Andrea Signoretti

University of Trento

Context-based explanations for different occupational opportunities and employment conditions experienced by women and migrants

Andrea Signoretti, University of Trento

Addressing unequal occupational chances and employment conditions experienced by women and migrants through the application of equality measures has primarily concentrated on unions and on the cases of the United Kingdom (UK) and of the US. The context-based regulation theory has considered this research as highly useful to understand the subject but limited. Indeed, the specific focus on the UK and the US does not adequately consider and thus is not able to explain why equality outcomes vary among countries (Martinez-Lucio and Connolly, 2010, Connolly et al., 2014). These varied outcomes are seen as connected with different context-sensitive union strategies that, although playing a central role, should also be considered in interconnection with other stakeholders’ agency and external factors. This theoretical approach has been rarely applied; it has usually been enunciated in general terms. The article extends the theory through its detailed articulation.

Starting with the actor-based dimension, unions’ representation of disadvantaged social groups is analysed by looking into the underlying concept of union identity in terms of internal solidarity (Heery and Conley, 2007) and approach towards employers (Hyman, 2001). At the same time, union action is considered in relation with employers’ competitive strategies and with vulnerable social groups. Indeed, it must be acknowledged that disadvantaged social groups can pose different issues to employers and unions, which may reflect specific and broad social identities, experiences and practices compared to the traditional union constituency. To this regard, unions can follow universalistic or particularistic representative strategies towards these specific needs or an integration between the two (Alberti et al., 2013). Moreover, stakeholders’ agency needs to be situated within external forces. Drawing from the conceptual work of Martinez Lucio and Connolly (2010), I map these factors as belonging to the socio-economic, structural and institutional domains. As regards the socio-economic domain, local labour markets can affect work demand amongst specific social groups. In the structural domain, technology plays a pivotal role. Finally, within the institutional domain, laws and centralised collective bargaining are significant, constituting important resources for union action at the firm level.

The research question consists of understanding if the resulting theoretical model can effectively explain the variation in the regulation of women’ and migrants’ occupational opportunities and employment conditions across different contexts through a comparison between one US and one Italian auto plants. The two contexts were selected since presenting important diversities especially in terms of union identities. The research design is placed within a comparative industrial relations tradition which helps in understanding the outcomes of different systems of regulation. In order to ensure comparability, the plants were selected as it shared several important characteristics. The research method was based on the triangulation of different qualitative research techniques. Direct observation was conducted in the period of permanency in the two plants, approximately three months in both cases (in 2010 in Italy and in 2011 in the US). Semi-structured interviews involved all of the managers in the two plants and all RSUs and shop stewards (three in each case). Employees belonging to the social groups of women and migrants were involved in the interviews. The subjects explored were drawn from the specialised literature, and included labour market access, pay rate and benefits, working time, career advancement, safety and ergonomics, and job rotation (the latter of which was primarily related to safety and ergonomic issues) (Klarsfeld et al., 2012, Connolly et al., 2014).

In the case study plants, the employment of women and migrants was remarkably different between the two factories. That despite employers followed similar cost-based competitive strategies within a tiring production process requiring technology to allow women work. In the US facility, women were much more present (39% against 2% of the Italian plant) while the reverse occurred in the case of migrants. This latter outcome was due to their different presence in the local areas, in turn deriving from different local labour market performances.

As regards employment conditions, in the US factory, shop stewards incorporated women’s representation within concessive negotiations by following an integrative approach. Indeed, after having integrated women into the workforce by assuring them equal occupational opportunities, the union started following a traditional collective based-approach of negotiation to address any possible discriminatory treatment. Women resulted to be satisfied with this action. In the Italian plant, unions clearly followed a class-based approach characterized by an adversarial stance. In such a way, unions were able to resist concessions required by managers for instance in terms of higher and less regulated extra time. Despite these results, unions were not able to fully represent migrant workers.

The theoretical model is found to be valid to explain the expected superior protection that vulnerable social groups experience in the US context compared with the Italian case. Union identity emerges as a crucial element in both contexts to explain the results, and turns out to be imbued with historical trajectories and models of union representation. However, this action was affected by the other actors and external factors considered.

References

Alberti, G., Holgate, J., & Tapia, M. (2013). Organising migrants as workers or as migrant workers? Intersectionality, trade unions and precarious work. International Journal of Human Resources Management, 24(22), 4132-4148.
Connolly, H., Marino, S. & Martinez Lucio, M. (2014). Trade union renewal and the challenges of representation: Strategies towards migrant and ethnic minority workers in the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 20(1), 5-20.
Heery, E., & Conley, H. (2007). Frame extension in a mature social movement: British trade unions and part-time work, 1967-2002. Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(1), 5-29.
Hyman, R. (2001). Understanding European Trade Unionism: Between Market, Class and Society. London: Sage.
Klarsfeld, A., Ng, E., & Tatli, A. (2012). Social regulation and diversity management: a comparative study of France, Canada and the UK. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 18(4), 309-327.
Martinez Lucio, M., & Connolly, H. (2010). Contextualizing voice and stakeholders: researching employment relations, immigration and trade unions. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(1), 19-29.

