APEC Human Resources & Development (HRD) Symposium

Responding to Change in the Workplace: Innovations in Labor-Management-Government Cooperation

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The 2nd Labor-Management-Government Symposium sponsored by the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group, entitled "Responding to Change in the Workplace: Innovations in Labor-Management-Government Relations," was held on June 25-26, 2001 in Mexico City at the Hotel Melia Mexico Reforma.  The Symposium brought together labor relations practitioners, government officials and academics from throughout the Asia Pacific region.  Through the energetic participation of these esteemed individuals (Please see the link to their biographical information), the Symposium achieved its objective of imparting a more concrete understanding of Labor-Management-Government cooperation so that delegates may be better informed as they try to disseminate successful cooperative practices in their home economies.

The Symposium greatly emphasized “the practical.” To achieve this goal, it was designed so that: (1) the case studies and panel discussions dealt mainly with concrete processes for fostering labor-management cooperation in the workplace; and (2) participants engaged in interactive simulations of techniques that workers, managers and neutral professionals have successfully employed to promote labor-management cooperation in the workplace.  Finally, the Symposium examined the degree to which the practices identified are replicable and how cultural, economic, and social factors could impact such replication.

APEC has long recognized that its activities in the area of trade investment and facilitation should be accompanied by appropriate investments in human capital if they are to be successful.  Accordingly, this Symposium addressed the critical need to appropriately restructure work life to accommodate trade investment and facilitation.  Even a highly trained workforce operating in an environment of free trade and free movement of capital will not be able to adapt to the demands of the global economy if workplace relationships are still based on the assumption of routinized, assembly line, work processes, with hierarchical top-down decision making that is focused on repetitive activity in protected industries.  

Central to this ongoing dialog is the great importance of making the workplace in such a competitive environment into a one that promotes dignity and quality of life for workers.  This workplace should also empower workers to share their unique front-line insights for the improvement of work life in addition to improvement of the final product.  This is important not just to maximize productivity and efficiency, but also because if the global workplace only serves to exploit and destabilize the lives of those who make it function, there is a risk of instability at the societal level as well.  Besides, what is the point of “progress” if it serves to promote disaffection and unhappiness?

The APEC HRD Ministers specifically mandated that the HRD Working Group undertake a project of this nature because they recognized that the new economic relationships that APEC contemplates among the economies of the region must be supported by new relationships within the workplaces of the region.  Specifically, in light of the increasingly voluminous and sophisticated information flow, the continuous and rapid introduction of information technology in today's workplace, and the ever increasing pace at which business must meet customers' needs:  

Ø     new methods of communication must be developed to process such information and allow for intelligent decision making;

Ø     organizations need new methods to obtain workers’ frontline input into production and service delivery processes – companies that are slow to adapt to their customers’ demands will lose out to ever-increasing competition;

Ø    there must be a commitment by employers and workers alike to lifelong learning, and new workplace relationships are needed to ensure efficient expenditure of training resources;

Ø     new workplace processes are needed to encourage continuous informal learning;

Ø    as goods, services and investment markets become more open and more volatile to shift in the allocation of capital, businesses need new workplace relationships in order to unleash all of their workers’ creativity and energy.

Accordingly, the Symposium speakers, panels and case study presenters addressed issues such as improving workplace communication; developing channels for management to receive workers’ input; collaboration with respect to targeted training, lifelong learning, and informal learning; encouraging workers’ creativity; and the creation of more flexible work arrangements to allow organizations and workers alike to adapt to a seemingly 24 hour a day demand for their products and services.  The goal is that participants will now be able to return to their home economies and serve as sources of knowledge and initiative to enhance Labor-Management-Government cooperation at the corporate board level, the workshop floor, and in developing public policy.

To demonstrate the latest technological innovations, Symposium participants were provided an opportunity to gain first-hand experience in on-line labor-management cooperation through the use of TAGS (Technology Assisted Group Solutions).  TAGS is a powerful network of mobile computers and customized software that skilled labor-management practitioners can use to help groups, among others:

Parties that have used TAGS report that TAGS helps them become better prepared for meetings or negotiations, save time and money, keep better records, and communicate better with their constituents.  TAGS may be used either in face-to-face meetings or on the Internet.  

Following the Symposium, the Project will develop a Best Practices Tool Kit for the replication of successful practices in workplaces throughout the APEC region; the Tool Kit will provide a step-by-step, easy-to-navigate, guide to developing a program of Labor-Management-Government cooperation in a variety of contexts.  It will also take into account the applicability of its principles in light of intervening cultural, economic, and social factors, as well as gender related issues, and suggest possible adaptations based thereon.