Geographic information systems and the Workplace

Geographic information systems (GIS) can play an important role within industrial relations. GIS is a mapping and data storage process that can manipulate, analyze, standardize, display, and interpret spatial reference data. Without the use of GIS, researchers can face difficulties in processing and analyzing large amounts of data. GIS can offer researchers the ability to explore different types of phenomena across many different fields of research. For example, the workplace can offer new possibilities for GIS researchers.
North America workers have historically been cautious in allowing managers to introduce new technologies into the workplace as a means to improve working conditions. However, workers found themselves to be working harder and faster while their employer’s profits grew. Workers discovered that their cooperation with the new technology did not produce the original claims by management for improved workplace conditions. Therefore, there is no surprise that the use of GIS within the labour process can be view by workers as a means to undermine their labour power. However, if workers are aware of the possibilities and benefits of GIS they may realize a mutual interest exist in collaborating with employers over the uses of GIS in their workplace.
The capitalist mode of production requires that employers continuously eliminate non-value from their production systems. As industry develops, the demands of the workplace make it more difficult and complex for managers to identify possible surplus value within the production system. For example, employers are required to maintain a high-level communication between its workers, suppliers, community, government, and managers. As the levels of the organization increase so does the volume and complexity of information. Managers need to be able to access information so that they can manipulate, analyze, display and interpret it in a user friendly way. GIS is able to help managers to address the new demands within the workplace and consequently enhance profitability.
Managers could use GIS to promote the benefits of carpooling. For example, researchers have found that using GIS and other technologies “carpooling can become more effective for individuals that share common arrival and drop off locations” (Calvo, pg. 2277). The researchers used the internet to link up individuals and employers interested in carpooling. GIS can help individuals users identify the optimal routes to take, potential passengers, update potential road restrictions, and note any human delays that may arise. Researchers found the information collected and processed by GIS and other technologies offered a structured solution to the barriers of carpooling (Calvo, pg. 2265). For example, these researchers found that GIS and other technologies help to develop organization and communication between workers that use the carpool. However, these researchers suggested that a GIS based system for carpooling was limited on the integrity of the users, as well the need for real time portable information devices (Calvo, pg. 2277). Workers and employers needed to be mutually flexible enough to cooperate with a GIS based carpooling system. As a result, employers would receive greater productivity gains while workers would enjoy the reduce stress and cost of driving to work.
Managers can use GIS to help identify potential problem areas of pollution buildup within and surrounding the workplace. For example, researchers used GIS to help design a model to predict the “levels of industrial pollution associated with industrial parks” (Chen and Delaney in Schuurman, pg. 103). These researchers used GIS to map the levels of noise and air quality with the sample area. The researchers then compared their developed models against the Environmental Protection Agency limits for industrial pollution. The researchers found that the industry park to be within the prescribed limits. However, they found the residents near the park to consider the pollution created to be outside of safe limits.
These researchers acknowledge that GIS is limited to quantitative analysis, however, the ability to process the large size of data required by pollution modeling serves as an efficient guide for researchers (Schuurman, pg. 107). Employers could use the researcher’s model to help identify areas within their own workplace that are vulnerable to concentrations of pollution. Pollution within the workplace may take on different forms such as noise, air, or waste. In addition, pollution within the workplace can be associated to long-term cost of occupational diseases (Schwind, pg. 553). Employers need to realize occupational disease is often very difficult to isolate, since it happens over a long period and is difficult to visualize when on the shop floor. Using raster data managers can increase their ability to visualize the concentration of pollutants within specific areas, and then focus their resources to reduce the sources of pollution. As a result, employers would benefit from productivity gains, as well lowered compensation premiums.
Managers could use GIS to promote the benefits of accident prevention. For example, researchers have found that GIS was effective in mapping fall injuries in the elderly (Yiannakoulias, pg. 2965). The researchers used raster data to represent the areas around the sample hospital that reported a high rate of fall injuries for the elderly. By identifying the locations of high fall injuries, decision makers are able to focus funding for improvements to potential fall areas. However, the researchers have considered potential problems in using GIS as a tool for injury prevention. First, the accident reporting for the elderly maybe under reported. Second, the frequency of reporting and the sample used to be mapped may not be accurate enough to be “representative of the underlying patterns of risk, and may even provide a misleading representation of spatial variation” (Yiannakoulias, pg 2068). Nevertheless, the use of GIS has made it possible for researchers to process a large amount of data that was once difficult to achieve.
Employers need to take a closer look at GIS as a tool for injury prevention. Workplace policies and procedures can limit the accuracy required for effective documentation of workplace injuries. GIS could offer employers a visual representation of the workplace, in order to focus on proactive strategies to help employees avoid unnecessary risk only if workers are willing to report accurate accident reports. As a result, employers could increase in productivity as well a decrease in their compensation premiums.
GIS has the potential to help employers improve working conditions for workers by reevaluating the production system. Managers could use raster data to visualize the impact of industrial pollution and the concentration of workplace injuries. In addition, managers could use vector data to help visualize the repetitive traffic flows by their employees. Employers could enjoy productivity gains through the promotion of a clean and safe working environment. Furthermore, employers’ proactive approach to occupational health and safety could help reduce compensation premiums. Worker productivity may increase if managers take a proactive approach to use GIS to aid in the prevention of workplace hazards. Employees and employers need to identify the how information is collected and processed by managers can limit the effectiveness of GIS. Managers may use GIS to restrict the flexibility of their workers by exploiting their workers’ personal data in unlawful and unethical means. On the other hand, workers can effectively disrupt the ability of GIS to process information by refusing to cooperate with their management in providing accurate information. In order for GIS to work efficiently in the workplace, employers and employees need to be mutual involved in how information is collected and analyzed.

