1. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations: This chapter brought to mind an episode of the office I saw the other night. Michael is down in the warehouse hanging out with the dock workers. They decide to form a union, and Michael, desperately wanting to fit in, goes along with it. Jan, getting wind of the situation, immediately shuts it down. Why do workers want unions? Why do corporations oppose them? Workers of an industry stand to gain power by unionizing. They gain greater advantage through power in numbers. This puts them in a better position to negotiate as a union for better pay, better working conditions, etc. From the business side, managers often feel that unions will make it harder for the corporation to make money. This is because with unions come contracts! These contracts stipulate pay, benefits, and other conditions. Are unions good or bad? They have definite pros, and definite cons.
2. Have you ever or do you now belong to a union?
3. From a workers perspective, I can't imagine anything better than a union! Without one, it is just you against the firm! How much negotiation leverage do you have? Almost none! Someone else can replace you if you don't take the job. With a union the worker has a voice. They now have the size needed to really negotiate with firms. From the firms perspective I can see how unions would seem like a very bad thing. All of a sudden you have to deal with all these new stipulations. Is it fair? I think so.
4. What do you think? Are unions a good thing or a bad thing? Are there specific examples you are aware of or have experienced where unionizing turned out great? Turned out bad?
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Chapter 15 Discussion Posts
ReplyDelete(sorry I cant log in for some reason so I'm just posting ch. 15 here.)
1. This chapter focuses on International HR. This is a very interesting subject. Because HR is so heavily people based, I can see how HR could totally change in a different culture. Consider for example how societies have different values. What may be important to one set of people in one country may be entirely different for a different set. For example, in America we value performance. In Asia however, education is given heavier emphasis. Your HR needs to reflect that.
2. Have you ever lived in another country besides the US? What differences in values affect how work is performed or how employees need to be managed?
3. The key principle to take away from this is that as you expand your business operations to other countries, you need to put HR people in charge that understand the foreign countries people and values. An employee you send overseas is called an "expatriat." They either need to already understand a foreign country's culture or they need to be trained to understand. Those of us in International Business have learned about Hofsted's Dimensions. Power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculine/feminine, individualism vs collectivism; these all affect the way a group of people perceive the world and understand the workplace. A expatriat needs to be intimately familiar with these cultural dimensions.
4. Can you identify the cultural dimensions in the foreign country you are familiar with? What negative impact would you expect if you tried to manage the people there like we do in America?