Although discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is prohibited by law in many countries, negative prejudices against Lesbian and Gay (LG) people, as a stigmatized minority, might be ...internalized by co-workers, being a source of a modern and subtle form of discrimination. Results from 39 in-depth semi-structured interviews with LG employees show that they are victims of workplace incivility which is manifested through jokes, use of language, stereotypes, and intrusive behaviors. Such acts are barely recognizable as a form of discrimination, due to the absence of any reference to sexual orientation, and for this reason it is more difficult to act against them at an organizational level. This is the first study that demonstrates how workplace incivility toward LG employees can be an expression of a subtle form of discrimination. It shows that discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation has not disappeared; it has simply changed its manifestations. Contributions and implications of the study are discussed from a theoretical and a practical perspective.
Integrative negotiation in which employers and employees create value is a major necessity in the current challenging context. Collective labor negotiations in organizations are traditionally focused ...on mostly distributive issues, such as pay, working hours, and holidays. However, the current situation demands the inclusion of other issues of a potentially more integrative nature, such as telework, sustainability, and risk prevention, the enhancement of which is a major challenge for organizations. In this study, we explore the negotiation process between management and employee representatives (ERs), analyzing the roles of trust and trustworthiness. We collected data from 614 human resources managers from different organizations in 11 European countries. The results confirm that ERs who management perceive to be trustworthy have a greater influence on negotiation, particularly with regard to integrative as opposed to distributive issues, and that trust partially mediates this relationship.
Healthcare workers were more than essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, a fact that is recognized by societies the world over. However, in many countries, healthcare workers are not satisfied with ...their working conditions, which has resulted in frequent protests and strikes. One such country is Spain. How can the theory of social dialogue contribute to explaining and improving healthcare workers’ conditions during a healthcare crisis such as this one? In this paper, we aim to explore what it is really like for healthcare professionals working under these challenging circumstances, and link their experience to the theory of social dialogue in order to engage in a double process of contribution: from practice to theory and vice versa. In order to do so, we first explore the real-world problems encountered by professionals, focusing particularly on cases in Spain, before reviewing theoretical approaches to the study of social dialogue in organizations, an area that has received very little attention in the revised academic literature. Finally, we show how constructive social dialogue can be an effective tool for improving working conditions for healthcare workers.
Mediation becomes relevant nowadays as a way to manage conflicts in the workplace in a nonjudicial way, preventing costly, extensive, and unsatisfying legal procedures. This study tries to ...systematize the more recent research about mediation, showing the main challenges, questions, and findings. Research suggests the importance of integrating the organizational and societal context in the study of mediation, the use of efficiency, equity, and voice objectives for evaluating mediation effectiveness, and taking into account a contingency approach in mediator strategies. There is an important gap between the large development of professional practice in mediation and the few systematic studies on this topic. This paper offers a model that considers current research and practice for mediation effectiveness. This model could be used to focus the orientation of scholars, practitioners, and governments in search of new developments in the design of mediation. Future research could explore specific combinations of these dimensions to analyze sectors, organizations, or cases of mediation.
Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are quite complex in terms of organizational structure, diversity at the workplace, as well as motivational mechanisms and value rationality. Nevertheless, from the ...perspective of organizational psychology, the systematic analysis of this context is scarce in the literature, particularly regarding conflicts. This qualitative study analyzes types, prevalence, and consequences of conflicts in a large NPO considering as theoretical framework several consolidated organizational psychology theories: conflict theory, social comparison theory, and equity theory. Conflicts were analyzed taking into account volunteers' perspective, who have been the consistent protagonist in NPO research, but also considering paid staff's perspective as one of the main stakeholders in these organizations, whose relative power has increased in the past decade due to the professionalization of the NPO's sector. Results confirmed the existence of four types of conflicts: task, process, status, and relationship conflicts. Relationship conflict is the least reported type, revealing the protection factor that values and engagement with a social aim have on this organizational context. The most relevant finding is the strong difference between paid staff and volunteers in conflict perceptions, showing paid staff, overall, higher levels of conflicts than volunteers. Findings also show stronger negative consequences for paid staff compared to volunteers. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
In this paper we describe and analyze the Extrajudicial System for Labor Conflict Resolution in Andalusia. We begin by emphasizing the major relevance of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in a ...European context and the need to benefit from different ADR experiences. Next, we comment on the situation in Spain and focus on the Andalusia's system. This system was created by an interprofessional agreement between the most representative employers’ union and the two largest trade unions with the support of the national government. During the first fourteen years more than 4,500 conflicts have been submitted affecting more than 400,000 companies and 3,000,000 employees. Collective mediations are conducted by a team of four mediators, two of them appointed by the principal employers association, and the two other by the two largest trade unions.
En este trabajo analizamos el Sistema Extrajudicial de Conflictos Laborales de Andalucía. Comenzamos por enfatizar la relevancia de los mecanismos extrajudiciales de resolución de conflictos en Europa y la necesi- dad de beneficiarnos de las diferentes experiencias. A continuación comentamos la situación en España, focalizando en el caso del sistema andaluz. Este sistema fue creado por un acuerdo entre los sindicatos más representativos y la patronal con el apoyo del gobierno autonómico. Durante los 14 años de vigencia del sistema se han tratado más de 4.500 conflictos, que afectaban a más de 400.000 organizaciones y a tres millones de empleados. El sistema de mediación está formado por un equipo de cuatro mediadores, dos pertenecientes a las principales centrales sindicales y dos a la confederación de empresarios.
This paper addresses the developing research agenda in the context of the difficulties of the socio-economic environment and its impact on equality policies in the employment context. We present four ...studies developed in the framework of improving the social dialogue and the promotion of inclusive organizations, highlighting the status of the issue in Spain and its meaning for professional practice. The studies focus on a) the need to train and empower social actors - especially workers’ representatives - to lead social innovation and promote inclusive organizations, b) proceedings for the current manifestations of what is known as “modern discrimination” in the work context, c ) labor integration of persons with disabilities, and d) supporting policies to balance work and personal life.
Conflicts of interest between management and employees are part of organizational life. To manage these conflicts, employee representatives (ERs) often participate in organizational decision‐making. ...The objectives of this article were to investigate the relation between perceived competences of ERs and their influence on organizational decision‐making in different types of issues, and the mediating effect of ERs’ conflict behaviors on these relations. To test the hypotheses, which are based on theories of power and conglomerate conflict behavior, survey data from 614 human resources directors from 11 European countries were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that perceived competences are positively related to the influence of ERs on decision‐making, both for traditional and for innovative issues. Perceived competence is positively related to cooperative and negatively related to competitive conflict behavior. Conglomerate conflict behavior partly mediates the relation between perceived competences and influence. Implications for representative influence are discussed.
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