“Voice and Involvement at Work” including six lessons learned from “Experience with Non-Union Representation”

Gollan, Kaufman, Taras, and Wilkinson’s edited book is about voice and involvement forms that represent employees in joint dealings with management outside of a union context. Such Non-union Employee Representation (NER) forms are claimed to be superior to voice practices that are situated below (e.g. informal voice to superiors) and above the organizational level (e.g. unions), because they are tailored to the demands of the specific organizational context and may minimize the role of personal characteristics of those supposed to speak and those supposed to listen. However, as Gollan et al. review in their introduction, whether NER are a reliable tool to generate genuine workplace expression is controversial.

Critics of NER forms question the motives behind their introduction (e.g. a tool to avoid unions) and their effectiveness (e.g. “toothless dogs”). Moreover, some argue that NER may mask or even facilitate selective work environments in which issues such as performance improvements are raised whereas others are omitted. Gollan et al. suggest that these debates often arise from competing perspectives (or even ideologies) that (often implicitly) frame how researchers approach NER and interpret the data (i.e. individualist, unitarist, pluralist, and radical frame). Against that background, and in the face of the growing interest in NER among practitioners, Gollan et al.’s approach to the topic in the form of a collection of case studies is promising.

The book demonstrates that analysing organizational phenomena using case studies identifies two important yet often neglected influences on organizational issues: context and developments over time. The 11 case studies covering four nations (UK, Canada, Australia, USA) and a diverse set of industries enable a better understanding of how and why specific NER forms were implemented in specific organizational and macro (political, legal, economic) contexts and the processes that led to their success or failure. This is particularly interesting in cases situated in non-typical industries such as the long battle for collective representation in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Chapter 9) and the rise and demise of NER in the Dot Com industry (Chapter 6).

Also valuable is the provision of background information allowing the reader to take a broader perspective. Examples are overviews of cultural traditions of the four countries in dealing with employee representation (Chapter 1), political concerns regarding employee representation (Chapters 4 and 9), the legal landscape of representation (e.g. in public services, Chapter 10, and in specific countries, Chapter 12), and the historic ups and downs in the appreciation of employee involvement (Chapter 11). Unfortunately, the book does not dare the next step which is integrating the case study findings for evidence-based theory building. This could have been done by using the tools for interpreting and categorizing NER (e.g. according to their forms, functions, topics, extent of power) introduced in Chapter 1 or by further integrating these often isolated dimensions. The remainder of this review aims to show the value of the book as a step towards achieving a richer, evidence-based picture of the nature and effects of NER by formulating six insights informed by the implications presented by the editors and some of the case study authors:

1. NER comes in a variety of forms, shapes, and sizes, and the reasons for their implementation are manifold. This becomes most obvious in the patchwork chapter 13. Specific examples include a medical manufacturer (Chapter 3) that introduced NER due to managerial expectations that it could support upcoming organizational changes and a university (Chapter 4) that introduced NER to meet governmental requirements for funding. To judge the effectiveness of NER, researchers need to be explicit with respect to their form and the rationale behind their implementation. In addition, we learn that the way NER is implemented and operated is more important for its performance record than its form. This points to the necessity to examine the psychological processes that accompany NER implementation and operation.

2. NER evolves over time, and its manifestations are influenced by contextual factors inside and outside the organization. An example is given of a medical manufacturer (Chapter 3) where, after the problem that led to its installation has been resolved, the relevance of NER diminished and its role refocused on social issues, leaving the management in charge of seemingly more important issues. In a web-bank (Chapter 6), the importance of NER increased over time where the threat of unionization led the employer to equip the NER with more resources and rights. Other case studies describe changes in the political landscape (Chapters 2 and 4), legislation (Chapters 4, 8, and 11) and macro-economic developments (Chapters 5, 6, and 11) that can impede or facilitate NER effectiveness.