Renewed Focus

In order for a blog to be effective, it needs to be representative of the opinions and preferences of its intended audience. I feel that when retail grocery workers need to look for information on issues and problems that directly influence them, they tend to face barriers. Even though the internet has provided these workers with an anonymous identity from exploitive employers, finding adequate social support can be a challenge. These sources of support are difficult to locate, access, and apply to a worker’s situation. This would include my first attempt at a blog devoted to retail grocery workers. Therefore, I am encouraging current and previous workers in the retail grocery industry to make suggestions. This will also include suggestions from family, community groups, employers, and government agencies. I believe the information that is available for retail grocery workers has created divisions within the industry. As a result, representation of these workers has not reached its intended goals. By establishing an audience, I believe we then can begin to organize the issues and problems that hinder the growth of this industry and its workers.

Discussion of Flexible Work for Retail Grocery Workers in Ontario

The distribution of time and hours within the workplace has been one of the most contentious areas of struggle between workers and employers (Gibbs 2006). Stakeholder theory suggests a broader understanding of management’s practices towards this issue (Godard 2000:178-9). This theory argues that workers and employers both share similar social and economic interest in creating broader stability with their workplace. For example, if the employer faced negative business conditions then workers need to increase their flexibility to accommodate their employer, through this down turn. On the other hand, if the worker’s family responsibilities increased then the employer is to accommodate these needs by reducing the demands of the employment contract until these workers are able to adjust to the changes with their family responsibilities. Unfortunately, such arrangements are dependant on a shared balance of power between workers and employers.
In Canada, a high percentage of women tend to have occupations within the peripheral sector. Statistics Canada Report on Women in Canada suggests, “Women have accounted for about 7 in 10 of all part time employees since the late 1970’s” (Statistics Canada report on Women in Canada 2003:8). These workers tend to work part time, for low wages, and experience high levels of managerial authority. These job characteristics are frequently associated with workers in the unionized retail grocery sector. As a result, flexible schedules may appeal to the workers who have to balance their family responsibilities and precarious work arrangements.
Employers have become increasingly concerned over their worker’s ability to manage their work and family responsibilities. Many employers have developed workplace policy to accommodate the growing family demands on their workers. For example, employers offer time off, sick days, leave of absence, flexible scheduling, daycare, and drug plans. However, Diane Houston and Julie Waumsley suggest that workers are reluctant to use or even know about such flexible work arrangements designed to help them balance their work and family responsibilities (Houston and Waumsley 2003). Moreover, they argued that the unionized workers they researched were not willing to use flexible work arrangements for fear of economic damaging to their employer. These workers responded that, if they used flexible work arrangements their overtime and their ability to advance in the company would suffer (Houston and Waumsley 2003:44). It is clear the employer’s use of flexible work arrangements has not been living up to its intentions. Workers have become dependant on overtime, and fearful of employer retaliation if they use flexible work arrangements.
