STRATEGIC CHOICE

Group 1
Eugenio | Fernandez | Gabito |
Goño | Iglopas | Ramos

IR 201 - Dr. Macaraya

STRATEGIC CHOICE
⦿ Kochan, Katz, & Mckersie (1986)
⦿ “Pluralist” frame of reference
⦿ Emphasizes the strategic choices of
actors in deciding the Industrial
Relations (IR) outcomes
THE PREVAILING PARADIGM

⦿ Decrease in Union Membership

⦿ Changes in Managerial Values
⦿ Experiments with Shop –level
participation
⦿ Managerial Initiatives
⦿ Changes in the role of the Government
DECREASE IN UNION MEMBERSHIP

Non – union employers took advantage of new market

opportunities to experiment and then institutionalize human
resource management practices
GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ISSUES
Values
Institutional Structure
Business of Firm-level IR
External Environment
Strategies
Performance
Outcomes
• Labor Markets Strategic Activities
• Workforce
Characteristics Collective Bargaining/ Employers
and Values Personnel Functional Workers
• Product Activities Labor Unions
Markets Society
• Technology Workplace Activities
• Public Policies

History and
Current Structures
THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
⦿ Industrial Relations processes and outcomes
are determined by a continuously evolving
interaction of environmental pressures and
organizational responses.
⦿ It is the interaction of market forces and the
responses of employers, unions, workers, and
government policies that determine the
outcomes of cyclical or structural changes.
THE ROLE OF CHOICE
⦿ Choice and discretion on the part of labor,
management, and government affect the
course and structure of industrial relations
systems.
⦿ Understanding the choices made by parties
must be informed by an analysis of the
structure and history that constrain those
choices.
THE THREE-TIER FRAMEWORK
THE THREE-TIER FRAMEWORK
⦿ It divides the activities of
management, labor, and government
organizations into three (3) tiers:

◼ I. Top Tier of Strategic Decision Making

◼ II. Middle or Functional Tier of
Collective Bargaining or Personnel Policy
Making
◼ III. Bottom or Work-place level tier
I. Top Tier of Strategic Decision Making

⦿ Basic decisions used to carry out basic

strategies that affect industrial relations at
lower levels of the system
II. Middle or Functional Tier of Collective
Bargaining or Personnel Policy Making

⦿ Focuses on the practice of collective

bargaining and personnel policy formulation
and development and administration of the
key public policies governing
labor-management relations
III. Bottom or Work-place level tier

⦿ Strategic choices directly associated with the

organization of work, structuring of worker’s
rights, the management and motivation of
individuals or work groups, and the nature of
the workplace environment
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THREE-TIER
FRAMEWORK
⦿ It recognizes the interrelationships among
activities at different levels of the system
⦿ It considers the effects that various strategic
decisions exert on different actors in the
system
⦿ It facilitates analysis of the effects that
increased participation in workplace
decisions by individuals and informal work
groups have for the labor movement and
industrial relations system