OBJECTIVES OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION
ments because of a conviction that closer and more continuous con-
tact with employees was necessary. The plan of the Dennison
Manufacturing Company illustrates this situation:
The Employees’ Cotperative Plan shall not interfere with existing or future
agreements between trade organizations and the Company, nor abridge the right
of any trade organization to deal separately with the Company?
THE OUTSTANDING PURPOSES OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION
The respects in which employers have conceived of employee repre-
sentation as either supplementary to or a superior substitute for
unionism may best be shown by consideration of the more concrete
objectives which a study of representation plans and extensive dis-
cussion with executives has revealed. This part of our investigation
has aimed to discover the more immediate purposes which those
executives who are directly concerned with the administration of
ndustrial relations have sought to accomplish. Among fifty such
men with whom we discussed the subject in small round table con-
ferences we found substantial agreement warranting the following
as an adequate statement of the managerial objectives of employee
representation: To provide
A. Double track channel of communication for exchange of information’
opinions, and desires.
B. Procedure for prompt adjustment of individual and group misunderstand-
ings, complaints, and grievances.
C. Procedure for collective negotiations (unhampered by external influences
or irrelevant issues making for fruitless controversy), regarding
wages, hours, and other terms of the employment contract.
D. Education of Employees:
1. Of the rank and file, to appreciate in some degree the difficulties of
the managerial functions not only regarding wages, hours, and
other matters usually regarded as directly affecting employees,
but also with reference to larger policies of finance, production,
marketing, and public relations.
2. Of persons in supervisory positions who, through serving as manage-
ment representatives on joint conference committees, may
acquire a broader comprehension of managerial responsibilities
particularly those affecting personnel relations.
3 Dennison Employees’ Coiperative Plan, Constitution, Article VII, Sec. 3.
67
