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Trade Union Strategy and Teamwork: The British and German Car Industry

2000; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 24; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0160449x0002400402

1538-9758

Thomas Murakami,

Political Influence and Corporate Strategies

There have been many studies on teamwork in the car industry but only a few have compared trade union strategies on teamwork in two countries. The two case studies analyze the strategies of a British and a German trade union in their respective plants: General Motors British Vauxhall and the German Opel plant. The analytical framework for the comparison utilizes Miles and Snow's model of prospector, defender, analyzer, and reactor strategy as well as Walton, Cutcher-Gershenfeld and McKersie's concepts of strategic negotiations and institutional secu rity. The paper concludes that British trade unions adopted a defender strategy, while the German union used a prospector strategy and that institutional security supports the development and application of union strategies on teamwork.