Industrial Relations Ch. 2

Front 1

What are the major elements of the political context of industrial relations in Canada?

Back 1

- Authority over IR is largely decentralized: feds and provinces can pass, enforce, and administer IR laws
- Each jurisdiction shares general ideology but different contextual influences
- As regulators, government enacts and enforces legislation
- As employers, governments affect public workers
- Governments also try to share values of IR actors and provide progrms to support preferred IR practices
- Governments enact broader policies that shape the IR environment

Front 2

What is the social context of industrial relations?

Back 2

- Differences in goals and values between countries and between sub-groups within a country exist regarding the role of unions and rights of employers and workers.
- Attitudes toward unionization also affected by background, initial workplace experiences, perspectives on union policies, political orientation, etc.

Front 3

What are the main factors of the economic context of industrial relations?

Back 3

Economic context is perhaps most important influence on balance of power.
- Business cycle: when demand high, protect from inflation, union has bargaining power, easy for laid-off to find jobs
- Labor force trends
- Unemployment

Front 4

What is the labour force?

Back 4

All persons 15 years of age and over who are either employed or are unemployed but actively seeking employment. Canada: 17.59M (2006 Est.)

Front 5

What is non-standard employment?

Back 5

A term used to describe any type of employment other than full-time, full-year employment contracts of indefinite term. Proportion in 2000: 34%

Front 6

What is moonlighting?

Back 6

A situation where an individual holds more than one paid job at the same time.

Front 7

What is unemployment and what are the three types of unemployment?

Back 7

Unemployment is the number of people without jobs who are seeking work - Canada: 5.9% (Sep 2007)
Types: 1. Frictional unemployment: temporary unemployment due to time lost switching between jobs; 2. Structural unemployment: a mismatch of available jobs and skills, or where unemployed workers live in different locations than the jobs; 3. Demand-deficient unemployment: an overall lack of jobs in the economy.

Front 8

What are the current major labour force trends which impact industrial relations?

Back 8

- Fewer primary and secondary industries, more service industries.
- Aging workforce affects pension funding and availability of skilled workers.
- Labour force is more diverse highlighting need for equity programs.
- Growth in non-standard employment affects workplace equity and challenges public policy that assumed full-time, full-year, long-term employment.

Front 9

What is the impact of the economic environment on IR?

Back 9

- Unemployment gives balance of power to management, as does privatization and deregulation, trade liberalization, foreign competition, and technology.
- Managers are faced with similar pressures, particularly from globalization, changing technology, and foreign competition.

Front 10

What stages has industrial relations evolved through as a management practice?

Back 10

1. Pre-industrial
2. Coercive drive
3. Scientific management
4. Welfare capitalist
5. Bureaucratic

Front 11

Describe the pre-industrial era.

Back 11

1. Few people worked for other people on a permanent basis and manufacturing establishments were extremely small;
2. Those who did work for others usually worked with neighbours or family;
3. Workers had virtually no rights;
4. Technology was limited and markets were very local;
5. Firms competed on reputation and quality, not necessarily price.

Front 12

What was pre-industrial management?

Back 12

A system of management used in pre-industrial societies that operates on the basis ofpersonal supervision, often by an owner-manager working alongside the employees. Marked by paternalistic management.

Front 13

What was paternalistic management?

Back 13

Human resource practices based on the notion that it is an employer's responsibility to take care of employees and determine what is in their best interests.

Front 14

What was the coercive drive system?

Back 14

Early factory systems. Work irregular, little security, protection, plentiful supply of labour. Management approach in 19th C. sought to motivate employees through fear and intimidation to maximize work

Front 15

What was scientific management?

Back 15

AKA Taylorism - culmination of coercive drive system. System of management whereby tasks are broken down into their smallest possible components and quotas are set on the basis of time-motion studies. Those exceeding quota rewarded through incentive pay, others penalized

Front 16

What was welfare capitalist management?

Back 16

System of management most common between the two world wars where companies sought to increase loyalty and remain union-free by providing benefits and establishing in-house personnel systems.

Front 17

What is bureaucratic management?

Back 17

Specialized, professional administration - of IR and HR departments - where decision making is centralized and authority flows through layers of management.

Front 18

What are quality of worklife schemes?

Back 18

Process using joint problem-solving approaches that is focused on improving labour-management relations, organizational effectiveness, and employees' work satisfaction.

Front 19

What are two-tier wage systems?

Back 19

Systems where newly hired employees receive significantly lower wages than existing employees.

Front 20

What is concession bargaining?

Back 20

Situations where the union is forced to agree to a wage freeze, reduction, or reduction in benefit levels in order to conclude a collective agreement.

Front 21

What are high performance work systems?

Back 21

High-commitment, high-involvement, empower employees, improve employee and organizational outcomes - often: rigorous recruiting and selection, incentive compensation, intensive training, reduction in pay and status differentials.

Front 22

What are autonomous work teams?

Back 22

Team empowered to make decisions typically made by managers.

Front 23

What is TQM?

Back 23

Total Quality Management - Philosophy and practices aimed at continual improvement in managing quality, meeting customer requirements, improving production processes, and reducing costs.

Front 24

What is the union acceptance strategy?

Back 24

IR strategy where employers do not resis becoming unionized. - Assume that ridding of a union is neither feasible not realistic; includes employers who only grudgingly accept union presence.

Front 25

What is the union resistance strategy?

Back 25

IR strategy accepting already existent unions but vigorously oppose additional certifications or expansion of coverage. - Employers may extend union pay to all employees and communicate displeasure about union toemployees orthreaten closure if certification is successful.

Front 26

What is the union removal strategy

Back 26

IR strategy where employers go to great lengths to eliminate existing unions and avoid new certifications.

Front 27

What is the union substitution/avoidance strategy?

Back 27

IR strategy where employers try to remain union-free by implementing practices designed to substitute for union protections.

Front 28

What affects management's choice of an industrial relations strategy?

Back 28

1. Business strategy, degree of existing unionization, current collective agreement provisions, relevant labour laws; 2. Also, relative union power, union's receptivity toward co-op endeavours, and its militancy.