Distributed leadership and employee cynicism: Trade unions as joint change agents

Abstract

The themes of change management and workplace partnership continue to attract significant academic interest—albeit within discreet literatures. Drawing on longitudinal, qualitative data in a heavy engineering organisation, this article details how a collaborative partnership between management and trade unions, encompassing a distributed leadership format, was configured to enhance organisational capacity for change in the context of significant employee cynicism. Bridging human resource management/organisational behaviour and industrial relations perspectives, the study makes a theoretical contribution to our understanding of the factors underpinning the successful implementation of workplace partnership and the utilisation of distributed leadership configurations. More generally, the work informs leadership theory through its scrutiny of distributed leadership in situations of high conflict.

Social action as ‘a total social phenomenon’: Comparing leadership challenges facing community-based labour organizations in China and Japan

“…Together, those structural and agential factors predispose community unions to prioritize individualized bargaining, act in isolation and ensconce themselves at the periphery of labour politics as ‘Refuge Temples’. They pose serious challenges to the establishment of novel collective (or distributed) leadership configurations that can, as illustrated by Butler and Tregaskis (2018)’s study, produce successful change management.…”

Public sector unions’ ideas about employee-driven development: Restricted conceptualization of representative participation in workplaces

“…Employee participation has the potential to improve decision-making, development and innovation (Caraker et al, 2016), and elected representatives may facilitate development by assuming the role of joint change agents (Butler and Tregaskis, 2018). Further, democracy in workplaces generates involvement and work environment quality and could be considered a value in itself -for employees, organizations and society at large (Knudsen et al, 2011).…”

“…The fourth ideational dimension is related to timing and distinguishes between reactive and proactive participation in the workplace (Knudsen, 1995). Certain management practices will promote employee participation in an organization (Butler and Tregaskis, 2018;Hansen et al, 2017); however, the strategies and ideas forwarded by unions and their representatives are equally important. As previously described, the Basic Agreement(s) gives employee representatives the right and duty to engage in workplace cooperation aimed at developing the quality of public services.…”

“…International research on the global decline of unions and on different ways to renew and strengthen the trade union movement has highlighted the "partnership" between employers and employees at different levels as one available strategy (e.g., Frege and Kelly, 2004;Hyman, 2002). In addition, from the field of management studies, it has been documented that union representatives can act as change agents (Butler and Tregaskis, 2018;Hansen et al, 2017). However, theoretical deliberations on the agenda of collective representation (e.g., Hyman, 1997) and research on the outcome of workplace partnerships relation to bipartite cooperation in public sector workplaces.…”

“…Frege and Kelly, 2004;Hyman, 2002). In addition, from the field of management studies, it has been documented that union representatives can act as change agents (Butler and Tregaskis, 2018;Hansen et al, 2017). However, theoretical deliberations on the agenda of collective representation (e.g.…”