The Harvard model argues that unions provide an excellent means for getting workers' valuable opinions aired and for "shocking" management into adopting better practices (Turnbull 1991). (Flanagan & Deshpande, 1996, p. 23)
Labor costs are one of the largest of business costs, in almost every area of business, including but not limited to wages and social support programs. For this reason most managers, owners and other stakeholders often seek to trim such costs, often at the expense of employee standards of living. (Lee, 1998, p. 313) Such decisions may be a logical business decision, with short-term results and long-term consequences or they could be legitimate ways in which to bring the labor market back to an efficient level that is more responsive to the real market in which employees work and businesses manufacture and sell products or services.
Though it is not universally clear if either unions or HRM are...
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