L’impact de l’action collective patronale sur les pratiques locales des organisations :
le cas de l’industrie de l’hôtellerie au Québec

This research project is interested by the forms and the capacity of employer organizations to elaborate work rules at a sector level, precisely, the Hotel sector in Quebec. It also aims to have a better understanding how these rules contribute to change the local industrial relation practices of their members. Our first research question is looking to target the impacts of the logic of representation and actions of the employer organization on the industrial relations practices. For some authors, especially Berhens and Traxler (2004 and 2007), Carley and al (2010) Charest, Laroche and Hickey (to be published), the logic of representation and action at the employer level are distinct from one to another and will influence in a different way the industrial relations practices.  Thus, the presence, the form and the role of an employer organization will have a significant impact on the industrial relation practices. The members are able to be influenced by the orientation of their association.    Our second research question will address the way the firms will use their power resources to influence the actions of employer organizations. The existing literature about this subject mentions that the management actors are holding multiple power resources being internal or external (Charest, Laroche and Hickey, to be published) are able to exercise an influence in the political institutions. We will attempt to verify if the more an association is able to mobilize its power resources, the more it will be able to influence the institutional context in which it’s acting   On the theoretical plan this research is based on ideas developed by neo-institutionalism theories. First, we acknowledge that the actors must react and adapt to changes that occur in their environment. They will develop different strategies in management actions coordination as well as work relation at a local level, based on their interpretation of these transformations (Traxler and Huemer 2007). Also we admit that the actors are able to mobilize their power resources to deploy strategic initiatives that can provoque changes inside their environment (Crouch, 2005) These institutional entrepreneurs are actively researching opportunities and power leverage to use to maximize their respective interest and also reduce the uncertainty issued from the environment (Campbell, 2004: Streeck and Thelen, 2005; Crouch, 2005). Our research also concedes that the actors holding the greater power inside a group, the project holders, will be able to modify the institutions in functions of their specific interests. It is specifically on this plan that our research wants to distinguish itself from the wider research it gets into.   On the empirical plan, this research will study the management actor in the hotel industry in the province of Quebec and targets three objectives: 1) produce the cartography of employer organizations in the hotel sector of the province of Quebec (form, structure, activities, missions etc.); 2) analyze the impact of the rules issued from the regulation process at the sector level on the local industrial relations practices; and 3) identify the dominant employers inside a sector and analyze the way that they arrive to modify the institution and the environment in which they act.   In order to meet our research objectives, we used a qualitative research methodology; the case study was specifically used. This method was processed in three steps; the preparation, the data collection and the interpretation (Merriam, 1998). Data for this research was collected in fall of 2011 from interviews with hotel managers and hotel association managers in the region of Montreal and Quebec City. A quantitative analysis of the interview content was made and linked to the literature review and our research propositions. To this end, we used the patterns matching Yin (1994). This allowed us to compare our observations with our research propositions.  It should be noted that since this research is a case study, some methodological limits specifically in the generalization of the results. It is hard to state that the results of this micro-analysis are extendable. On the other hand, the analysis helped to consolidate the model for future studies.

Keyphrases: employer organizations, members, logic of representation, logic of influence (action), industrial relations practices, power resources