Question

Assess trade unions have any value to the 21st-century firm. With explanations.

Answer 1

Trade unions are one of the most powerful organization when it comes to the workers representation . Trade unions are considered to be one of the oldest social movements.

Union's not only negotiate wages for their members but also plays an important role by affecting productivity ,work ,job security , benefits, different practices etc. As these are Unions are so important in the past and will keep their importance in the future also . But nothing remains the same the value of trade Union's in the past was equivalent to civilized social movements and protecting workers right but now days in 21st century they have also gone through major changes.

There value in twenty first century is to improve their bargaining powers , ensure employee welfare and increase their participation in management by providing due representation in decision making process. But at the same time we have to also consider the another fact which is the second face of the trade Union's. It lies in their political role which makes them less effective. Some time these movements becomes a easy tool of somebody's political agenda. And this is quite often these days. Studies shows a declining trend in the process of unionization in various countaries like Sri Lanka as well as with other countries.

There are numerous factors which are responsible for this declining trend. One of them we have already discussed and that was lack of effectiveness due to political motivation. Other major factors includes loss of bargening power as they are becoming irrelevant to most of the employees.

Even in the countaries like US this declining trend can be seen .One of the reason for this declining trend can be the presence of various tribunals and employee welfare legislation and mechanisms that helps the employees to settle there issues without involving Union's. Most of the time if Union's are involved it makes things worst. Now days most of countaries have laws that ensures justice with employees so they avoids trade union mechanism.

At the same time there is a change in the workforce. Now days employees are much more competent and knows about their rights and have various options regarding their jobs which is not limited to one organization. Apart from shift in competency there also a change in the mindset of employees they are becoming more individualistic and prefer to direct communication with management rather involving Union's.

From the above discussion we can conclude that Union's are not suitable for the 21st century organization as they are not able to play a constructive role what they were playing in the past due to above cited reasons.