Role of Unions in Learning Organizations

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.