Giving Knowledge Workers a Voice through Joint Consultative Councils

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-172
Author(s):  
Arosha S. Adikaram
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Workers ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Initial Sessions

This case study aims to outline and explore the implementation of a Joint Consultative Council (JCC) and the related outcomes, challenges and issues faced by an information technology (IT) company in Sri Lanka. Implementation of JCC in the company as a form of employee voice was a result of a planned intervention of the new Human Resources (HR) team of the company, with the intentions of increasing employee involvement, commitment, employee relations and most importantly, communication. At the initial sessions of the council ‘tea, towels and toilets’ issues were mainly discussed and an apparent gulf between the management and the employee representatives was apparent. While the council has given some form of voice to employees, it was clearly a ‘voice without muscle’, devoid of any significant joint decision making. After recouping the process to enhance joint decision-making and communication, the proceeding JCC regained the trust and enthusiasm of employees and management. There is a possibility of continuation and subsequent institutionalization of the JCC in the company. However, the process needs more time to establish itself effectively in the company with increased trust between parties. This case study provides practical insights into the creation of a JCC as a form of Non-union Employee Representation (NER) for knowledge workers, addressing a lacuna in knowledge on the practical implementation of JCC, as well as the practice of JCCs among different categories of workers such as knowledge workers. Insights drawn from the case can be used as learning points in creating successful JCCs in organizations.

How management control systems enable and constrain integrated thinking

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Dimes ◽  
Charl de Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Management Control Systems ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Trust

Purpose This paper aims to examine how management control systems (MCS) can enable and constrain the successful adoption of integrated thinking in an organisation. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a case study approach, involving in-depth interviews and documentary evidence. Findings The case study organisation perceived trust to be critical to the successful adoption of integrated thinking, and informal social controls with strong endorsement from senior management frequently substituted for more formal technical controls in helping to develop a trust-based organisational culture. These cultural changes improved collaboration and brought economic benefits by encouraging outcome-based decision-making rather than capital-based decision-making, thereby enabling employees to identify and address poorly performing projects earlier. However, established performance measurement systems geared towards reporting and rewarding accounting profits created tension, constraining the potential benefits of integrated thinking by reinforcing business unit protectionism. Practical implications Integrated thinking can be seen as a form of management with the potential to improve organisational outcomes. An improved understanding of factors that might enable or constrain integrated thinking could facilitate its spread. Originality/value Despite several calls for research on the practical implementation of integrated thinking, this has not been studied extensively. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the firsts to contribute to a better understanding of the role of MCS in the successful implementation of integrated thinking in an organisation. The study also contributes to the MCS literature.

Non-Union Employee Representation in Australia

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Markey
Keyword(s):  
Employee Participation ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Union Representative ◽  
Australian Experience ◽  
Works Council

Non-union representative employee participation recently has attracted increasing international attention in employment relations due to the growing representation gap in many countries as union membership declines, and mounting evidence of the benefits of representative employee participation for enterprise flexibility and efficiency. However, relatively little is known about Australian experiments in employee participation, although it is essential to learn from Australian experience in order to develop effective public policy. This case study represents a contribution to this larger project. SMEC is a non-union employee representative body that has adopted a European works council organizational model. The case study evaluates SMEC's effectiveness as a non-union form of representative employee participation. It concludes that the opportunities for the formation of genuinely independent works council style organs of employee participation remain severely constrained by the current Australian regulatory environment, which tends to encourage a union substitution role.

The front-line manager’s role in informal voice pathways

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Townsend ◽  
Rebecca Loudoun
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Development ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Exceptional Case ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Line Manager

Purpose – There is a long line of human resource management and employee relations research that points to the important function that line managers play within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the level of line manager closest to the employees, the front-line manager (FLM), to understand the role they play in informal voice pathways. Design/methodology/approach – The research project from which these data are drawn is of mixed method design in a multi-site case study organisation. The organisation is a quasi-military, public sector organisation with around 2,000 front-line employees. While this paper focuses primarily on one aspect of data collection, survey results are provided to allow a deeper contextual understanding while the qualitative data progresses the theoretical contribution. Findings – The findings suggest that the FLMs play an important role in informal voice, however, the context of a strong and militant union means that the power dimension is different from previous studies into informal voice that have been conducted in the poorly unionised hospitality sector. In this context, informal voice with the FLM becomes just one pathway for employees to take when raising issues. Research limitations/implications – The single case study used is an exceptional case, therefore, has limited generalisability, nevertheless it does provide the opportunity to progress the theoretical understanding of voice pathways. Originality/value – This paper has originality in that the research focus is the role of FLMs in informal voice in an organisation that is strongly unionised and militant. It provides a conceptual development of employee voice pathways that can be further developed and tested in the future.

