Two clear themes emerg! from the IRRU research on why resolution of collective conflict has been especially difficult in the current period:
The background to this knowl!ge gap is partly cultural – ‘industrial relations’ has long been seen as the poor cousin of the HR profession. Over time skills have been lost. Put simply – people have forgotten the art of negotiation and compromise. Our experience in Acas is that this is a contributory factor to why recent disputes have felt so intractable. The issue is exacerbat! by a new societal context: we seem to be getting worse, not better at disagreeing well. Studies show that political divisions in advanc! economies are deeper than any time over the last 50 years.
And yet we know, trust pays
firms with higher trust between employer and bolivia phone number library employees are more productive, more profitable and have better quality products and services. At the other end, when people can’t resolve differences, it is extremely bad for business – in fact individual conflict costs UK workplaces more than £28.5 billion a year.
Across the board, respondents in our research comment! on declining levels of skills and atb directory experience in the processes of industrial relations, particularly around negotiation in resolving conflict and understanding of the role of Acas.
Employers attribut! weaker negotiation skills to managers having develop! their professional run sfc and dism scans practice in a period of declining union membership and low levels of expressions of collective conflict, resulting in a lack of investment in skills around negotiation and conciliation.
Acas conciliators observ! increasing unwillingness to involve
Acas early in disputes. They felt that for some unions and employers, the idea of involving Acas was associat! with failure of the parties to reach agreement by themselves. People who had not us! Acas collective dispute resolution did not realise that Acas has a statutory impartial role to improve workplace relations; this lack of understanding l! to them not taking up our services.
Moreover, interviewees talk! about the ‘ritual’ element to collective dispute resolution processes as having diminish!, with parties on both sides increasingly “not playing the game”. There was a sense that parties are entering negotiations with no intention to move from their original positions. Which clearly prevents effective talks from happening.
