Archives for March 2015

Guest Speakers Announced for 2015 Workplace in Motion Summit

March 13, 2015 by IRC Queen Uni

Queen’s IRC is hosting the 2015 Workplace in Motion Summit in Toronto on April 16, 2015. We are pleased to announce the growing list of speakers and special guest speakers.

Summit hosts and leaders: (bios can be found in the Facilitators and Speakers tab)

Paul Juniper, Queen’s IRC Director
Brenda Barker Scott, Summit Chair
Françoise Morissette, OD Leader
Diane Locke, HR Leader
Anne Grant, LR Leader

Special guest speakers:

Brittany Forsyth, Vice President of Human Relations, Shopify
Bryan Acker, Culture Change Ambassador, TELUS Communications Inc.
Christine Greco, Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Affairs, Samsung
Courtney Jolliffe, Resource and Logistics Co-ordinator, We Day, Free the Children
Hugh Ritchie, Director, Government Relations Program, Office of the President, OpenText
James Prince, Manager of We Day Retail Distribution and Sales, Consumer Engagement, Me to We
John Wilson, Corporate Culture Strategist, City of Edmonton

Labour Relations and the Rise of the Millennial

March 13, 2015 by IRC Queen Uni

Your union membership is getting younger.

It’s no secret that millennials are increasingly becoming a major demographic in the workforce. But the way they work, the tools they use and how they engage with others is completely different from earlier generations. Are you ready for them?

Anne Grant, an expert in labour relations and mediation, will be exploring the evolution of the workforce and the impact on union-management relations at the Queen’s IRC 2015 Workplace in Motion Summit on April 16 in Toronto. “Successful organizations and unions need to understand what millennials expect from management, labour relations and union representation,” she says. “They place great value on a collaborative culture and the ability to communicate freely. We need to change the way we think about union-management partnerships and how we engage millennials in those discussions.”

Along with the rise of the millennial, The Workplace in Motion Summit will examine key trends in workplace evolution – technology, globalization and the knowledge era, with key sessions that explore how these trends will affect the labour relations climate – for example:

Successful unions are using social media, big data and other tools to connect with members. What will the union meeting of the future look like?

In order to remain competitive, organizations need to work with their unions to develop strategic practices that stand up on the international stage. What needs to change in your workplace to enable that collaboration?

We need to understand and nurture talented teams, particularly as the pace of knowledge accelerates and work becomes more specialized. How will your labour relations strategies enable you to access and develop this talent?

Be part of the conversation
The Workplace in Motion Summit is a new way of strategizing for a changing world at work. You’ll have the opportunity to learn from successful organizations, brainstorm with colleagues and gain insights into the next generation and what they need to contribute to your success.

Get ahead of the shift – register today for this game-changing event.

Don Wood Lecture Series

March 4, 2015 by IRC Queen Uni

Dr. Don Wood was the Director of the Queen’s Industrial Relations Centre (IRC) from 1960 to 1985. The W. Donald Wood Visiting Lectureship was established in 1987 by many of Don’s friends to honour his dedication to building the IRC. The IRC is internationally recognized for its outstanding research and continuing education programs, and for his many contributions to the wider industrial relations community in Canada and abroad. The Don Wood Visiting Lectureship brings to Queen’s University each year “a distinguished individual who has made an important contribution to industrial relations in Canada, or in other countries.”

About Dr. Don Wood

Known as “Canada’s Dean of Industrial Relations,” Dr. Wood was well-known and much appreciated for his work in bringing together academics and practitioners and closing the gap between the academic world and the professional practice of industrial relations (IR). This reflects the dual focus of his own experience. After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, Dr. Wood studied economics at McMaster and Queen’s Universities and then at Princeton University, where he was awarded a scholarship and completed a Ph.D. thesis on white-collar unionism. He subsequently gained practical experience as Director of Employee Relations Research at Imperial Oil for five years.

Dr. Wood came to Queen’s University as a professor of economics and served as Director of the Queen’s IRC from 1960 to 1985. During this period, Dr. Wood built a world-renowned research and training institution, one that thrived while other industrial relations centres in Canada folded. He pioneered his continuing education program for human resources managers on employee-employer relationships. He helped shape public policy through his research and publications program, informing debate on key issues such as wage price controls in 1975 and surveying developments and trends in the IR field, and his participation on many federal and provincial task forces. He also assembled a remarkable IR library.

As Founding Director of the School of Industrial Relations at Queen’s University from 1983 to 1985, he created and guided the early development of the new multi-disciplinary Master of Industrial Relations program, which continues as one of Canada’s most respected programs in this field. Following his retirement in 1985, Dr. Wood ran the IRC’s Continuing Education Program for five years, and led training seminars well into the 1990s. His talent for bringing together leading authorities from industry, unions, government, universities and consulting firms for programs enriched the education of IR students across Canada, and internationally. It continues to inspire those involved in IR education and research today.

