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University of Latvia. CURRENT ISSUES IN ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES November 10 – 12, 2011 , Riga , Latvia. TRADE UNION LEADERS’ ASSESSMENT OF LATVIAN TRADE UNIONS’ STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ISSUES Mag.soc. Antra Line. The goal of the research.
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University of Latvia CURRENT ISSUES IN ECONOMIC AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES November 10 – 12, 2011, Riga, Latvia
TRADE UNION LEADERS’ ASSESSMENT OF LATVIAN TRADE UNIONS’ STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ISSUESMag.soc. Antra Line
The goal of the research is to find out the trade union leaders’ opinion about strategic management issues in Latvian trade unions.
Research methods • theoretical research method: analysis of scientific literature, • a questionnaire method in the form of a structured interview,12 trade union leaders from the member organisations of the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (FTUCL), as well as leaders of branch unions and professional trade unions outside the FTUCL were interviewed in May 2011.
Some trade union researchers T. Hannigan, P. Clarck and D. Weil have analysed strategic planning processes and state that evaluation of the strategic direction is necessary to increase the effectiveness of trade unions.
Stages of strategic management of trade unions 1. Strategy formulation 2. Strategy implementation 3.Strategy evaluation
Practice of Latvian trade unions in defining their mission statements and visions
Examples of trade union missions • basic employee rights and social protection, • to sign as many collective agreements as possible in different enterprises, • social equality, • to represent the rights and interests of staff, the employed and employees.
The vision example of a trade union is to influence processes significant for itself, so that trade unions can lobby its members’ interests and the desirable changes in legislation.
The goals of Latvian trade unions and their development principles
The strategic goals of Latvian trade unions have been formulated by work groups, boards and commissions. The strategic goals mentioned at the interviews are different: • increasing the number of members, • trainingmembers, • obtaining political positions for trade union members, • increasing the capacity.
Only five out of twelve trade unions have formulated the medium-term goals. They are: • to maintain the existing guarantees, • to achieve tax reduction, • to educate members, also politically, • to achieve changes in specific laws.
The interviews also clarified that only some trade unions had set the short-term goals. An opinion dominated among the leaders that it was not necessary to formulate the goals because due to the changing external environment the goals are changing and thus are not necessary. • Those trade union leaders who admitted that short-term goals exist in their trade unions, mentioned increasing the number of members and signing a collective agreement as such goals.
Leaders’ vision about the need for the external and internal environment analysis
In Latvian branch and professional trade unions the analysis of the factors of the external and the internal environment does not happen according to a schedule and no special methods are used. • In this trade unions the impact of the external environment is discussed at the board and council meetings, only in one trade union a specialist deals with these issues which is a significantly low indicator.
External environmental factors • impacts of technology on members’ work environment, • negative attitude of journalists, • cooperation with industry ministries, • political environment, • level ofunemployment in the profession or industry.
The threats of the external environment are analysed in most of the trade unions only once in five years, in the pre-congress period.
The analysis of the opportunitiesof the external environment also takes place either when preparing for the congress or irregularly. Branch trade union leaders repeatedly admit that trade unions lack resources for the analysis of the opportunities of the external environment or they state that, to their mind, there is no use for trade unions to do it.
Internal environment of trade unions. • The information obtained at the interviews approves that Latvian trade unions do not perform a regular and methodical analysis of the internal environment. • Preference is given to the statistical analysis of the number of members.
Employees’ fear to be active in trade unions, • legislation drawbacks, • “poor” social dialogue, • low activity of trade union leaders in enterprises, • reduction of the number of members, as well as problems with ensuring publicity are also mentioned as weaknesses.
The trade union leaders find it difficult to describe the process through which the strategy is implemented which repeatedly highlight their superficial attitude to this issue. • Respondents’ answers indicate that there are no special activities related to strategy implementation. In the pre-congress period it is reconsidered which goals have been attained and which not.
Conclusionsand Recommendations 1.The information obtained at the interviews approved that the mission and the vision are not defined in several Latvian trade unions.
2.The strategic goals of Latvian trade unions are most frequently formulated by boards, commissions or work groups in the pre-congress period. Protection of members’ labour rights, payment for work, social security, signing a collective agreement and improvement of the work environment dominate in the goals.
3.The formulated goals are not measurable because they do not have deadlines and units of measurement. Not all the trade union members know the information about the goals. 4.In Latvian trade unions there is not a skilful strategy implementation.
5.Latvian trade union leaders are recommended: • to pay more attention to strategic management issues in these non-governmental organisations, • to reconsider the implication possibilities of management science theories and methods at formulating trade union strategies.
