient country in the world and the largest recipient among developing countries. Since 1978 the foreign direct investment has flooded into the country. In 2002 china became the first country for a very long time to attract more foreign direct investment in one year then the United States (bringing in US$53.2 billion while US$52.7 billion flowed into the United States).
Some people talk about being military brats, well I am a Union brat. My mom has been an unionized teacher, while my dad is currently the president of his local union. I've been able to experience first hand the benefits of an unionized workplace. Even though Tennessee is a ‘right to work’ state, my parent have chosen to be active supporting members of their work unions.
...etween unions. In term of governance and administration, trade unions members were more comfortable with maintaining the status quo and concerned about being disenfranchised, leaders who are more worried about losing political base and staff who are unsure of where they will fit in the new organization if there any structural change (Fletcher and Hurd 2001).
Secondly, unions are seen as old-fashioned impediments to progress because many workers are not covered by collective bargaining contracts. Since these organizations are formed to help in collective bargaining, the lack of numerous bargaining contracts to cover many employers make them impediments to progress. In cases where collective bargaining contracts are used, they are negotiated between the company or business and the local union rather than national (Pencavel, 2014, p.143). Therefore, unions are no longer useful since many employers prefer to make the bargain with their employees rather than external organizations.
Thelen, K. (2001) ‘Varieties of Labour Politics in the Developed Democracies’, in Hall, Peter A.; Soskice, David (eds.) Varieties of Capitalism: the Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, pp. 71–103. New York: Oxford University Press
An increasing number of countries are encouraging investments with specific guidelines toward economic goals. MNCs may be expected to create local employment, transfer technology, generate export sales, stimulate growth and development of the local industry.
The pluralistic approach accepts the legitimacy of workers forming themselves into trade unions to express their interests, influence management decision and achieve their objectives. The pluralistic approach sees conflicts of interest and disagreements between managers and workers over the distribution of profits as normal and inescapable. The role of managers/management would lean towards enforcing, controlling, persuading and coordinating. Trade unions play an important role in this approach, being that employees can join unions to protect their interests and influence decision making by the management. Trade unions balance the power between management and employees, hence its an important factor in this approach and industrial
The laws and regulations surrounding Industrial Relations since the 1900’s have, at each reform, placed tighter constraints on the amount of power unions are able to exert. The reforms have also radically increased managerial prerogative, through an increased use of individual bargaining, contracts and restrictions imposed on unions (Bray and Waring, 2006). Bray and W...
Industrial Relations is a multidisciplinary field dealing with the study of employment relationship in union and non-union organizations. There have been various theories of industrial relations in place, but the first and most influential theory was put forward by John Thomas Dunlop. Dunlop, as a labor economist, remodelled the work of sociologists and developed a framework of industrial relations system. He developed the System’s Theory which stressed on the interrelationship of institutions and behaviors that enables one to understand and explain industrial relation rules.
There are many different approaches and theories regarding industrial relations nowadays. In order to mount an opinion on which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory of industrial relations, each theory will have to be analyzed. The three most prevalent theories of industrial relations which exist are The Unitarist theory, The Pluralist theory and The Marxist theory. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of trade unions and job regulation very differently. I will examine each of these theories in turn and then formulate my own opinion regarding which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory.
Conflict exists in every organization as a result of incompatible needs, goals, and objectives of two people while aligning to the overall business requirements. Though disagreement is linked with negative impact, the approach has healthy considerations (Leung, 2008). For instance, some conflicts create an avenue for the exchange of ideas and creativity to meet the set organizational purposes. However, damaging disagreement in organizations results in employee dissatisfaction, turnover, and poor services and reduced productivity. The paper establishes different types of interpersonal conflict and key resolution strategies used to address the problem. Human resource managers need to have the capacity to identify different levels of conflicts and the best methods to negate them.
Industrial Conflict is a broad and complex topic and conflicts may arise from many diverse issues resulting hostile acts by employers and employees.