Research Paper on:
Do HRM practices influence the desire for unionization?

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a commentary or critique of the position. Others, which can add a great deal of value to any area of study, undertake primary research. In this paper we will examine  a paper by Clive R. Belfield and John S. Heywood entitled Do HRM practices influence the desire for unionization? Evidence across workers, workplaces, and co-workers for Great Britain published in  April 2004 in the Journal of Labor Research. The purpose of this paper is to review this article, looking at the paper itself, its positioning, value and basis. In  recent years one issue that has been of major interest in the UK is that of union membership. In the 1970s there was a high level of unionisation in the  UK, this reached its peak in 1979 and then started to fall (Layborn, 1992). The political conflict with the Conserative government in the early 1980s sealed the fate  of many unions with the government wining the politic battle and stripping unions of many powers (Layborn, 1992). However, the change was not only on practical terms, the  regaining of the need to motivate employees in order to gain more loyalty and a higher level of productivity has seen an increased use in the more advanced approaches typified  with n the human relations school of though and HRM. For many employees this has changed the culture in the workplace. If we consider that one of the reasons behind  the development of unions and their later militancy was to overcome the asymmetry of power in the employment relationship, then changes where the employer is empowering and valuing the employee  may result in less need for the union (Huczyniski and Buchanan, 1996, Layborn, 1992). This is the area of research that has been undertaken by Belfield and Heywood.