The sub-systems shaping lean production and their managerial application in Italian work-integration social enterprises

Andrea Signoretti, University of Trento
Silvia Sacchetti, University of Trento

Lean production is seen to improve company’s competitiveness, while the managerial view over people’s deployment can differ. The strategic goals underlying lean application lead managers to emphasize two potential contrasting approaches in the management of the workforce: one centered on work intensity (cost reduction), the other on employee skills and involvement (quality goals). In the latter situation, further to lean technical sub-systems (just-in-time, quality management and total preventive maintenance), workers play a new role compared to taylor-fordist firms through the adoption of a bundle of integrated and complementary organizational and human resource management (HRM) practices (Kochan et al., 1997). Despite evidence indicates that inclusive organizational and HRM practices lead to mutual and collective benefits, their application is often partial. Several authors have highlighted that the limited or missing implementation of the soft practices of lean production is linked to profit pressures, and therefore to the focus on cost reduction as a strategic goal for lean implementation. When such pressures become high, managers and firms tend to privilege the coercive aspects of lean production by applying its technical sub-systems limiting or neglecting employee skill development and participation (Adler, 2012).

Lean production – as a concept and as a practice – has arisen in the context of conventional for-profit firms, being often affected by profit pressures as the main organisational objective. We argue that in Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) lean production can strategically privilege quality goals while continuing to pay attention to costs and efficiency. We focus on commercial WISE, in particular, where production organisation assumes central stage whereby representing an appropriate context for the application of lean production. These organizations, differently from conventional companies, are as a norm managed by workers and expected to design production around the special needs of weak categories and to be governed in participatory way (in the European context) because of their social mission. At the same time, efficiency has always been important in WISE. Differently from charities and foundations, they are run with entrepreneurial spirit, meaning that they value innovation, bear the economic risk of the activity, and strive for autonomy from public funding (Sacchetti and Borzaga, 2017). Given these WISE characteristics, lean production sub-systems and particularly the one related to human capital development can be appropriate for these organizations. On the one hand, lean production principles and practices can increase WISE efficiency assuring them higher competitiveness for their market-oriented production. On the other hand, the main goal of WISE remains related to the social dimension consisting of rehabilitating people with difficulties through participatory governance systems. The first research question thus consists of exploring if these theoretical reflections over quality-based lean production applications and WISE finds confirmation in the reality of these organizations.

Second, if lean production seems to fit WISE multiple goals from the conceptual viewpoint, it has to be seen how the sub-systems and practices shaping the model are possibly applied particularly in the organizational and HRM field. It is needed to understand what content the organizational and HRM practices characterizing lean production assume especially in the case of worker cooperatives that have the explicit social goal to include vulnerable people. What are the characteristics and functions these practices assume in WISE? This is the second research question that our study intends to explore.

The two research questions are inquired using an exploratory approach constituted by case-studies enriched by interviews with experts/practitioners. The methodology is suitable to our analysis where the aim is not to generalise conclusions, but to identify a new area of research and open questions supported by initial field-based exploratory research (Eishenhardt, 1989). The research design was conducted between 2015 and 2018. Three WISE have been purposively selected, following a logic of literal replication, as satisfying the concepts and dimensions under inquiry. This means that they had to apply lean production. We interviewed managers involved in lean production implementation at different levels for a total of around 20 interviews. Then, we interviewed two experts/practitioners.

Our initial exploratory findings suggest that lean production is increasingly drawing attention among commercial WISE to reinforce their efficiency, which represents the pre-condition to achieve their main goal of enhancing worker welfare and integrating people with difficulties into work (Battilana et al,. 2015). At the same time, the necessary social goals (i.e. the work-integration of disadvantaged people), may work as a barrier against making efficiency the absolute goal, and so it prevents isomorphism risks. Lean production allows to improve parameters of productivity, but first serves to settle work integration needs manifested by workers with difficulties, assuring their training (supplied by connected training WISE), involvement and motivation. Thus, the theoretical reflections over the possibility that quality-based lean production applications would result particularly suitable for WISE are proved valid by this exploratory research.

Second, the analysed technical, organizational and HRM systems implemented with particular reference to disadvantaged workers are reflected in these characteristics. Thereon, they assume peculiar characteristics and functions compared to for-profit firms. We can denote some ‘plasticity’ in some of these practices (an expression coined by Baccaro and Howell, 2017, for institutions), which means that they can be used by firms in the same form but with different characteristics to pursue rather different functions leading to different outcomes. However, areas of improvement are also found particularly in terms of disadvantaged people’s direct participation.

References

Adler, P. S. (2012). The Sociological Ambivalence of Bureaucracy: From Weber via Gouldner to Marx. Organization Science, 23(1), 244-66.
Baccaro, L. & Howell, C. (2017). Trajectories of Neoliberal Transformation. European Industrial Relations Since the 1970s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Battilana, J., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C. and Model, J. (2015). Harnessing Productive Tensions in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Work Integration Social Enterprises. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6): 1658-1685.
Kochan, T. A., Lansbury, R. D. & MacDuffie, J. P. (1997). After Lean Production. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Sacchetti, S. & Borzaga, C. (2017). “Social regeneration and cooperative institutions.” In Sacchetti, S., Christoforou, A. and Mosca, M. (eds.). Social Regeneration and Local Development: Cooperation, Social Economy and Public Participation. London and New York, Routledge.