ENTES AUTÓNOMOS Y SERVICIOS DESCENTRALIZADOS

There are a number of possible alternatives regarding the relationship between unionization and the presence of alternative mechanisms for employee participation and involvement (Wood & Glaister, 2008:11). The above scholars provided important details about the relationship between unionization and other types of participation and involvement. In the next chapters (five, six, seven and eight), the researcher proposes to discuss certain issues related to unionization and other types of involvement and participation.

Firstly, managers may experiment with participation and involvement, with the aim of weakening - or finding - an alternative or parallel mechanism, or traditional forms of employee representation via the union, infusing as the “hard HRM” high value-added model in line with a broader dynamic strategy. In other words, they may use new HRM strategies to weaken the established system of collective representation, so as to regain managerial authority and in seeking greater flexibility in using human resources (Guest, 2001; Gooderham et al., 1999). Here, managers seek to change or reform the existing system. If successful, this is likely to result in the union being weaker in such workplaces, with membership involvement in union affairs being lower than would otherwise be the case. In other words, the two are not compatible (Wood & Glaister, 2008:11).

Secondly, it has been argued that managers may implement alternative forms of participation and involvement with the aim of harnessing and building on the benefits flowing from a strong union presence (Wood & Brewster, 2007). The latter would include strong notions of solidarity and group belonging and a willingness by individual members to take an active and involved, rather than a passive and instrumental, approach to working life. Indeed, it may be the case that those workplaces with a strong and militant union presence are those where innovative new forms of participation and involvement are most likely to be found (Wood & Glaister, 2008:11). In other words, the two may be complementary: unlike firms, a range of forms of participation and involvement may work better in conjunction with an effective union presence than on their own. In other words, managers may choose to harness the benefits flowing from the existing employment system. Here, strategy is about engaging with and seeking complementarities within the system, rather than avoiding or challenging it. This would reflect a mixed dynamic- static strategic orientation with the aim of enhancing the speed and variety of innovation (Wood & Glaister, 2008:11).

Thirdly, even if forced to deal with unions, managers may remain wedded to a static, cost- cutting strategic framework. This would result in a continued focus on the standardization of work, and a high degree of numerical flexibility. The persistence of such an approach is likely to be associated, with, at best, union weakness, and little in the way of meaningful participation or involvement (Wood & Glaister, 2008:12). The above scholars showed that HRM can be associated with unions’ weakness. This study supports the above scholars’ arguments as certain managers in the DRC preferred to use cost-cutting strategies with low participation and involvement which resulting in higher degree of numerical flexibility in using human resources. To understand why certain competitive strategies are more effective than others, one must consider the distribution of resources in competing firms. Although a given firm may possess more or less of any particular resource, only those resources that are rare, valuable, and difficult to imitate, provide a sustainable competitive advantage (Amit & Schoemaker, 1993; Barney, 1991 cited in DeNisi et al., 2003:4). When the strategies employed are successful in leveraging the firm’s rare, valuable, and difficult-to-imitate resources, such a firm is likely to gain an advantage over its competitors in the marketplace and thus earn higher returns (Hitt, Nixon, Clifford & Coyne, 1999 quoted in DeNisi et al., 2003:4). Competitive advantages that are sustained over time lead to higher performance (Peteraf, 1993 cited in DeNisi et al., 2003:4). In other words, sustainable competitive advantage leads to organizational performance by taking in consideration the distribution of resources.

According to Barney (1995: 50), a firm’s resources and capabilities include all of the financial, physical, human and organizational assets used by a firm to develop, manufacture and deliver products or services to its customers. Amit and Schoemaker (1993) add that a firm’s resources encompass all input factors both tangible and intangible, human and nonhuman, that are owned or controlled by the firm and that enter into the production of goods and services to satisfy human wants. Dierickx and Cool (1989) argue that organizational capabilities characterize the dynamic, nonfinite mechanisms that enable the firm to acquire, develop and deploy its resources to achieve superior performance relative to other firms. Thompson and Strickland (1987) have

generated lists of firm attributes that may enable firms to conceive of and implement value- creating strategies.