scholarly journals NEW GROUP DECISION-MAKING ARCAS APPROACH BASED ON THE INTEGRATION OF THE SWARA AND THE ARAS METHODS ADAPTED FOR NEGOTIATIONS

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragisa STANUJKIC ◽  
Edmundas Kazimieras ZAVADSKAS ◽  
Darjan KARABASEVIC ◽  
Zenonas TURSKIS ◽  
Violeta KERŠULIENĖ
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Group Decision Making ◽  
Operation Research ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
The One ◽  
Selection Of

Groups are generally considered to be more effective as compared to single individuals. The practical implementation of Operation Research methods in group negotiations needs simple contexts and clear cause-and-effect relationships easily discernible by everyone. This paper proposes a multi-criteria group decision-making approach allowing decision makers/experts involved in a negotiation process to better express and defend their preferences in the selection of the best alternative. In the proposed approach, the most appropriate alternative is the alternative with the largest number of appearances in the first position or in ranking lists, or the one determined based on negotiations of decision makers/experts. The proposed ARCAS approach is based on the use of the ARAS method, a new normalization procedure, and the SWARA method. In the proposed approach, each decision maker/expert involved in evaluation has an opportunity to set the preferred level of rating for each criterion used in such evaluation. Finally, a case study is presented in order to highlight the proposed approach. The obtained results confirm the usability and efficiency of the proposed approach.

scholarly journals Patterning employee voice in multinational companies

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Lavelle ◽  
Patrick Gunnigle ◽  
Anthony McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Employee Representation ◽  
Union Directive

Employee voice has been an enduring theme within the employment relations literature.This article profiles the incidence of a range of direct and indirect employee voice mechanisms within multinational companies (MNCs) and, using an analytical framework, identifies a number of different approaches to employee voice. Drawing from a highly representative sample of MNCs in Ireland, we point to quite a significant level of engagement with all types of employee voice, both direct and indirect. Using the analytical framework, we find that the most common approach to employee voice was an indirect voice approach (i.e. the use of trade unions and/or non-union structures of collective employee representation). The regression analysis identifies factors such as country of origin, sector, the European Union Directive on Information and Consultation and date of establishment as having varying impacts on the approaches adopted by MNCs to employee voice.

scholarly journals Triggering employee voice under the European Information and Consultation Directive: A non-union case study

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Cullinane ◽  
Eugene Hickland ◽  
Tony Dundon ◽  
Tony Dobbins ◽  
Jimmy Donaghey
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Employee Rights ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Regulatory Impact

The transposition of the 2002/14/EC Directive, establishing a general framework for information and consultation (I&C), has proven contentious in largely voluntarist systems of employment regulation. Receiving particular criticism is the employee ‘opt-in’ mechanism as a means to access I&C rights. For non-union employees in particular, the ability and potential to negotiate rights for I&C is widely seen to be problematic. This article uniquely examines the opt-in mechanism in the context of non-unionism, considering how non-union employers respond to non-union employees invoking their legislative rights to I&C. Drawing upon a case study conducted over four years in a large non-union multinational, the evidence shows how the opt-in and negotiation process function to the advantage of the employer rather than the intended regulatory impact to advance employee rights.

Blockchain in Supply Chain: Case Study of Lottemart Ciputat

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. K. Handoyo ◽  
M. R. Mashudi ◽  
H. P. Ipung
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Production Processes

Current supply chain methods are having difficulties in resolving problems arising from the lack of trust in supply chains. The root reason lies in two challenges brought to the traditional mechanism: self-interests of supply chain members and information asymmetry in production processes. Blockchain is a promising technology to address these problems. The key objective of this paper is to present qualitative analysis for blockchain in supply chain as the decision-making framework to implement this new technology. The analysis method used Val IT business case framework, validated by the expert judgements. The further study needs to be elaborated by either the existing organization that use blockchain or assessment by the organization that will use blockchain to improve their supply chain management.

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