Role of Unions in Learning Organizations

Owned by Darlene Edgar
Last updated: Nov 23, 2023
2 min read

 

Summary: "Discourse for Normalizing What? The Learning Organization and the Workplace Trade Union Response" (Huzzard, 2001)

  • Managerialist View of Learning Organizations:

    • Learning organization paradigm viewed as managerialist, lacking references to power and control.

  • Voice for Disenfranchised Groups:

    • Trust necessary for learning is realized when disenfranchised groups are given a voice.

  • Union Use of Learning Organizations:

    • Unions can use learning organizations to advance job enrichment, job enlargement, and promote favorable payment systems.

  • Critique of Learning Organizations:

    • Mainstream texts assume shared values, but learning processes may be associated with resistance to management.

    • Learning organizations criticized for normalizing employer discretion and new forms of disciplinary control.

  • Organizational Learning and Disciplinary Discourse:

    • Organizational learning sustains disciplinary discourse through four premises related to power and knowledge transfer.

  • Power Dynamics in Learning:

    • Power dynamics in learning are often silenced, and the role of power and knowledge transfer is neglected.

  • Organizational Learning and Change:

    • Organizational learning presumes change but may not involve learning as a cognitive process.

  • Case Study: Swedish Metal Workers (1980s):

    • Training and gradual task expansion envisioned for workers.

    • Confidence development linked to competitiveness and collective aspirations.

    • Competence-related pay faced employer resistance.

  • Club's Policy on "Good Work":

    • Emphasis on a 70/30 split between direct and indirect work.

    • Union leaders referring to company goals in orientation learning.

  • Challenges and Responses:

    • Some companies make progress on "good work," emphasizing continual development.

    • Resistance from tayloristic management in another company with a focus on bottom-line production targets.

  • Learning and Competencies in Management Discourse:

    • Management sees individual learning and competencies as a means to produce more efficiently, not linked to collective workplace development.

  • Union Response to Global Competition:

    • Unions extend the agenda beyond traditional pay and conditions to focus on competency and work development.

  • Challenges for Unions:

    • Learning organization concepts don't guarantee union advancement, and player resistance makes progress problematic.

  • Obscurity of Theoretical Linkages:

    • Theoretical linkages between learning and power remain obscure.