Partnership at Work

Partnership at Work The partnership arrangements established between the Irish Airports’ Authority, Aer Rianta, and its trade unions in the mid 1990s were amongst the most far-reaching of their kind in promoting union and staff involvement in all aspects of company decision-making from work groups and departments to the making of corporate strategy. Radical organizational change was envisaged in this path-breaking partnership. Significant achievements were recorded. Major commercial challenges were addressed and partnership effectively came to displace traditional industrial relations arrangements and postures in key areas. A decade later, however, the partnership had broken down. This book presents the story of the Aer Rianta partnership, charting its origins, progress, achievements, obstacles and eventual demise. Partnership at Work is based on access to parties, documents, observation on how the partnership functioned and three surveys of the company’s workforce. As detailed, in-depth studies of workplace partnership are rare in the international literature, the analysis provided in this book makes an important contribution to the understanding of employment relations. The account given by William K. Roche and John F. Geary is balanced and instructive and allows for a comprehensive understanding of the functioning and outcomes of partnership. William K. Roche is Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the School of Business, University College Dublin, and Honorary Professor at the School of Management and Economics, Queen’s University Belfast. John F. Geary is Associate Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources and Director of Doctoral Studies at the College of Business and Law, University College Dublin. Routledge research in employment relations Series editors: Rick Delbridge and Edmund Heery Cardiff Business School, UK Aspects of the employment relationship are central to numerous courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Drawing from insights from industrial relations, human resource management and industrial sociology, this series provides an alternative source of research-based materials and texts, reviewing key developments in employment research. Books published in this series are works of high academic merit, drawn from a wide range of academic studies in the social sciences. 1 Social Partnership at Work Carola M. Frege 2 Human Resource Management in the Hotel Industry Kim Hoque 3 Redefining Public Sector Unionism UNISON and the future of trade unions Edited by Mike Terry 4 Employee Ownership, Participation and Governance A study of ESOPs in the UK Andrew Pendleton 5 Human Resource Management in Developing Countries Pawan S. Budhwar and Yaw A. Debrah 6 Gender, Diversity and Trade Unions International perspectives Edited by Fiona Colgan and Sue Ledwith 7 Inside the Factory of the Future Work, power and authority in microelectronics Alan Macinlay and Phil Taylor 8 New Unions, New Workplaces A study of union resilience in the restructured workplace Andy Danford, Mike Richardson and Martin Upchurch 9 Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations Edited by Mark Stuart and Miguel Martinez Lucio 10 Partnership at Work The quest for radical organizational change William K. Roche and John F. Geary 11 European Works Councils Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will? Edited by Ian Fitzgerald and John Stirling 12 Employment Relations in Non-union Firms Tony Dundon and Derek Rollinson 13 Management, Labour Process and Software Development Reality bytes Edited by Rowena Barrett 14 A Comparison of the Trade Union Merger Process in Britain and Germany Joining forces? Jeremy Waddington, Marcus Kahmann and Jürgen Hoffmann 15 French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy Nick Parsons 16 Union Recognition Organising and bargaining outcomes Edited by Gregor Gall Also available from Routledge: Rethinking Industrial Relations Mobilisation, collectivism and long waves John Kelly Employee Relations in the Public Services Themes and issues Edited by Susan Corby and Geoff White The Insecure Workforce Edited by Edmund Heery and John Salmon Public Service Employment Relations in Europe Transformation, modernisation or inertia? Edited by Stephen Bach, Lorenzo Bordogna, Giuseppe Della Rocca and David Winchester Reward Management A critical text Edited by Geoff White and Janet Druker Working for McDonald’s in Europe The unequal struggle? Tony Royle Job Insecurity and Work Intensification Edited by Brendan Burchell, David Ladipo and Frank Wilkinson Union Organizing Campaigning for trade union recognition Edited by Gregor Gall Employment Relations in the Hospitality and Tourism Industries Rosemary Lucas Partnership at Work The quest for radical organizational change William K. Roche and John F. Geary I~ ~~o~;~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2006 William K. Roche and John F. Geary Typeset in Garamond by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this title has been requested ISBN13: 978-0-415-30434-4 (hbk) Contents List of illustrations viii Preface x 1 Understanding voluntary partnership 1 2 The case and research methods 36 3 The emergence and development of partnership 43 4 Partnership and commercial strategy 66 5 Senior managers 91 6 Middle managers 116 WITH ALASTAIR MCPHERSON 7 Trade unions 138 8 Employee attitudes and behaviour 167 9 Dual commitment 204 10 The breakdown of partnership 214 11 Advocates, critics and partnership 245 Appendix 257 Bibliography 262 Index 271 Illustrations Figures 3.1 The development of constructive participation 50 3.2 The evolution of partnership arrangements 58 9.1 Scatterplot of union and organizational commitment 208 Tables 2.1 Workforce survey 41 3.1 Workplace partnership principles and arrangements 52–3 5.1 Advantages and disadvantages of constructive participation 108 7.1 Attitudes to the effectiveness of unions 150 7.2 Effects of involvement in partnership on attitudes towards unions 152 7.3 Effects of involvement on union commitment 154 7.4 Shop stewards, activists and constructive participation 161 7.5 Attitudes to unions and to constructive participation 163 8.1 Disparities between actual and preferred levels of task participation 175 8.2 Disparities between actual and preferred levels of communicative participation 176 8.3 Effects of staff category and location 177 8.4 Membership of groups and committees 180 8.5 Multiple membership of groups and committees 181 8.6 Levels of engagement with constructive participation 182 8.7 Attitudes to constructive participation 184 8.8 Aspects and assessments of involvement 187 8.9 Effects of constructive participation on attitudes to management 189 8.10 Influences on organizational commitment 192 8.11 Effects of constructive participation on changes in work practices 193 8.12 Influences on the way employees worked 194 Illustrations ix 8.13 Regular work group membership in the maintenance trades 196 8.14 High constructive participation involvement, attitudes and behaviour 198 8.15 Involvement in constructive participation and areas of concern 201 9.1 Categories of commitment to union and company 210 9.2 Cluster analysis of commitment scales 211 9.3 Latent class cluster models fitted to union and company commitment scales 211 A1 Scales of involvement with constructive participation 257–8 A2 Union commitment scales 259 A3 Attitudes to constructive participation scales 260 A4 Organizational commitment scales 261 Preface The partnership arrangements agreed between the Irish Airports’ Authority, Aer Rianta and its unions in the mid 1990s, were among the most radical of their kind in making provision for employee involvement and union participation at multiple levels in the affairs of the company. Nothing short of radical organizational change was envisaged in this path-breaking partnership. Less than a decade later, the Aer Rianta partnership had broken down, despite having recorded a number of significant achievements. This book presents the story of the Aer Rianta partnership, charting its antecedents, operation, outcomes and eventual demise. We were originally invited to examine the Aer Rianta partnership by the Irish Department of Public Enterprise. We have enjoyed an unusual level of access to the parties involved in the Aer Rianta partnership during the course of our research. All meetings and documents were accessible over a period of four years that extended to the high tide of co-operative joint activity. All the main parties were accessible over an even longer period, extending to the breakdown of the partnership. We enjoyed access to surveys that had been conducted as part of the preparations for the introduc- tion of partnership. We conducted our own survey during the high tide of the partnership. We sat for several years on the Joint Union Company Group that oversaw the operation of partnership activities, and on several strategic partnership groups. We were asked to participate in the activities

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