3. To get a more holistic understanding of the effects of NER, we need to consider its relationships to other forms of representation such as unions and informal voice. Unions influence the initiation and success of NER forums in several ways. Case studies (Chapters 7, 8 and 11) show that unions may (indirectly) contribute to the success of NER as employers initiated and supported NER based on their aversion of unionization. Unions may also impede NER’s success by involving employee committees in battles on responsibilities and rights (Chapter 7) and by discouraging participation and trust of non-union members (Chapter 4). Cases in which employees view unions with scepticism (Chapters 4, 6 and 11) suggest that unions need to elaborate on their approach towards NER. Unions are important in difficult times as shown in Chapter 6, where NER loses influence quickly after management changed. To remain a valued partner in positive times as well, unions need more constructive ways to work with NER such as focusing on issues where unions are granted competence (e.g. distributive issues) helping employee representatives without union background which may be ill-prepared for their role (Chapter 5), or represent employees not covered by NER (e.g. independent contractors; Chapter 12).Sometimes neglected is the importance of the relationship between NER and informal voice mechanisms. Interviews (Chapter 5) and surveys (Chapter 2) revealed that employees may decide to use informal voice mechanisms in addition to NER and that the issues raised in each channel differ. Thus, management that focuses on NER to get an impression of the shop floor might not get the whole picture as workers talk about more pressing issues directly to their supervisor.

4. Effective NER consider the interests of all the actors involved in employee representation. The case studies reveal a variety of interests of a wide array of actors involved in employee representation, including employees, representatives, lower, middle, and senior management, unions, and HR departments. A lesson learned from the case studies is that actors have difficulties in estimating the value that particular issues have for their counterparts. If management neglects seemingly small issues (e.g. shop floor temperature) and concentrates on seemingly important issues such as strategy, this may be seen as lack of respect and lead to employee cynicism towards NER (Chapters 5 and 6). Front line managers may see NER as threatening their authority (Chapter 11) or think it is their job to be the ear of management and deal with “their” employees’ concerns (Chapter 6). Chapter 11 shows that integrating levels from top to bottom can be a way to consider the interests of the whole workforce.

5. We need to broaden the scope of outcomes considered in NER research. Questions of satisfaction and commitment (towards the employer or change initiatives) dominate the assessed outcomes. This is echoed in some of the chapters (7, 9, 11), however, others show that poor employee representation can be accompanied by detrimental conditions such as harassment (Chapter 9) and a decline in customer satisfaction (Chapter 11) whereas effective NER can facilitate employee development (Chapter 3). Besides, NER may rarely score a big win but show its value by continually exerting pressure (Chapter 11).

6. NER fails when employers take the low road. The case studies show unambiguously that sustainably effective NER require the high road approach including: the integration of NER into the broader HR framework (Chapters 3 and 8) instead of being an isolated tool (Chapters 4 and 11); a “grow the pie” attitude from management and employees (Chapters 8 and 11) compared to a culture of suspicion, resignation, and aversion where NER are used to impose settlements, or reduced to collect employees’ their opinions (Chapters 4, 5, and 7); dedication of resources including investment in people ranging from basic language skills (Chapter 3) to more specific training in conflict resolution (Chapter 2), and time for NER work (Chapter 6); clear and visible management commitment, including being approachable, sharing power, and walk the talk (Chapters 8 and 11); a structured approach with clear responsibilities, aims and a timely and credible communication policy (Chapters 5, 8 and 12); and a long-term perspective that stays on course despite setbacks and that includes revision and revitalization of its instruments (Chapters 8, 11, and 12).

The book gives an overview of current NER practices but also shows that NER has been implemented by pioneer companies, progressive leaders, and courageous workers for more than a century (Chapters 8, 9, and 11). The book’s advantage of providing a multifarious picture of NER research would have been realized even more convincingly with cases from other areas of the world and beyond the fields of human resource management and industrial relations. FedEx’ difficulties when implementing their NER and alternative dispute resolution systems in Asia (Chapter 12) gives an idea of the importance of cultural differences in employee voice. Including Central European and Asian cases may enrich our understanding of possible forms and trajectories of NER and experiences with other forms of legislative regulation. Irrespective of these limitations, the collection of case studies presented offers plenty of opportunity to examine the explanatory power of the (scientific and lay) theories around the topic of employee representation and suggest issues that are neglected but need to be dealt with.