How a Proactive Interventionist Can Make Strikes More Effective

How a Proactive Interventionist Can Make Strikes More Effective: Evidence from the Korean Banking Sector

This paper presents, through an investigation of two industry-wide strikes in the Korean banking sector, evidence explaining why and how a proactive interventionist strike is more effective than a reactive one when a union responds to restructuring. Through this case study we develop an argument that for a union responding to restructuring the proactive interventionist mode through the employment of appropriate industrial actions is more likely to be the best choice because successes are most likely to be achieved when organizations make concerted efforts to achieve their objectives by identifying opportunities, devising effective strategies and engaging in the issues at an early stage, thus generating favourable circumstances which can change the views or positions of other parties. Such a strategic capacity can be gained from active organizational learning (OL).

In the neo-liberal environment which requires endless restructuring for survival, unions have faced continual changes and challenges. In response, unions’ main options have been to take industrial action or engage in partnerships with employers. In all cases, the focus of union leaders’ efforts has been to devise strategies most likely to lead to success for their members.

Reference : ChungIL Choi. 2013. How a Proactive Interventionist Can Make Strikes More Effective: Evidence from the Korean Banking Sector. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 2013, 3, 444-452. 

This paper argues, through a case study of two industry-wide strikes in the Korean banking sector, that a proactive in-

terventionist strike is more effective than a reactive pragmatist one in a union’s response to restructuring. Evidence

from the two strikes shows that unions were able to achieve more successful outcomes from the strike in which they

engaged proactively by an interventionist mode. In this case the unions identified opportunities, took the initiative and

devised effective strategies that pre-empted the other parties before they had fully prepared their restructuring planning.

Such a strategic capacity was gained from active organizational learning in unions derived from their previous strike

failure

This paper argues, through a case study of two industry-wide strikes in the Korean banking sector, that a proactive in-

terventionist strike is more effective than a reactive pragmatist one in a union’s response to restructuring. Evidence

from the two strikes shows that unions were able to achieve more successful outcomes from the strike in which they

engaged proactively by an interventionist mode. In this case the unions identified opportunities, took the initiative and

devised effective strategies that pre-empted the other parties before they had fully prepared their restructuring planning.

Such a strategic capacity was gained from active organizational learning in unions derived from their previous strike

failure