Labour Management Partnership

As Stephen Covey explains "We are in the middle of one of the most profound shifts in human history, where the primary work of mankind is moving from the Industrial Age of "control" to the Knowledge Worker Age of "release." As Albert Einstein said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.""

As we make this transition, there is an increasing awareness that employees, unions, and employers all stand to benefit from working more in partnership.

Through labor-management partnerships, historically industrial and adversarial workplace relationships are transformed into collaborative relationships to release the untapped knowledge, intuition and experience of people. Labor-management partnerships have the potential to improve company operations, enhance worker satisfaction, and strengthen union legitimacy.

Ultimately, the labor-management partnership strategy takes into account the fact that all parties – employees, unions, and employers alike – have an interest at stake in determining whether a company succeeds or fails.

Numerous researchers have studied the extensive outcomes of labor-management partnerships. Across various industries, this research highlights the specific ways in which labor-management partnerships generate tangible benefits for employees, unions, and employers.

The rich body of literature examining labor-management partnerships reveals that the advantages of engaging in this type of cooperative arrangement far outweigh the costs.

We are compiling a list of references we have come across for those interested in learning more about Labour Management Partnerships.  If you know of others we have missed please let us know.
 
Developing Positive Employment Relations - International Experience of Labour Management Partnership

"Offering a critical assessment of the main conceptual debates concerning labour management partnership and cooperation at the workplace, this book evaluates the search for positive employment relations in five countries. The provision of collective employee representation, normally through trade unions, is central to most definitions of labour management partnership, and the aim is to develop collaborative relationships between unions, employers and employee representatives for the benefit all parties. While traditionally associated with employment relations in the coordinated market economies of the continental European nations, partnership approaches have attracted increasing attention in recent decades in the liberal market economies of the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Developing Positive Employment Relations assesses the conceptual debates, reviews the employment relations context in each of these countries, and provides workplace case studies of the dynamics of partnership at the enterprise level."
 

Balser, Deborah and Anne Winkler. (2012). Worker Behavior on the Job: A Multi-Methods Study of Labor Cooperation with Management. Journal of Labor Resolution, Vol. 33, No. 3.
 


Cooke, William. (1990). Cooperation: Trying To Make It Work In America. Chapter in: Labor-Management Cooperation: New Partnerships or Going in Circles? Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, pp. 1-17.
 


Dobbins, Anthony and Patrick Gunnigle. (2009). Can Voluntary Workplace Partnership Deliver Sustainable Mutual Gains? British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 3.
 


Deakin, Simon and Aristea Koukiadaki. (2009). Governance Processes, Labour-Management Partnership and Employee Voice in the Construction of Heathrow Terminal 5. Industrial Law Journal, Vol. 38, No. 4.
 


Eaton, Adrienne, Deborah Konitsney, Adam Seth Litwin, and Nicole Vanderhorst. (2011). The Path to Performance: A Study of High-Performing Unit-Based Teams at Kaiser Permanente. Oakland, CA: Kaiser Permanente Department of Organizational Research.
 


Geary, John. (2008). Do Unions Benefit from Working in Partnership with Employers? Evidence from Ireland. Industrial Relations, Vol. 47, No. 4.
 


Givan, Rebecca. (2010). The Maimonides Medical Center Model: Conflict Reduction Through Mutual Respect and Conflict Resolution Through Mediation. Dispute Resolution Journal, Vol. 65, No. 4.
 


Kochan, Thomas and Saul Rubinstein. (2000). Toward a Stakeholder Theory of the Firm: The Saturn Partnership.” Organization Science, Vol. 11, No. 4.
 


Lazes, Peter, Maria Figueroa, and Liana Katz. (2012). How Labor-Management Partnerships Improve Patient Care, Cost Control and Labor Relations. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Institute of Labor Relations.
 


Leutz, Walter, Christine Bishop and Lisa Dodson. (2010). Role for a Labor–Management Partnership in Nursing Home Person-Centered Care. The Gerontologist, Vol. 50, No. 3.
 


Maguire, Sheila, Joshua Freely, Carol Clymer, Maureen Conway, and Deena Schwartz. (2010). Tuning In to Local Labor Markets: Findings from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study. New York, NY: Public/Private Ventures.
 


Palacios-Valladares, Indira. (2010). From Militancy to Clientelism: Labor Union Strategies and Membership Trajectories in Contemporary Chile. Latin American Politics and Society, Vol. 52, No. 2.
 


Porter, Carol. A Nursing Labor Management Partnership Model. Journal of Nursing Administration, Vol. 40, No. 6.
 


Roche, William. (2009). Who Gains from Workplace Partnership? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 20, No. 1. 
 


Rolfsen, Monica. (2011). How Close Can We Dance? Labour Management Partnership on a Borderline. Economic and Industrial Democracy, Vol. 32, No. 4.
 


Rubinstein, Saul and John McCarthy. (2010). Collaborating On School Reform: Creating Union-Management Partnerships to Improve Public School Systems. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.
 


Uhalde, Ray. (2011). Workforce Development That Supports Economic Development. Economic Development Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1.