Indian Journal of Industrial Relations: Economics & Social Dev.

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

The Dynamics of Strategic Militant Managerialism: Analysis of a "Strike"


Affiliations
1 Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


The collectivisation efforts of employees evoke strong responses from managements seeking to survive in an uncertain and turbulent environment. The contours of these responses are explored through the analysis of a union mobilization initative of pilots of an Indian airline company. The pattern of response which emerges from this foray into contemporary industrial relations can best be characterized as "strategic militant managerialism". The company has its own threefold compulsions revolving around commercial pressures, customer service conisderations and competitor actions in responding the way it did in the face of union mobilization efforts of the pilots. The union forming efforts are resisted through a variety of means and interventions based on the "hard positional bargaining mode" with all the consequencs for industrial relations processes as well as outcomes.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


  • Ainsworth, S. & Hardy, C. (2009), "Mind over Body: Physical and Psychotherapeutic Discourses and the Regulation of the Older Worker", Human Relations, 62 (8): 1199- 1229.

  • Andersson, T. & Wickelgren, M. (2009), "Who Is Colonizing Whom? Intertwined Identities in Product Development Pojects", ephemera, 9 (2): 168-81.

  • Andrews, K.R. (1987), Concept of Corporate Strategy, Illinois, Homewood, 3rd Edition

  • Ansoff, H.I. (1984), Implanting Strategic Management, N.J., Englewood Cliffs

  • Battisti, M. & Eiselen, T. (2008), "Insights through Performative Approaches", Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9 (2): Art. 44.

  • Beer, Michael, Bert Spector, Paul R. Lawrence, Mills Daniel Quinn & Richard E Walton (1985), Human Resources Management: A General Manager's Perspective, Collier, MacMillan, London.

  • Borve, H. E. (2007), "Pregnant Bodies: Norwegian Female Employees in Global Working Life", European Journal of Women's Studies, 14 (4): 311-26 .

  • Brown, R.K (1973), "Sources of Objectives in Work and Employment" in J Child(Ed) Man and Organization: The Search for Explanation and Social Relevance, London, Allen & Unwin.

  • Chamberlain, N.W. & Kuhn J.w. (1951), Collective Bargaining, New York, McGraw and J.W.Hill

  • Chandler, Alfred D. (1962), Strategy and Structure, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

  • Clegg, H.A. (1979), The Changing System of Industrial Relations in Great Britain, Oxford, Blackwell

  • Clegg, H.A. (1976), Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining - A Theory Based on

  • Comparisons of Six Countries, Oxford, Blackwell

  • Ci crn i l, S., Hodgson, D., Lindgren, M. & Packendorff, J. (2009), "Project Management behind the Facade", ephemera, 9 (2): 78-92.

  • Crevani, L. & Lennerfors, T S. (2009), "Pull Yourselves Together, Guys! A Gendered Critique of Project Managers' Ethics in a Public Sector Context", ephemera, 9 (2): 113-30.

  • Dundon, T, Gonzalez-Perez, M-A. & McDo nough, T (2007), "Bitten by the Celtic Tiger: Immigrant Workers and Industrial Relations in the New 'Glocalized' Ireland", Economic and Industrial Democracy, 28 (4): 501-22.

  • Dunlop J.T (1975), Industrial Relations Systems, New York, Holt: 28-29.

  • Engels, F (1975), The Condition of the Working-class in England, Moscow, Progress Publishers.

  • Fisher, R., Ury William & Patton Bruce (1987), Getting to Yes, Arrow Books

  • Flanders, A. (1970), Management and Unions: The Theory and Reform of Industrial Relations, London, Faber and Faber.

  • Fox, A. (1971), A Sociology of Work In Industry, London, Collin Macmillan.

  • Fox, A. (1974), Man Mismanagement, London, Hutchinson.

  • Gospel, H. F (1983), "Managerial Structure and Strategies: An Introduction" in Gospel, H.F. and C.R. Little(Eds) Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations, Heinemann, London

  • Greenhalgh, L. & Rosenblatt, Z. (1984), "Job Insecurity: Toward Conceptual Clarity", Academy of Management Review, 9 (3): 438-48.

  • Guest, D. & Conway, N. (1999), "Peering into the Black Hole: the Downside of the New Employment Relations in the UK", British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37 (3): 367-89.

  • Heery, E. (2009), "Labor Divided, Labor Defeated", Work and Occupations, 36 (3): 247-56.

  • Helms, G. (2007), "Municipal Policing Meets the New Deal: the Politics of a City-Centre Warden Project", European Urban and Regional Studies, 14 (4): 290-304.

