Organizational Development and Change in a Union-Management Context: The Voluntary Establishment of Joint Health and Safety Committees in Britain

Abstract

The organizational development literature has very largely ignored the role of trade unions, with the result that the traditional organizational change models are held to be unsuitable for analysing the establishment and maintenance of joint problem-solving structures. Accordingly in this article we draw on the mainstream industrial relations literature in order to develop a model which seeks to identify the relevant structural characteristics of plants that had voluntarily established joint health and safety commit tees. This model is tested by performing a multivariate analysis of data obtained from a survey of 970 establishments in the manufacturing sector in Britain.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Armstrong, E.A.G. 1971 'Management and multiunionism' in Conflict at work. S. Kessler and B. Weekes (eds.), 31-52. London : BBC.

Armstrong, K.J. , D. Bowers , and B. Burkitt 1977 'The measurement of trade union bargaining power' . British Journal of Industrial Relations 15:91-100.

Bain, G. , and H. Clegg 1974 'A strategy for industrial relations research in Great Britain'. British Journal of Industrial Relations 12:91-113.

Batstone, E. , I. Boraston , and S. Frenkel 1977 Shop stewards in action Oxford : Blackwell.

Beaumont, P.B. 1979 Safety legislation: the trade union response London: IPM.

Beckhard, R. 1969 Organizational development: strategies and models Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley .

Blauner, R. 1964 Alienation and freedom Chicago : University of Chicago Press.

Brown, W., editor 1981 The changing contours of British industrial relations. Oxford: Blackwell.

Brown, W. , R. Ebsworth , and M. Terry 1978

'Factors shaping shop steward organisation in Britain'

British Journal of Industrial Relations 16:139-159.

10.

Chamberlain, N. , and J. Kuhn 1965 Collective bargaining New York : McGraw-Hill.

11.

Department of Employment 1972 Written evidence to the Safety and Health at Work Committee, 1970-72 London: HMSO.

12.

Derber, M. 1955 Labour-management relations at the plant level under industry wide bargaining Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

13.

Fox, A. 1974 Man mismanagement London: Hutchison.

14.

Gennard, J. , and M.D. Steuer 1971

'The industrial relations of foreign owned subsidiaries in the United Kingdom'

British Journal of Industrial Relations 9:143-159.

15.

George, K.D. , R. McNabb , and J. Shorey 1977

'The size of the work unit and labour market behaviour'

British Journal of Industrial Relations 15:265-278.

16.

Gunderson, M. 1974

'Retention of trainees: a study with a dichotomous dependent variable'

Journal of Econometrics 2:79-94.

17.

Huse, E.F. 1975 Organization development and change St. Paul: West.

18.

Hyman, R. 1972 Strikes London: Collins.

19.

Kahn, R.L. 1974

'Organization development: some problems and proposals'

Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 10:485-502.

20.

Katz, D. , and R.L. Kahn 1966 The social psychology of organizations New York: Wiley.

21.

Kochan, T.A. , and R.N. Block 1977

'An inter-industry analysis of bargaining outcomes: preliminary evidence from 2-digit industries'

Quarterly Journal of Economics 91:431-452.

22.

Kochan, T.A. , and L. Dyer 1976

'A model of organisational change in the context of union-management relations'

Journal of Applred Behavioural Science 12:59-78.

23.

Kochan, T.A. , L. Dyer , and D.B. Lipsky 1977 The effectiveness of union-management safety and health committees Michigan: W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

24.

Lewicki, R.J. , and C.P. Alderfer 1973

'The tensions between research and intervention in intergroup conflict'

Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 9:424-449.

25.

Lewin, K. 1947

'Frontiers in group dynamics'

Human Relations 1:5-41.

26.

McCarthy, W.E.J. 1967 'The role of shop stewards in British industrial relations'. Research Paper No. I, Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations. London: HMSO .

27.

Morrison, D.G. 1969

'On the interpretation of discriminant analysis'

Journal of Marketing Research 6:156-163.

28.

Nichols, T. , and P. Armstrong 1973 Safety or profit: industrial accidents and the conventional wisdom Bristol: Falling Wall.

29.

Poole, M. 1976

'A power analysis of workplace labour relations'

Industrial Relations Journal 7:57-82.

30.

Pugh, D.S. , R. Mansfield , and M. Warner 1975 Research in organizational behaviour: a British survey London: Heinemann.

31.

Revans, R.W. 1958 'Human relations management and size' in Human relations and modern management. E. M. Hugh Jones (ed.), 177-220. Amsterdam: North-Holland .

32.

Thomson, A.W.J.T. , and P.B. Beaumont 1979 Union-management power: an economists perspective London: Department of Employment .

33.

Wendling, W. 1977 'Industrial safety and collective bargaining' in Proceedings of the Industrial Relations Research Association, 427-436. Wisconsin: IRRA.

34.

Williams, J.L. 1960 Accidents and ill-health at work London : Staple Press.

35.

Woodward, J. 1958 Management and technology London : HMSO.