Listing of Don Wood Visiting Lectureship presenters

The Don Wood Visiting Lectureship brings to Queen’s University “a distinguished individual who has made an important contribution to industrial relations in Canada, or in other countries.” These are the recipients of the Don Wood Visiting Lectureship in Industrial Relations and the title of their public lecture:

Peter Edwards (2015)
Vice-President of Human Resources and Labour Relations at Canadian Pacific
A Futurist’s Look at IR/HR – Why it’s Time to Start Over

The Honourable Warren K. Winkler (2010)
Chief Justice of Ontario
Labour Arbitration and Conflict Resolution – Back to our Roots

Dr. Richard Freeman (2008)
Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University
A New Role for Labour in Financial Crisis?

George C.B. Smith (2007)
CBC/Radio-Canada
Strategic Negotiations: Perspectives from a Road Well-Travelled

Basil “Buzz” Hargrove (2006)
National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers’ Union of Canada (CAW-Canada)
The Current State and Future Prospects of Labour Relations

Linda Duxbury (2004)
Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
Issues in the Workplace: Standing Still is Not an Option

Leo W. Gerard (2003)
United Steelworkers of America
Globalization and North American Integration: Implications for the Union Movement

Francine Blau (2001)
Cornell University
The gender gap: Going, going… but not gone

John Crispo (1999)
University of Toronto
Looking backward and forward: Can industrial relations stand the test of time?

Paula Voos (1998)
Rutgers University
Changing labour markets: Implications for industrial relations

Harry Arthurs (1996)
York University
The new economy: The demise of industrial citizenship

Robert M. McKersie (1995)
MIT
Labour-management partnerships: Promise and challenge

Lee Dyer (1993)
Cornell University
Human resources as a source of competitive advantage

Nancy Adler (1992)
McGill University
Human resource management in the global economy

Thomas Kochan (1991)
MIT
Innovations in industrial relations and human resources: Prospects for diffusion

John Fryer (1990)
National Union of Provincial Government Employees (NUPGE)
The Canadian labour movement in the 1990s: Challenges and opportunities

John Sexton (1989)
Université Laval
Are Quebec labour relations so different?

John Dunlop (1987)
Harvard University
Industrial relations: Old and new

The Why of Change

March 2, 2015 by IRC Queen Uni

The first thing people want to know when a change is proposed is why this change is necessary. If you don’t have a very good answer, then they will not buy into your change initiative. Statistics show that having a good percentage of supporters at the outset of a change initiative is strongly associated with success.

Don’t believe me? Then just think about the constant “why” questions your child may be plaguing you with. Children want to know why they should eat that vegetable, why making their bed is necessary, why they have to go to bed now, why they cannot watch that television show. Adults may be too sophisticated to ask why out loud, but rest assured that question is uppermost in their minds when a change that affects them is proposed. So your first task in change is to answer those “why” questions. This requires rigorous honesty, hard thinking and hard work, plus some very tough choices.

This paper addresses how to create the felt need for change and a sense of urgency for the change throughout the organization.

>> This paper is one chapter from Dr. Carol A. Beatty’s e-book, The Easy, Hard & Tough Work of Managing Change. The complete e-book is now available on our website at no charge: Download

Workplace Bullying and Harassment: Costly Conduct

March 2, 2015 by IRC Queen Uni

As media scrutiny over schoolyard and cyberbullying pervade the news, allegations of workplace harassment and bullying are on the rise. Media reports reveal the deleterious and even deadly impact that bullying can have on children in our communities. Unfortunately for employers, adults in our workplaces sometimes engage in similar transgressions. While the popularization of the terms “bullying” and “harassment” has both educated and empowered employees to assert the right to a respectful workplace, it has conversely sometimes resulted in overuse of the terms and meritless complaints in relation to reasonable management measures. Employers are left with the difficult task of managing all competing interests to ensure a safe, respectful and productive work environment.

One Canadian professor previously estimated that a whopping 40% of Canadians experienced one or more acts of workplace bullying at least once a week.(1) Although it is difficult to determine exactly how much harassment and bullying actually occurs in Canadian workplaces, we can be certain of the impact of such conduct. Workplace bullying and harassment create a toxic work environment resulting in many negative effects which may include: decreasing productivity, increasing employees’ use of sick days, damaging employee morale and causing attrition of good employees. It can also result in significant legal liabilities. Considering all of these potential impacts, the tangible and intangible costs of workplace harassment and bullying can be high. This should be reason enough to motivate employers to expeditiously address such issues; however, for those not motivated by practical business measures or healthy employee relations, we should also consider the expansion of Canadian laws to protect workers from harassment and bullying, and the significant liabilities that can arise when such issues are not properly addressed.

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