  • Horowitz, M. (2009), "Maquiladora Production, Rising Expectations and Alter-globalization Strategy", Critical Sociology, 35 (5): 677-88.

  • Heckscher, Charles C. (1988), The New Unionism, Employee Involvement in the Changing Corporation, Basic Books, New York.

  • Hyman R. (1971), The Workers' Union, Clarendon Press.

  • Hyman, R.(1977), Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction, MacMillan, London

  • Johansen, A. (2004), "Policing and Repression: Military Involvement in the Policing of French and German Industrial Areas, 1889- 1914", European History Quarterly, 34 (1): 69-98.

  • Johansen, A. (2004), "Policing and Repression: Military Involvement in the Policing of French and German Industrial Areas, 1889- 1914", European History Quarterly, 34 (1): 69-98.

  • Kochan, Thomas A., Harry Katz & Robert Mckersie (1986), The Transformation of American Industrial Relations, New York: Basic Books

  • Little, C.R. (Eds) (1983), Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations, Heinemann, London.

  • Lenin, VI. (1978), What is to be Done On Trade Unions?, Moscow, Progress Publishers.

  • Marx K. (1973), Strikes and Combinations of Workers, the Poverty of Philosophy, Moscow, Progress Pub.

  • Michels, R (1959), Political Parties, New York, Dover.

  • Mauno, S. & Kinnunen, U. (2002), "Perceived Job Insecurity among Dual Earner Couples: Do Its Antecedents Vary According to Gender' Economic Sector and the Measure Used?", Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75: 295-314.

  • Memos, C. (2009), "Dignified Rage, Insubordination and Militant Optimism", ephemera, 9 (3): 219-33.

  • Nocker, M. (2009), "Struggling to 'Fit in': on Belonging and the Ethics of Sharing in Project Teams", ephemera, 9 (2): 149-67.

  • Parsons & Smelser (1956), Economy and Society, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London

  • Peters T.J. & Waterman R.H. (1982), In Search of Excellence, Wagner Books, New York

  • Santana, M. A., Braga, R. (2009), "Brazil: The Swinging Pendulum between Labor Sociology and Labor Movement", Work and Occupations, 36 (2): 96-109.

  • Sayer, A. (2007), "Dignity at Work: Broadening the Agenda", Organization, 14 (4): 565-81.

  • Schoneboom, A. (2007), "Diary of a Working Boy: Creative Resistance among Anonymous Workbloggers", Ethnography, 8 (4): 403-23.

  • Stuart, M. (2007), "Introduction: The Industrial Relations of Learning and Training: a New Consensus or a New Politics?" European Journal of Industrial Relations, 13 (3): 269-80.

  • Tannenbaum R. (1957), "How to Choose a Leadership Pattern?" Harvard Business Review, March-April

  • Tichy, N.M., Fombrun C.J. & Devanna M.A. (1982), "Strategic Human Resources Management", Sloan Management Review, No.2.

  • Trotsky, L (1977), "Marxism and Trade Unionism" in T.Clarke and Clements L (Eds.), Trade Unions under Capitalisrn.Glasgow, F ontane/Collins

  • Walton R & Robert B Mckersie (1965), A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, McGraw Hill, New York

  • Webb, S. & Webb B. (1902), The History ofTrade Unionism, London, Longmans Green

  • Webb, S. & Webb B.(1897), Industrial Democracy, London, Longmans Green

  • Webb, Sydney & Webb, Beatrice (1898), Industrial Democracy, London, Longman Green & Co.

  • Weber, Max (1968), Economy and Society, New York, Badminster Press.

  • Williams, D. T. (2009), "Grounding the Regime of Precarious Employment: Homeless Day Laborers' Negotiation of the Job Queue", Work and Occupations, 36 (3): 209-46.


Abstract Views: 313

PDF Views: 0




  • The Dynamics of Strategic Militant Managerialism: Analysis of a "Strike"

Abstract Views: 313  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Jerome Joseph
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India

Abstract


The collectivisation efforts of employees evoke strong responses from managements seeking to survive in an uncertain and turbulent environment. The contours of these responses are explored through the analysis of a union mobilization initative of pilots of an Indian airline company. The pattern of response which emerges from this foray into contemporary industrial relations can best be characterized as "strategic militant managerialism". The company has its own threefold compulsions revolving around commercial pressures, customer service conisderations and competitor actions in responding the way it did in the face of union mobilization efforts of the pilots. The union forming efforts are resisted through a variety of means and interventions based on the "hard positional bargaining mode" with all the consequencs for industrial relations processes as well as outcomes.

References