Union structures may be able to help workers deal with the additional stress and demands of their work-life balance. First, researchers need to question if unions are able to balance the unequal relationship in power within the employment contract. The union’s use of collective bargaining has proven to be an effective tool for representing the interests of workers to their employer. For example, unions have fought for limits on overtime, paid/unpaid personal days, leaves of absences, or extended benefits to family members living in the same house (Houston and Waumsley 2003). It is clear that work-family benefits do have a significant cost on employers. However, these benefits can increase production and lower turnover.
John Budd and Karen Mumford’s research of, “Trade Unions and Family-Friendly Policies in Britain” suggested that unions were effective in bargaining for additional benefits, providing workers with information, and assisting in their member’s use of such benefits (Budd and Mumford 2004:204). However, they concluded that unions are negatively associated with flexible work arrangements such as scheduling. They suggested that further research is needed to examine if this negative association that exist for unions maybe the result of unions leaders or membership preferences (Budd and Mumford 2004:220).
Workplace culture can be a method in measuring the preferences of union leaders and their memberships towards the issue of flexible schedules within the workplace. Habermas suggests, that tradition, social constraints, external sources of information, and communication will directly influence workplace culture (Habermas 1971:313). These factors will identify what knowledge and human interests is to be part of the core set of values and beliefs for the workplace (Habermas 1971:313). By comparing what the union membership’s experiences and attitudes with flexible schedules, to that of the intentions of the union leadership, researchers can measure the effectiveness of flexible schedules.

The effectiveness of a flexible work arrangement is dependent on an individual’s bargaining power, knowledge of the benefits, and ability to use such benefits. In addition, unions are effective in representing the interest of minority groups by incorporating its social movement function into collective bargaining (Godard 2000:208). On the other hand, when employers and unions found explore their own self-interest they hinder a workers ability to exercise flexible work arrangements. The Canadian government’s report on Work and Family Provisions in Canadian Collective Agreements suggests that further research is needed to understand the underlying processes in which unions and employers negotiate their collective contracts (Work and Family Provisions in Canadian Collective Agreements 2002). A closer examination of the preferences of union leaders or the membership may help in identifying why unions are negatively associated towards flexible work arrangements such as flexible scheduling. Further research may help in the greater understanding of why unions within the retail sector are not adequately representing women’s interest for greater flexibility within their workplace.
Jan Kainer suggests that the retail grocery commitment to business unionism has hindered the ability of their membership to move their narrow economic interest to broader social goals (Kainer 2002:143). Business unionist philosophy involves, “a conservative approach to union operators, directed primarily at protecting and advancing the immediate economic interests of union members rather than seeking broader economic or social reforms” (Godard 2000:496). Restructuring and reorganization within the retail grocery sector have made it difficult for unions in this sector to continue to represent the narrow economic interest of their membership. In order for unions to expand on the economic and social interests of their membership, unions need to focus on their social movement function. “This fledgling focus on social movement unionism can be a tool used to rebuild unions’ capacity to resist neo-liberalism” (Moody in: Crow and Albo: 2003). Therefore, not only can social movement unionism expand the ability of unions to represent their membership, they can also reinvent unions to resist the pressures of neo-liberalism.