Study challenges partnership notions

Policymaking on the development of partnership in industry is taking place in an empirical vacuum, says Dr John Geary, one of the authors of the first in-depth study of the issue.

"Irish workplaces are very dynamic and very significant change is going on in terms of the introduction of new technologies, working time arrangements, payment systems and working practices. But the issue of how change is being introduced has not been looked at," says Dr Geary.

He takes issue with the popular view that change is being driven with the active collaboration of unions and workers.

His contention is underpinned by a survey he has undertaken with Professor Bill Roche for the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin. It examined 450 workplaces across all private sector enterprises except construction.

Dr Geary says recent accounts of advanced forms of work organisation and of partnership arrangements between employers and unions have been over optimistic and have exaggerated their prevalence. While there is a growing awareness by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Forfas and other agencies that such innovations are necessary to improve Ireland's competitiveness, they are as yet a minority practice. Furthermore, the control, pace and direction of change remains very much a management prerogative.

"Particularly in unionised plants the predominant practice is for management to force through change unilaterally. Joint governance, where unions are seen as partners in decision making, is very much a minority practice."

He says that this is borne out despite the wide definition of partnership adopted for the purposes of the survey. Interestingly, though, the presence of direct employee involvement was found to be noticeably more evident.

"It would seem that employers prefer direct employee involvement to partnership with trade unions. We cannot tell, however, whether this form of employee `voice' actually permits employees a real say in management decisions, or whether it is being used by management to simply inform employees of future courses of action.

"But I think the big issue is management prerogative, where employers seem determined to exclude any form of employee participation. This is so deeply embedded in the fabric of Irish organisations that it is going to be very difficult to change.

"Many Irish managers think that it is not just their right, but also their duty to manage. Partnership with unions runs against their natural way of thinking."

Dr Geary says that in large foreign companies which are unionised, management sometimes has a more open approach. "Here management may be willing to consider union partnerships, but only if the unions are able to demonstrate they have something to contribute as well. The challenge for unions is to demonstrate that they can work constructively and that they are part of the solution."

He believes the UCD survey, the most comprehensive undertaken in Ireland, must give unions, employers and policy makers serious pause for thought. "We've been operating in an empirical vacuum." People had been operating on the basis of incomplete data, anecdotal information and what they wanted to believe. As a result, although employers and unions used the same vocabulary when they discussed partnership they were talking "past each other". Very often partnership for employers meant direct discussions with employees, often bypassing union structures. On their side, partnership for unions usually meant joint governance, or at least a significant say in management decision-making.

The need to agree not only a vocabulary but a lexicon is now becoming urgent because IBEC and ICTU are about to begin talks on how partnership can be developed within any successor to Partnership 2000. A major obstacle to the process of agreeing working terms, let alone implementing them, is the lack of expert knowledge.

"Where can companies or unions go for expertise," he asks. Real progress in developing partnerships is limited to a few "pioneers" such as Aer Rianta and Telecom Eireann in the public sector, or Waterford Crystal and AGF-Irish Life in the private.

He also believes that the way institutions have been developed to disseminate that expertise has fragmented the process. Despite some admirable and innovative attempts to identify and diffuse "best practice", the fragmentation of expertise across public agencies like the new National Centre for Partnership, the Labour Relations Commission and the Irish Productivity Centre, besides dozens of self-appointed expert consultants, has not helped matters. "It is time for someone to take stock so that companies and unions might be better served in their efforts to develop partnership arrangements.

"Arguably partnership is one of the most important innovations in the workplace because it affects everything, for example, pay systems, work practices, skill levels, training, and employee security. It has ramifications for industrial relations, management styles and also the development of business strategies."

Ideally one might hope for a "one-stop shop", says Dr Geary. He accepts this is probably unrealistic, but that there should still be a more rational pooling of resources. The Government is trying to encourage partnership, but is clinging to its non-interventionist role. "IBEC finds it difficult to position itself strategically in the face of this confusion.

"Some of its companies are non-union, some of its companies might be reluctant to alter their existing relationship with unions, while others might want IBEC to show some leadership on the direction in which they should go.

"ICTU faces difficulties as well. There is a comfort zone in traditional IR. Everyone knows where everything lies.

"Partnership is often established to enfranchise the entire workforce, union and non-union. It is an unknown quantity that might threaten trade union identity."

The survey itself shows no strong correlations between progress in achieving developed forms of partnership and type of company, or industry sector. There is "a very weak" indication that partnership has developed most effectively in enterprises with a strong trade union presence, in large companies and in multinationals. However Dr Geary stresses that the process is still at such an early stage in Ireland that it is impossible to draw any firmer conclusions.