Impact of Unions on Management - Research Paper Example

The paper "Impact of Unions on Management" is an outstanding example of a management research paper. Unions can be regarded as an instrument that can assist to bring social changes in society. However, core activities of the unions have remained confined to the workplace. A union is considered to be a significant institution in the territory of industrial relation. Unions are organizations or associations of employees who negotiate with the employers or management, on various issues related to employment.

Unionization can be defined as the act of forming groups among the workers and staff members (Elook, n.d.). Correspondingly, the union is a group of employees who have collaborated to improve their working conditions in terms of pay packages and other benefits. The major engagement of a union is mostly with the management where various actions take place, such as politics, lobbying etc., both at international and local levels. Therefore, in order to understand the functions of the union at the workplace, the impact of the union on the management has to be evaluated.

According to Slichter (1960), unions can increase the efficiency level of employees and the company by assisting the management to tighten the production standards and the accountability, so as to generate higher revenue, which would, in turn, come to them as higher wages. They can exert pressure on the management to revise their policies at the workplace, so as to set standardized policies for working hours, incentives, wages, promotions, discipline, etc. However, it is a fact that unions can have both positive as well as negative impact on management.

The positive aspect is that the unions assist in maintaining a balance between the employer and the employees through better communication and taking care of the interests of the employees. On the other hand, politics, lobbying etc., can be regarded as the negative aspects of union (Libcom, n.d.).The impact of a union on the management can be analyzed through two major dynamic processes, namely, arrangement of principal choice of each party and the communication among both the parties (union and the management), as both of the parties try to chase their own goals.

The unions generally assist the employees or workers in the organization to gradually increase their wages, so increasing the size of the union body and the number of members has always remained the first preferences of these unions.