Union Impact on Organisational Competitiveness through High Performance Work Practices

Carol Gill, Melbourne Business School

Abstract

This paper examines the literature and research on unions relevant to the successful implementation of High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) and demonstrates that unions that have a cooperative relationship with management can play a significant and positive role in enhancing organisation competitiveness through facilitating the implementation and effectiveness of HPWP. Whilst it has been argued that HPWP are a substitute for unions, there is substantial research that shows that collective voice compliments individual voice and contributes unique value by removing barriers to the implementation of HPWP. Organizations that want to capture the value that unions can add must move away from a pluralist model of autocratic management, hostile unions and adversarial industrial relations, beyond a unitarist model that sees no role for unions, to a cooperative partnership with unions that shares the gains of implementing HPWP.