(a) Managerial Prerogative
This is commonly referred to as the 'right to manage'. It relates to those areas of
corporate and workplace decision-making in which management considers itself to
have an exclusive right to make unilateral decisions. These include such matters the
hiring and firing of employees, promotion, discipline, staffing levels, production
control, overtime and other job-related issues.
The right to manage is seldom absolute. Trade unions will seek to constrain the ability
of management to exercise unilateral control, and even where unions are ineffective,
informal customs and practices may restrict managerial decision-making.
Nevertheless, there still remains an assumption that managers do have the right to
assert their prerogative to make the final decision, even after consultation or collective
bargaining have run their course.
It may be more appropriate to refer to the 'power' rather than the 'right' to manage,
since in practice, management's ability to exercise control depends more on their
relative power in relation to employees, rather than on any legal foundation.
(b) Consultation
This is often, referred to as 'joint consultation', particularly when the process is
formalised in the organisation. Consultation may be defined as a method of involving
employees in discussion and consideration of relevant matters which affect or concern
them, thereby allowing employees to influence the proposals before the final
management decision is taken. It is, therefore, a two-way communication process in
which management consults employees and/or their representatives about matters of
common interest. Its aims are:
-to give employees a voice in decisions which affect them;
-to make use of their ideas and experience in the efficient running of the organisation; and
-to try to eliminate unnecessary conflict by providing management and employees with
the opportunity to understand each other's views and objectives.
The essence of joint consultation is that while management 'consults' employees, it
reserves to itself the right to make the final decision. This is in contrast to negotiation
(as in collective bargaining) where the parties may also explain, discuss and comment,
but will eventually reach agreement in the form of a joint decision. So at the end of
the day, consultation is also about retaining managerial prerogatives.
(c) Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining is a form of joint decision-making most often seen in the arena
of industrial relations, but also increasingly common within organisations which have
adopted participative decision-making structures.
The essence of this approach is the acknowledgement that decisions which impact on
staff need to be made with their agreement. There will also be two views of the
decision – that of management and that of staff, each representing their own interests
– and these should be considered together in coming to a final determination of the
issue. Agreements will reached by discussion and negotiation, with the final decision
being based on majority voting.
(d) Worker Directors
Worker directors are employee representatives on the board of directors. These are
common in many countries, although less so in Britain, although there were
(relatively unsuccessful) experiments in the some nationalised industries, such as the
former Post Office and British Steel. They represent an attempt to draw in the
interests of employees to the strategic decision-making process at corporate level.
(e) Employee Control
This refers to the extent to which employees and/or their unions have direct power
and, therefore, control over the immediate environment in which they work.
There are often circumstances, commonly the result of 'custom and practice', where
this can be seen. For example, employees/unions can control levels of output, staffing
numbers, distribution of overtime, etc. and many unions (and professional bodies)
control entry to occupations at different levels and the definitions of occupational
boundaries.
Most methods of employee control are usually referred to as 'restrictive practices'.
From the workers' point of view, however,
Titany answered the question on November 9, 2021 at 05:53