The corporate employer Free Essay Example, 3250 words

2. Managerial prerogative and protection of employment 2.1 Protection of employment in general As noticed above, managers in modern firms have to face a series of challenges when attempting to restructure their firm’s operational sectors. The size of the firm is a criterion for choosing the appropriate measures; however, there are also other issues that are taken into considerations by managers before proceeding to the above initiative. In this context, the following issues have been found to be important criteria for the development of strategic plans of foreign firms that operate in Britain: ‘a) international staffing, b) international recruitment and c) a variety of issues surrounding the problem of shortages in international managers’ (Scullion, 1994, 86). The possible intervention of unions in the completion of a specific plan of change within modern organizations is also taken into account by corporate managers around the world. The above issue was examined by Oesch (2006) who tried to identify the main characteristics of the re-structuring scheme ad opted by firms operating in Sweden, Germany and Britain. Through the above study it was proved that ‘the schema successfully captures the hierarchical dimension in the class structure; results for party support and union membership suggest that the schema grasps a salient horizontal cleavage between managers and sociocultural professionals’ (Oesch, 2006, 263). We will write a custom essay sample on The corporate employer or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page The ability of unions to intervene in the decisions taken by managers – including the unfair dismissal of employees – is then expected to be differentiated. The above view is also supported by Brewster (1995, 3) who noticed that ‘trade union membership and influence varies considerably by country; Sweden has union membership of 85% of the working population, the U. K. around 40% and even in the least unionised countries such as Switzerland, 23%, and France, 12%, union membership is above that in the U. S.A. ’. Unions have a significant role in the development of the various aspects of employment policies and for this reason their role in the decrease of the phenomenon of unfair dismissal should be characterized as significant; in fact the higher the union membership existing in a specific country the higher the expected protection offered to the employees in all industrial sectors from a potential unfair dismissal.