Over the Line: Managers' experience of a labour strike

• Author: E. Kevin Kelloway,Austin Scales,Lori Francis
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1289

Over the Line: Managers’experience of a labour

strike

†

Austin Scales

E. Kevin Kelloway*

Lori Francis

Saint Mary’s University

Abstract

The experiences of managers who continue to work

through a labour stoppage is a largely overlooked question

in industrial relations research and practice. Qualitative

long interviews were conducted with managers who

worked through a strike. A shared narrative for managers’

strike experiences emerged. Managers perceived that their

prestrike workplace was cooperative and characterized by

positive labour-management relationships. The strike was

experienced as contentious and personalized with man-

agers reporting that they and their families were targets

of aggression from strikers. The managers envisioned a

more formal poststrike workplace characterized by less

collegial labour-management interactions. We discuss the

implications of these f‌indings and call for further research

on managers’experiences of industrial relations events.

Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

JEL Classif‌ications: J50

Keywords: labour strike, labour-management relationships,

managers’experiences, work stoppages, industrial relations

Résumé

Les expériences des directeurs qui ont continué á travailler

pendant un arrêt de travail sont un parent pauvre des

recherches et de la pratique en relations industrielles. La

présente étude est basée sur de longues entrevues qualita-

tives menées auprès des directeurs ayant travaillé pendant

une période de grève. Du dépouillement de leurs récits se

dégage un point commun : avant la grève, le climat de tra-

vail était convivial, caractérisé par une relation saine entre

les travailleurs et la direction. La grève était vécue comme

un évènement litigieux et personnalisé et certains directeurs

ont fait état d’actes de violence perpétrés contre eux ou

contre leurs familles par les grévistes. D’après les

directeurs, la grève a créé un environnement de travail plus

impersonnel avec moins de collégialité dans les interactions

direction—employés. L’article s’achève par une analyse des

implications des résultats et propose des pistes pour

l’approfondissement des recherches sur les expériences

que les directeurs ont des événements liés aux relations

industrielles.

Although comparatively rare (Bluen, 1994), strikes have

a dramatic impact on both the individuals and organizations

involved (Gallagher & Gramm, 1997). For the organization,

strikes can reduce productivity and prof‌its (Bluen, 1994) and

draw negative media attention (Puette, 1992). For individ-

uals, studies illustrate that strikes are stressful (Barling &

Milligan, 1987; Bluen & Barling, 1988; Francis & Kelloway,

2005), potentially violent (Francis, Cameron, & Kelloway,

2006), and contribute to the polarization of attitudes (Stagner

&Ef‌lal, 1982). Strikes may also be stressful for third parties

(Day, Stinson, Catano, & Kelloway, 2006) who may experi-

ence a loss of services during the dispute.

Although the available data on strike experiences speak to

the experiences of striking union members and even third

parties, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of man-

agers during a strike. We believe that this is an important omis-

sion for at least two reasons. First, strikes are potentially

challenging and stressful experiences for managers. Managers

are often at the front-line of labour disputes. As the indivi duals

†

This research was supported by grants from the Nova Scotia Health

Research Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanitites Research

Council of Canada to the second and third authors. We thank Anthony

Yue, Nick Turner, and three anonymous reviewers for comments on an

earlier version of this manuscript

*Please address correspondence to: E. Kevin Kelloway, Department of

Psychology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, B3H 3C3, Canada.

Email: kevin.kelloway@smu.ca

Note:Corrections added on 2 October2014 after initial onlinepublication on 2

September2014. The title has been corrected fromManagers’experience of a

labour strike†’ to ‘Over the Line: Managers’experience of a labour strike†’.

The French abstracthas been added.

Mots-clés: grève, relations employés-direction, expériences des

directeurs, arréts de travail, relations industrielles

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

31: 175–186 (2014)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.1289

Can J Adm Sci

31(3), 175–186 (2014)Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 175