Describe the three strategic roles for union leaders. What are the major challenges for a union leader in each role with regard to labor relations?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Union leaders face similar challenges to those of HR managers. As such, they also serve three strategic roles of builder, change partner, and navigator. Builders must create union structures that fulfill the labor movement's basic functions (organizing, bargaining, contract administration and political lobbying). These structures must be internally consistent, meet the requirements of a democratic organization, and perform routine administrative functions such as budgeting, strategic planning, and benchmarking. As change partners, union leaders must partner with rank-and-file members to construct new forms of representation that fit changes in the external environment. This means addressing issues such as workforce diversity, increased education levels, and increased competitive pressures on employers. Finally union leaders must be navigators that can balance the internal and external pressures faced by the builder and change partner. These pressures may be between new and existing members, between centralized power and decentralized responsiveness to local conditions, between centralized control and democratic processes, and between solidarity across workplaces and concern for individual needs.