It's a family affair: the effect of union recognition and human resource management on the provision of equal opportunities in the UK

Sue Fernie and Helen Gray

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Equal opportunities policies and family-friendly practices are examined using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey in order to assess (i) their associations with union recognition and strategic human resource management and (ii) the outcomes of what has recently been described as ''tinkering around'' for women at work. We find that, controlling for various factors, equal opportunities policies and their monitoring, together with ''softer'' family-friendly policies are strongly associated with trade union recognition. On the other hand, we find that a number of both ''hard'' and ''soft'' Human Resource Management (HRM) policies are strongly associated with flexible working practices. Employees are least likely to have access to equal opportunities and family-friendly policies in workplaces which do not recognise a union or use HRM practices, and we present evidence to suggest that this is the worst option for the employer in terms of workplace performance, as well as for those with family responsibilities.

Keywords: Workplace governance; equal opportunities; family-friendly; trade unions; human resource management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J51 J71 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2002-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20089/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Its a Family Affair: the Effect of Union Recognition and Human Resource Management on the Provision of Equal Opportunities in the UK (2002)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:20089

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