Employee Voice and participation in the Irish Retail Sector : a comparative study of the extent to which workers are able to express their views in unionised and non-unionised settings within the Irish supermarket industry

Allen, Brian (2013) Employee Voice and participation in the Irish Retail Sector : a comparative study of the extent to which workers are able to express their views in unionised and non-unionised settings within the Irish supermarket industry. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

This dissertation explores the area of employee voice and participation and how it operates within the Irish supermarket industry. It seeks to observe how the phenomenon of voice differs between unionised and non-unionised environments and looks to identify what comparisons, if any, can be made between the two.

The objective of this research is to draw on what has been discussed previously by various academics regarding the benefits enabling voice can offer businesses and seeking to observe whether voice was something which was afforded to supermarket employees in Ireland across the representational divide. The research conducted was of a quantitative approach and consisted of the administering of questionnaires to supermarket employees which sought to gauge employee opinion on attitudes to their job, the degree of control in their job and their role in the decision making process.

The findings of this research states that similarities exist between unionised and non-unionised respondents in terms of their attitudes and the level of control they have over their jobs. Significant differences however were observed in terms of their respective role in the decision making process with unionised supermarket employees more likely than their non-unionised counterparts to state that they were afforded a degree of say in issues which affected them.

This research succeeds in contributing further to the debate around the area of voice and participation and how it differs between unionised and non-unionised settings within the context of the Irish supermarket industry.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Issues of Labour and Work > Industrial Relations H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Specific Industries > Retail Industry
Divisions:	School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management
Depositing User:	Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited:	19 Nov 2013 10:52
Last Modified:	19 Nov 2013 10:53
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/839

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