Importance of Unionization in Employee Participation

This essay highlights the form of employee participation in management and the importance of unionization and reasons of choosing this form by employees above other forms of participation.

RUNNING HEAD: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Human resource management
Essay
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Introduction
Employee participation is a process in which employees of the organization involved in decision
making process. This is considered as the part of process of empowerment in the organization
culture as employee participation in this modern scenario is taken as the “move towards human
resource development”. There are different forms that ensure employee participation in the
management that includes co ownership, work committee, profit sharing, suggestion scheme and
trade unions (Wood, 2016). This form of participation varies country to country and from
organization to organization as it depends on the level of authority and responsibility managers
want to enjoy at different departments and at different level. Employees can participate either in
ascending or descending form, when management gives opportunity to employees to participate
in decision making process that is considered as ascending form. When an employee tries to gain
power and authority to take decision in the organization than it is considered as descending form
(Luhmann, 2018). This essay highlights the form of employee participation in management and
the importance of unionization and reasons of choosing this form by employees above other
forms of participation.
Why have alternative forms of employee participation generally been less effective than
unionization?
Unionization is considered as the process in which all the employees of a company are organized
into a labor union which links employees and company management or it can be said that labor
union works as an intermediary between employees and organization. If a union is formed in the
company it is said to be unionized. Employees participate in decision making process of
companies through labor unions as unions has power and authority to fight for the rights and fair

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treatment of employees in the organization and with the help of union majority of employee get
their things fulfilled (Kim and Kim,2004).
Other forms of employee participation are suggestion scheme, works committee, board
representation, partnership and co ownership all these forms are somehow proven to be effective
for employees. Through this employees and employer nurture their relationship as co ownership
and partnership brings both the parties together on a common goal. Further, through suggestion
schemes and works committee workers can participate in decision making process. Any decision
taken by management has impact on employees so this ensures interest of both the parties that
reduce conflicts in the organization (McKinzie et.al, 2016). After of all these advantages and
benefits these forms are less effective because of various drawbacks that are; more power to
employees, more interference of employees at high level management decisions even without
any experience, and inequality and biasness from the side of management in solving employees
issues (Shin and Yla, 2018).
The most important and used form of worker participation is unionization because union impact
on management in a greater way and that is framed by two dynamic processes firstly through
formulation of underlying preferences of each party and the interaction between the two parties
as each tries to pursue its goals”. Union can organize and unorganized workers and the most
important preference of unions are to obtain more for their members and “this aspect of unionism
is important in considering the impact of union on management behavior and demand for
fairness leads the union to get into almost every area of day-to-day managerial decision-making
at the workplace”. Further unions can improve efficiency by “putting pressure on management
to tighten job production standards and accountability in order to preserve profits in the face of
higher wages” (Isaksson et.al, 2017).

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Unions are considered as the best way to handle the disputes and conflicts between workers and
management as trade unions represent the employees in front of management. Further, industries
that have trade unions have higher wages and more satisfied workers as compare to non-
unionized industries. Trade unions also help the employees in collective bargaining that give
more power to employees or workers to participate in the management decision. The support that
unionization provides to workers or employees is tremendous as they fight and present all the
problems and employee related disputes and suggestions in front of management that directly or
indirectly impact on decision making process of management. Unionization also helps in
protecting the employees from exploitation and helps them to uphold safety and health
legislation (Ibsen and Tapia, 2017).
The role of union in influencing management decision is higher as they negotiate regarding pay
scales for the members, bargain on working conditions and working hours for employees, the
areas in which union can intervene in the decisions of management are related to basic pay,
holidays, health safety, job security, promotion prospects, and overtime payment (Lawrence,
2016). Unions also play role in improving workers right and also provide training and education
to employees on various issues and schemes that can increase demand of product and can
increase demand for labor. Individual employee may not have that power to negotiate and
involve themselves in decision of management or affect their employer decision making process
so at that time unionization plays an important role (Taylor, 2018).
The main point to consider is that why employees join union or consider unionization as the
effective way of worker participation, as they join union because of various reasons such as
individual motives, to improve their working conditions, to attain better life and to make their
importance felt to management. Individual workers feel weak to affect mass movement and mass

