NCJ Number
93328
Journal
Canadian Police College Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Dated: (1983) Pages: 230-242
Date Published
1983
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The logical police management-labor relations strategy in a period of fiscal restraint is one of collaboration between police associations (unions) and management to achieve rational and fair cost savings.
Abstract
Since the bulk of costs in police operations are associated with personnel pay and styles of operation, it is inevitable that policy decisions made under the demands of fiscal restraint will have an impact on management-labor relations. Typically, management and labor in North American enterprises are in an adversarial relationship, as each considers that the other has basic interests in opposition to its own. What is required is that both labor and management view fiscal constraint as a common problem that can best be addressed by cooperative action. Such an approach might be called 'the new industrial relations.' This involves a new approach to bargaining, a new management style, and a restructured relationship. The new management style consists of worker participation in management, such that all employees perceive that their behavior and decisionmaking contributes to or detracts from the success of the organization in meeting goals that will benefit all who are a part of the organization. Under such a management style, supervisors and employees adopt a problemsolving approach that includes employee input. A new approach to collective bargaining is also involved. Management and labor representatives meet not so much as adversaries but as representatives who all have a stake in the more efficient and effective operation of the agency. This does not mean that differences among labor and management representatives will be suppressed, but these differences will not be perceived as the dominating factor in labor-management interactions. Of crucial importance is management's integrity in providing an accurate portrayal of the need for fiscal restraint. If labor has reason to believe it is not being told the truth, then an adversarial posture is inevitable. If, over a period of time, management and labor develop trust in the openness and sincerity of the other in pursuing goals of benefit to all participants in the organization, then cooperative actions in a period of fiscal restraint will be more easily achieved.