Sociotechnical Systems and Unions: Nicety or Necessity

Sociotechnical systems (STS) theorists havelargely ignored the role of unions both in theirtheoretical framework and in STS implementation. Thisoversight weakens the potential application anddissemination of STS theory and practice. STS democracy isfrequently seen by its proponents as preferable to uniondemocracy except when they come to the same conclusion.Unions have historically played a role in the development and success of seminal STSinitiatives but are not seen as a critical specificationfor success. Many practitioners have noted theinstrumental importance of unions in unionized settings without acknowledging class, conflict, or unionvalues. As such, many unions have dismissed or resistedSTS innovations. Despite these serious shortcomings, thelabor process argument has failed to produce a credible alternative to STS principles. Insome cases, the union role has been central to STSreforms and examples like these have prompted somenational union movements to promote work reform with an STS base. Recently, the American labor movementhas endorsed work reform approaches akin to STSapproaches. STS changes are seen not just as ways tochange managerial practices but also to alter unionstructures and functioning. As such, a union-rooted STSapproach provides greater societal and workplace impactbenefitting employees, employers, trade unions, and thesociety.     

THE IMPACT OF UNIONS ON OPERATIONS STRATEGY

This paper explores the effect that unions have on a firm's ability to reengineer manufacturing processes. We begin by exploring the various effects that a union may have in a manufacturing environment. Next, we briefly review how unions may affect managerial initiatives to reengineer processes and improve manufacturing performance. The third section analyzes an existing database to test for differences in cycle time and manufacturing performance between union and nonunion firms. Finally, we discuss the implications of the study for future operations strategy research and note how a different form of union‐management relationships is beginning to evolve.