Blueprint on Effective Organization Strategies - Essay Example

Running head: blueprint Blueprint on the effective strategies an organization Introduction: Collaboration between management and labor union groups has always been difficult and the two entities seem to work for common objectives, but through opposing practices. To enhance organizational effectiveness, management should be mindful of labor unions’ influence on employees; at the same time, the union groups should understand management’s perspectives in terms of strategies, employee practices and business framework. An objective approach towards establishing favorable relationships between management and labor union will help in improving organizational effectiveness to an extent considering all possible limitations. These objectives can be accomplished by adopting specific strategies that are mutually beneficial for both management and the union groups. The role of management in an organization is divided into specific functions at various levels. For instance, the role of top level management team is to make business strategies in terms of goals, human resources, systems, technology, structure etc. Middle level management is involved in planning operations and other activities related to various management functions such as human resources, supplies and inventory, production/service operations, facilities, finance and budgeting etc. The lower-level management team oversees or supervises all production/service related activities; manages employees to perform and deliver desired outcomes. Overall management activities include planning, organizing, scheduling, directing, controlling and coordinating with other functions. Ideally, labor unions are formed to coordinate between management and employees. The roles of labor unions are varied and highly debatable. The most common objective of labor union is to protect workers’ interests from exploitation, wage differentiation, unequal opportunities, safety and security at workplace, overtime pay etc. Labor unions strive to prevent unjust practices against individual workers. Labor unions adopt a holistic role of protective function in an organization. Structure of labor unions also plays an important role in employment. For instance, unions may be formed by employees of one organization or employees from different organizations with common interests unite to form a union. For both, safeguarding workers’ interests remain the common objective. Nevertheless, management teams and labor unions are constantly at strife with each other for many reasons. These conflicts affect organizations’ performance and revenue, employees’ productivity, and relationships at various levels and between individuals. The main triggering factor of conflict is organizational change in terms of rules and regulations, leadership and management, structure or systems, etc. Liberal economies present greater challenges to labor unions because of lack of support from governing bodies or other entities; for organizations, they are bound by some external legislative norms that define a common institution and encompass human rights (Boxall & Haynes, 1997). From this viewpoint, both management teams and labor unions have to work collaboratively in order to sustain the organization’s stand and provide employment. Prucell advocated the development of managerial industrial relations policies which would institutionalize conflict and optimize areas of common interest through encouragement, involvement and empowerment, and strategic and accountable functioning (Thurley & Wood, 1983). Fostering collaboration and cooperation between management and labor union needs a systematic approach or plan that provides mutual benefit to either parties and also strengthens their relationship. Unlike scientific management, contemporary management patterns are much different and hence provide lesser reasons for labor unions to resist or challenge the management functions and initiatives. Many organizations have recognized the challenges labor unions can bring about. Instead of resisting or sidelining labor unions, organizations have to embrace labor unions and taking an advantage of the role labor unions can play in overall organizational performance (Cohen-Rosenthal & Burton, 2006). Organizations can do so through different strategies based on the common objectives of both management and union groups. Firstly, effective and equal participation or partnership can be of great help to mutual parties because of the common objectives that could be set through this partnership (Brown & Harvey, 2006). Management should involve labor union groups in their strategic planning processes so that management and union understand the organizational objectives and fit mutual requirements within the strategic framework. While management will formulate plans or set objectives in line with organizational goals, unions can provide input from employees’ perspective. Such involvement will not only improve understanding between management and union groups, but also improve union’s understanding of organizational stand in various decisions. Moreover, unions will develop sense of ownership and responsibility towards organization in addition to employee groups. However, members of the management and union should be experienced and mature enough to understand the significance and consequences of such transactional approach. Secondly, improving worker participation through empowerment and involvement will help in improving unions’ relationship with management (Holley, Jennings & Wolters, 2008). Empowered employees will feel motivated as well as committed to their work. Empowerment can be established by providing opportunities for union members to build teams responsible for critical organizational objectives such as quality, productivity, human resources, training and development, facilities management etc. Effective leadership will still be the ingredient for this strategy to yield intended results; leaders should be able to handle conflicts, provide role and goal clarity to union members, and themselves be aligned to the organizational goals. Empowerment and employee participation in strategic objectives will give much ground for employee contribution. Considering common objectives of the organization and the union like employee development, job security, and better pay, the union groups can take over responsibilities such as training, job enrichment, job rotation, knowledge sharing activities etc. Labor unions’ involvements in training and developmental activities, a practice followed for past many decades, have proven extremely beneficial for employee and the organization (Ackers & Payne, 2011). Labor union members can utilize the opportunity to be a part of strategic planning process and identify ways to introduce developmental activities for employees. Union leaders should acquire an understanding of employees’ concerns regarding job design, job security, pay scales etc without bias. This would require the leaders to be aware of conditions in the market in terms of job processes, pay etc. The leaders can address these concerns by including strategic activities such as training and development, job rotation, job enrichment, productivity-based incentive schemes, overtime pay etc. These practices will not only motivate employees and address their concerns but also help organization by improving overall productivity, reducing employee turnover, and introducing better training and knowledge sharing activities. However, budget constraints could potentially hinder all these activities to be effectively implemented. Secondly, labor union groups have the influential ability to establish better teams that are self managed and high performing. Autonomous participation in management decision making and empowerment will help labor union leaders to take responsibility of their members’ development and growth through practices linked to performance and training. These aspects provide the leaders a platform to exercise power to create self-managed and high-performing teams. However, the extent of employee commitment towards the union and towards the organization cannot be assessed. In such situations, unions should operate on the basis of well-defined goals and objectives from the management and also for the employees. Overall, unions can exercise power and influence in creating better teamwork outcomes. But, managing the leaders’ and their high-performing teams’ expectations would emerge as the consequential challenge for management, which could fire conflicts of interest between the two groups. In conclusion, the communion between labor union and management seems idealistic option for mutual benefit of both the parties and for better organizational performance. While both parties exist to enhance each other’s significance through common stage formed by employees, their decisions and actions tend to prove otherwise. Hence, creating an objective relationship between the two groups based on specific strategies agreed by both can accomplish their respective objectives. From the management perspective, two such strategies include union participation at strategic level and union empowerment. From the union perspective, responsibilities of training and employee development will help in motivating employees as well as deliver high performance. Secondly, labor union leaders can create high-performing self-directed teams which will foster performance by leveraging empowerment opportunities given to them by management. These strategies cannot be foolproof mechanisms to avoid conflicts without effective leadership, experience and maturity in both the groups. References Ackers, P and Payne, J. (2011). British trade unions and social partnership: rhetoric, reality and strategy. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(1), 529-550. Boxall, P and Haynes, P. (1997). Strategy and Trade Union Effectiveness in a Neo-liberal Environment. British Journal of Industrial Relations 35(4), 567–591. Brown, D.R and Harvey, D. (2006). High performing systems and learning organization. An Experiential Approach to Organization Development. (pp: 401-430). New Delhi: Pearson Education Inc. Cohen-Rosenthal, E and Burton, C. (2006). Improving organizational quality by forging the best union-management relationship. National Productivity Review. 13(2), 215-231. Holley, W.H, Jennings, K.M and Wolters, R.S. (2008). Unions and Management: Key participants in the lasbor relations process. In The Labor Relations Process. (Ed.9; pp: 117-175). OH: Cengage Learning. Thurley, K.E and Wood, S. (1983). Introduction to Part I. In Industrial relations and management strategy. Social Science Research Council (Great Britain). (pp:9-12) Cambridge: University of Cambridge.. Read More