Q: Describe the different stakeholders and what they are interested in and how they influence the purpose and activities of the organisation?
1.Trade unions
2.Pressure groups
3.The whole community[/color]
1.Trade unions define, promote and fight for the collective interests and rights of workers, particularly in relation to employers but also in relation to the state.
Trade unions represent their members’ interests, through collective bargaining over wages and other terms and conditions and provide them with social and welfare services. However they are involved in many other activities such as:
• Campaigning for legislative or regulatory change to affect the working lives of members and non-members alike - for instance, maternity leave or minimum wages.
• The organisation of education and awareness building.
• Helping build respect for governance and democracy.
• Campaigning against broader social prejudices and discrimination – e.g, gender and HIV/AIDS discrimination.
• Helping to create mutual financial institutions such as credit unions, co-operatives and insurance companies.
Trade unions can help tackle the conditions in which poverty thrives. By promoting human rights, international labour standards, fair industrial relations, productivity and adult learning across broader society, they can also play a useful role in the fight against poverty. Trade unions also provide their members with many social and welfare services.
The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (Collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.
These organizations may comprise individual workers, professionals, past workers, or the unemployed. The most common, but by no means only, purpose of these organizations is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment".
Over the last three hundred years, many trade unions have developed into a number of forms, influenced by differing political and economic regimes. The immediate objectives and activities of trade unions vary, but may include:
Provision of benefits to members: Early trade unions, like Friendly Societies, often provided a range of benefits to insure members against unemployment, ill health, old age and funeral expenses. In many developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state; however, the provision of professional training, legal advice and representation for members is still an important benefit of trade union membership.
Collective bargaining: Where trade unions are able to operate openly and are recognized by employers, they may negotiate with employers over wages and working conditions.
Industrial action: Trade unions may enforce strikes or resistance to lockouts in furtherance of particular goals.
Political activity: Trade unions may promote legislation favorable to the interests of their members or workers as a whole. To this end they may pursue campaigns, undertake lobbying, or financially support individual candidates or parties (such as the Labour Party in Britain) for public office.
Example :
The Union Effect
The most effective tool that we have in ensuring good health and safety at work is trade unions, because organised workplaces are safer workplaces. That is one of the main reasons that people join and stay in a union. When asked, 70% of new trade union members considered health and safety a 'very important' union issue - more even than for pay.
The public also recognise the importance of unions having a key role in health and safety. In 1995 an NOP poll found that 98% of those asked believed 'people at work should have the right to be represented by a trade union if they want to on health and safety'
We know that the 200,000 trade union safety representatives make a difference because trade union involvement:
Helps reduce injuries at work
Leads to reductions the levels of ill-health caused by work
Encourages greater reporting of injuries and near-misses
Makes workers more confident
Helps develop a more positive safety culture in the organisation.
2. Pressure Group:
A pressure group, also known as an interest group or lobby, is an organization formed by like-minded people who seek to influence PUBLIC POLICY to promote an interest. Pressure groups exist in all modern pluralist democracies and have sprung up on all sides. Some defend producer interests. In response, others press for consumer concerns or push for broad policies such as protection of the environment. The proliferation of some pressure groups is so extensive, their size so large and their organization so sophisticated, that they virtually constitute another arm of government.
They are a body of people who have banded together to campaign on one or more issues of importance to them. A pressure group usually has a formal constitution and coordinates its activities to influence the attitudes or activities of business or government. One area in which pressure groups operate is the environment and some large companies that have failed to practice good environmental management have been targeted by campaigners. Pressure groups often represent widespread views, so it is important for a company to maintain good relations with them.
They Lobby the business by means of influencing decisions made by the government (in groups or individually). It includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents, or organized groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a member of a lobby. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying.
Pressure groups can help make change by their methods that they use to try and influence decision making within the government. These methods can be legal or illegal. A pressure group will try to influence the public opinion so that if they have more support from the general public the government will listen to what the majority want. A pressure group could use many methods: lobbying, demonstrations, petitions, marches etc and can do this with permission or without. If one method gains more publicity than the other then there is a chance that they will be more successful. For example, when Fathers 4 Justice dressed as superheros scaled a Foreign Office balcony overlooking Downing Street. This was remebered by people and gained plenty of public attention therefore, the governement had to do something about their cause as they were now in the public eye. This meant that a meeting was held about this and the conclusion was that:
"What we have recently put forward are proposals that will give children much more time with both their parents - the non-resident parent as well as the resident parent."
3. The Community as a Whole :
Sorry , I think Community as a whole is the Pressure groups itself .
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