Furthermore, Barney (1995) pointed out that physical resources include machines, manufacturing facilities and building firms for use in their operations. Human resources include all the experience, knowledge, judgement, risk-taking propensity and wisdom of individuals associated with a firm. Organizational resources include the history, relationships, trust and organizational culture that are attributes of groups of individuals associated with a firm, along with a firm’s formal reporting structure, explicit management control systems, and compensation policies (Barney, 1995:50).

The resource-based view suggests that human resource systems can contribute to sustained competitive advantage through facilitating the development of competencies that are firm specific, produce complex social relationships, are embedded in a firm’s history and culture and generate tacit organizational knowledge (Barney, 1992; Reed & DeFillippi, 1990; Wright & McMahan, 1992). The sustained superior performance of the most admired companies has been attributed to unique capabilities for managing human resources to gain competitive advantage (Ulrich & Lake, 1990).

In addition to the above, Truss (2002:20) indicates that within the framework of the resource- based view, the focus of analysis in human resource management has been determining which elements of a firm’s human resources, or HRM systems, constitute a source of sustained competitive advantage for the organization. The ultimate purpose of analysis is, therefore, to establish a demonstrable cause-effect linkage between firm resources, or firm resource deployment and financial performance.

Thus, Frenkel and Kuruvilla (2002:389) argue that the underlying logic of action adopted by different players represents strategies guided by values regarded as important, thus helping to explain the process through which national systems are guided in a specific direction. Homogenizing external forces have complex and contingent effects on employment relations. In contemporary Mozambique, the government has very little room to manoeuvre, the ability to access much needed borrowing being contingent on the adoption of neo-liberal structural adjustment policies. The latter policies have resulted not only in the opening up of Mozambican markets to international competition and privatization but also in dramatic reductions in state expenditure, that have, in turn, weakened the latter's capacity to effectively enforce labour legislation (Frenkel & Kuruvilla, 2002:388). This situation is a common characteristic of certain sub-Saharan African countries except for a few powerful and dominant countries which are doing quite well - such as South Africa and Botswana.

Labour quiescence has primarily been ensured by the "iron whip of hunger," with the omnipresent threat of repeated rounds of redundancies, in a situation where unemployment is already extremely high. Employers are guided by the logic of competition, by the desire to maximize profits (Frenkel & Kuruvilla, 2002:389). The influx of manufactured goods from the Far East is providing more subsidies for advanced societies, which has resulted in employers generally responding by cost-cutting and downsizing. This has reinforced extremely low value

added employment relations policies, characterized by short-termism and a lack of willingness to invest in plant or human resource development. Unions are guided by the logic of employment- income protection and seek to maximize income and job security (Frenkel and Kuruvilla, 2002:389).

Illustrating best labour practice in South Africa, organizations spend between 0.5 to 1.5% of the payroll on training compared to 5% in Europe and the USA and 8% in Japan. Training and development are seen by both managers and frontline employees in the services industry in South Africa as vital in addressing the skills gap and developing the capacity to meet competitive demands (Browning, 2000). Research has shown that organizations that are characterized by flatter, leaner, more flexible and autonomous structures and systems achieve higher levels of performance (Robbins, 2001). Studies further indicate that organizations that have goals, a clear vision and objectives linked to human resource policies perform better (Tyson, 1997). In addition, firms with human resources policies and employment practices that embrace change, diversity, commitment, openness and employee-involvement, communicate effectively and treat people as a valuable resource, out-performing organizations that have bureaucratic and rigid structures and systems of work (Pfeffer, 1998; Hendry, 1995). Indeed, human resource policies play an important role in ensuring that firms perform well and with particular attention to best labour practice. This study discusses the pertinence of best labour practice and its implications for policy considerations.