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production and management give opportunity to individuals that resultant in inequality and to
solve this problem union come into role. The basic purpose of unionization is to safeguard the
economic interest of members (Freeman et.al, 2017). Further, unionization bring sense of
belongingness to employees towards their organization as they will be more satisfied if they feel
that they are valued and has some importance. The need of unionization also arises when
workers want help at the time of death, sickness, serious suffering, and at the time of their old
age. This is also beneficial to employers because it ensure good relationship between employees
and employers and develop positive environment in the organization and in the industry as
unionization is done at industrial level and it also affect the industry norms and processes
(Benassi and Vlandas, 2016).
Unionization performs two functions that are the fraternal function and militant function. Trade
unions are formed to fight for workers’ rights and conditions and the main aim is to secure
employment of workers and better conditions for them. This aims are fulfilled by using methods
such as negotiation and collective bargaining and if unions are not able to secure this purpose
their last way to affect the decisions includes boycotts and strikes. Trade unions are making
efforts towards securing share of profit in the organization and also trying to control industry
standard and policies. All these are considered as militant function. Fraternal functions are
providing financial help to members from their own funds that are created by subscriptions of the
members (Kelly, 2015). There are other functions that are also performed by trade unions that
are intra-mutual or protective functions, extra-mutual function, social function and political
function. The functions that trade union performs are depending on the social and economic
development of the country such as in Singapore unionization is considered as important actor in
the labor market as because today’s changes such as globalization and privatization and changing

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employees profile challenging the workforce. Without unionization workers who are illiterate or
not have enough knowledge about their rights will get exploited. At that stage trade union inform
employees about their rights, speak for employees in front of management and if necessary go to
the court for fair treatment (Hayter, 2015). This created more job opportunities for Singaporeans
and also enhanced their lives. In certain areas such as transfer, promotion, termination,
reorganization, dismissal, contract of employment, duties and responsibilities and recruitment are
not handled by trade union and are outside the scope of collective bargaining. Because of all
these functions, and benefits of unionization to government, employees, and employer the
unionization is prove to be effective in all the aspects (Tapia et.al, 2015).
Unionization today is not only focused on improving and protecting wages and workers
condition but nowadays it is concede for all the worker matters by which the employees are
affected whether as consumers or producers (Simpson, 2018). “Trade unions today are plurist in
character and pragmatic in method; if they are not, they are unlikely to survive the demands
made upon them by so swiftly changing an environment”. Unions also have some social
responsibilities, that includes to educate rank workers about their role, to keep up to date with the
progress of society by avoiding or handling unnecessary strikes, and work stoppage, to protect
the interest of consumers, by maximizing distribution and production in equal manner, by
changing according to the society requirements and to think above forces of religion, language
and caste, to support modernization by teaching members about acceptance of new technology.
These roles are performed by trade union for society (Meyer, 2017).
Density or roles of union in developed countries are declining mainly in the UK, Australia,
Japan, US and Germany. In relation to this shrinking unionism it is evident that because of
changing current business environment, employees need an extensive participation and greater

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voice in the process of decision making at workplace and corporate level (Kollmeyer, 2018).
This indicates that there is a gap between the ideal level of representation desired by the
employees and actual level of representation provided by trade unions. Nowadays, employees
want mechanism that is less conflict system of representation of employees due to that nonunion
employee representation is growing in other forms such as labor management committee,
employee associations, work councils and joint consultation bodies (Atzeni and Ghigliani, 2007).
There are two issues related to using non unionism representation firstly can nonunion performs
all the functions of unionism and secondly whether employee relation with employers be
improve in positive way and in more harmonious way than trade unions. Through that analysis it
can be said that using non unionism and other forms of employee participation is doubtful as
trade union cover all the aspects of workers and ensure strong relationship between employee
and employer (Chang et.al, 2017). Some of the benefits of having non unionism are that
companies enjoy more freedom in the dismissal process, promotion decision by the manager and
owners on the basis of skills not because of any pressure, individual engagement is appreciated
in non-unionized system and lastly lower costs to employees in the non-unionized firms. After
all these benefits of non-unionized workplace still unionism is effective way for the employees
because of vast area trade union cover and functions they perform for employees, employer,
society and for government (Cardador et.al, 2017).

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Conclusion
Employee participation is the level of engagement of employees in the organization decision and
process so that both the parties get benefits. Employee can participate in decision making process
through various forms some are unionized and other are non-unionized. Unionism is considered
as the most effective for of participation because it plays so many functions and roles for society,
government, employees and employer. Trade unions fight and represent the members in front of
management and that has great influence on the decision making process of management.
Further it is concluded that other non-unionized forms cannot cover all the areas that trade
unions cover they have majority of power and laws in favor that make the unionism strong in
many countries across the world.

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