BUSINESS SCHOOL RESEARCH SEMINAR - Hybrid Working and Union Membership: Does Working from Home Undermine Workplace Social Customs?

BUSINESS SCHOOL RESEARCH SEMINAR - Hybrid Working and Union Membership: Does Working from Home Undermine Workplace Social Customs?
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This is a past event

The seminar will be held in person in A36, Taylor Building on Wednesday 04th October from 12:00-13:00.

Professor Alexandros Zangelidis (Centre for Labour Market Research) presents his joint work with Professor Ioannis Theodossiou on “Hybrid Working and Union Membership:  Does Working from Home Undermine Workplace Social Customs?” in our Internal Brown Bag Lunch Seminar Series.

 

Abstract: The surge in hybrid work weakens existing social bonds among unionised workers and the strength of the relationship between the workers and the institutions of workplace representation. This study assesses the effect of hybrid working on union membership. The investigation focuses on whether the provision of hybrid work arrangements at the workplace, in and of itself, exerts an influence on workplace social norms, or if its significance stems from individual experiences of hybrid working, or a combination of the two. The analysis is based on data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) for the period between 2010 and early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that the provision of working from home arrangements have an adverse effect on union membership, irrespective of individuals’ decision to partly work from home or not. The effect is driven by the trade unions’ inability both to recruit new members and to retain existing ones. A plausible pathway for this may be that hybrid working arrangements erode trade-union social customs at the workplace and weaken social unity, thus undermining trade-union’s ability to organise the workforce.

 

 

Speaker
Professor Alexandros Zangelidis
Hosted by
University of Aberdeen Business School
Contact

No booking required.