Global supply chains and social relations at work: Brokering across boundaries

© 2018, © The Author(s) 2018. Global supply chains are not just instruments for the exchange of economic goods and flow of capital across borders. They also connect people in unprecedented ways across social and cultural boundaries and have created new, interrelated webs of social relationships that are socially embedded. However, most of the existing theories of work are mainly based at the level of the corporation, not on the network of relations that interlink them, and how this may impact on work and employment relations. We argue that this web of relations should not just be seen in economic, but also social terms, and that the former are embedded and enabled by the latter. This article argues for the value of focusing on the role of brokers and boundary workers in mediating social relat ions across global supply chains. It develops four approaches that lie on a spectrum from structural perspectives focused on brokers who link otherwise unconnected actors to more constructivist ones focused on boundary workers performing translation work between domains

Employer silencing in a context of voice regulations: case studies of non-compliance

This article, drawing on the latest insights into organisational silence, considers how employers seek to withhold information and circumvent meaningful workplace voice when confronted with regulatory requirements. It offers novel theoretical insights by redefining employer silencing as characterised by the withholding of information and the restriction of workplace dialogue. In outlining three principal routes of non-compliance— avoidance, suppression, and neglect—we empirically illustrate the path to silence in the regulatory context of the European Union Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees. Rather than considering how employers utilised the regulations, as existing research considers, we look at how employers circumvented the regulatory space in three case studies in the United Kingdom and Ireland and the significant role of employer silencing as a tool for explaining this dynamic

Employee choice of voice and non‐union worker representation

Existing research emphasises employer choice in determining the form and content of non‐union employee representation (NER) structures. This article puts forward an alternative but complementary thesis: we conceptualise NERs as an ‘offer’ that employees can choose to either accept or reject, with several shades of settlement in between. This article argues that employee choice matters insofar as it determines the likely impact and sustainability of the NER offering. Contributing an original typology of employee choices and the associated prospects for the NER, we illustrate our argument via six workplace case studies assessing NER trajectory.</p

Employer occupation of regulatory space of the Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive in liberal market economies

This article shows how both employers and the state have influenced macro-level processes and structures concerning the content and transposition of the European Union (EU) Employee Information and Consultation (I&C) Directive. It argues that the processes of regulation occupied by employers reinforce a voluntarism which marginalizes rather than shares decision-making power with workers. The contribution advances the conceptual lens of 'regulatory space' by building on Lukes' multiple faces of power to better understand how employment regulation is determined across transnational, national and enterprise levels. The research proposes an integrated analytical framework on which 'occupancy' of regulatory space can be evaluated in comparative national contexts

Who speaks for whom at work: worker voice and social dialogue

Over the last few decades academic research has often neglected issues of power and influence concerning labour market institutions, employment regulation, models of collaborative partnership between workers, unions and employers, and systems for inclusion and wider stakeholder voice. Through a body of research involving international collaborators, Tony Dundon has provided evidence on new processes and forms of worker voice and social dialogue that can enhance decent work goals, expose labour market inequalities, and support collaborative employment partnerships. The research was undertaken with policymakers, consultancies, employers, employer associations, trade unions, HR managers, workers, and shop steward and non-union employee representatives. First, it impacted employee voice mechanisms at workplace levels. Second, it has impacted employee information and consultation policy, including European Directive transposition issues at national and organisational levels. Third, it has impacted labour market reforms for enhanced collective bargaining and work futures. Finally, it has impacted policies on accessing apprenticeship skills and learning in Irelan