Vertical mapping and research help us analyse an employer or decision-maker and identify opportunities to create significant and strategic pressure to improve working conditions.
Any company, employer, government entity or NGO has a number of key relationships with specific entities, people or organisations that are important to them. Vertical mapping creates a comprehensive understanding of how to exert pressure on an employer or decision-makers and their key relationships.
Vertical mapping is best done as a collective process. The first step is to identify the group of workers or union members who will be doing the mapping and set aside time to work together.
Vertical mapping is done in the form of a diagram or chart of the key employer relationships. Begin with the key decision-maker in the middle.
A vertical mapping chart will look something like this:
The main decision-maker is the person or entity that can make a difference in resolving the problems of the worker and the union. It is not always obvious who the key decision-maker is, as it may not be the immediate boss. The decision-maker might be a local manager of a subcontracting agency, or the head of the multinational that has hired the subcontracting company, the Head of Department at the Ministry of Labour or it can be the director of the city’s transport department.
If there is more than one entity that could be your main decision-maker, pick one to start with. This will keep your campaign focused and prevent your resources and efforts from being scattered. You can always change to a second main decision-maker later in your campaign.
Be as specific as you can when you draw your diagram. For example, don’t just write “financial institutions”, but instead list on your chart the particular financial institutions that are most important to your employer or decision-maker. Leave out any of the categories of relationships that do not apply to your situation.
You will need good up-to-date information, not just about the direct employer, but the entities that are important to the employer or decision-makers.
Keep the discussion continually focused on what entities are the most important to the employer or key decision-maker. You want to think from the employer’s perspective, not the union’s perspective.
One of the relationships important to the employer will be the workers and unions. When you draw your diagram, be specific about which workers and which unions are most important.
Workers and unions will always need to use their direct relationship with the employer to create pressure. Without worker and union pressure, it might be a community campaign, but it is not a union campaign. As trade unionists, our goal is not only to campaign, but also to organise workers and strengthen the collective.
From an employer’s perspective, customers, passengers, financial institutions, or any of the other relationships may be more important than the workers and unions, particularly if the workers are easily replaced. Workers might not be as important to the employer if they are not organised, are easily replaced or are not central to the production of profit. If workers are able to strike, withhold or delay their labour or otherwise disrupt an important supply chain, they may be more important to the employer.
Write down the name of the employer or decision-maker in the middle of a large blank piece of paper.
What do you know about the organisations and entities that are important to the key decision-maker?
Draw a diagram of your decision-maker’s key relationships. Be as specific as possible.
Plan how you will gather additional information and research.
The entities that are important to your employer or decision-maker will change as time passes and events and circumstances change. You will need to be ready to adjust your diagram to include changing circumstances and information.
Once you have completed your diagram, you will need to identify which one to three relationships are most important from the decision-maker’s perspective.
The vertical mapping chart will show that key decision-makers have many different relationships. We will need to identify and learn about the relationships where we can be most effective. Once we determine the one to three most important relationships, we can learn everything we can about these entities, even if they are not ones we are familiar with.
Prioritise the entities that provide the most money or potential profit to the employer. Learn about and discuss the employer’s future business plans and industry trends, especially if that is where decision-makers are focusing their attention and resources. In the case of a governmental organisation, you may want to look at where key votes can be affected in important upcoming elections.
Discuss and identify one to three of the most important relationships from the employer’s or decision-maker’s perspective.
In order to impact an employer or decision-maker, we need to identify the relationships of each of these one to three prioritised relationships.
For example, it is not enough to know that business passengers might be very important to your airline. To impact the business passengers, learn about the top one to three businesses that are the most important clients. Learning about what is important to each of these companies will allow you to pressure them when needed.
Extend your diagram. For each of your one to three prioritised relationships or entities, identify their one to three relationships, the ‘relationships of the relationships’.
Employer Research
You will want to research the employer or decision-maker and each of the key companies, agencies, entities or government offices that are important to it. For example, if you are planning to pressure customers, you will need to research each of the major customers and know what is important to each of them.
Main decision-maker
The top entity that would actually make the final decisions about your campaign demands will be the main decision-maker. The main decision-makers might be an employer or a government entity. For example, as a taxi driver your working conditions are set by local government.
Employers may hide their ownership and decision-making structures. Good research will help you understand who the main decision-maker is.
Understanding your industry or sector will help you know more about the competition that your employer faces and the various trends and changes going on in the sector.
Even though you work in a particular industry, the company you work for may be most active in another. You will want to understand each of the industries or sectors that are important to your organising campaign. For example, an airline might make more money with cargo than passengers. If that is the case, the flight attendants’ union might want to research the top cargo customers of the airline.
Publicly traded companies have common stock that is sold to the public through one of the stock markets such as the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The reports they are required to file will be useful to you and will be available on the Internet. These reports provide a great deal of information, including an overview of the company’s operations and finances its executives, directors and shareholders; a list of its legal liabilities; and a list of potential financial challenges it is facing.
Every country has its own regulations on corporate filings. Find out which government department holds the corporate registry, and what information is available. For example, in India, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs makes all corporate records available for a small fee.
The shares of private companies are held by a smaller group, often the company management or a family.
Non-profit organisations often file tax reports and sometimes publish annual reports.
If it is a governmentor public sector entity, you will want to know who is elected and when. What were the recent elections like and what are projections for future elections? Are there blocks of voters we need to know more about? Is there corporate interest in privatisation schemes? Information is often available through legal public reporting requirements.
Identify whether each entity you are researching is a:
Learn about the overall industry and any key competitors.
These are general questions about each of the categories of employer relationships. Decide which questions are most relevant.
Parents and subsidiaries
What is the ownership structure of the entity: parent, subsidiaries, major shareholders? If it is public sector; what is the governmental structure?
Who is the ultimate decision-maker?
Owners/shareholders
Who are the employer’s shareholders and owners? What relationships do they have with other business or community organisations?
When and where are shareholder meetings and who usually attends? What are the major issues and voting patterns?
Workers and unions
How many workers are there and where are the workers and the company operations located? What potential strategic importance does each group of workers have on the employer’s operations?
What are the workers’ concerns and problems? What other unions represent them?
What is the status of labour relations in the company, the country and other countries?
Customers / Service Users
Who are the major customers and what are their sources of revenue? What are the products and/or services they deliver? What transport is used to deliver goods and services and what companies transport them? What concerns to customers or service users have?
Other companies in the same industry or market
What are the most important changes occurring in this industry? What will be the employer’s response to each change?
Who are the employer’s major competitors? How does the employer stand in comparison to other companies within the industry/sector?
What are the employer’s prospects for new products, acquisitions, or markets? Is the market share growing or shrinking?
How does the employer’s performance compare to that of others in the industry? How much debt do the competitors and the employer have? How much revenue or profit? What is the employer’s growth and profit-making strategy?
Management / executives / directors
Who are the middle managers and what are their chief concerns and contributions to the company? Are there managers that have particularly good or bad relationships with workers?
Who are the company’s executives and board members? Do they have ties to other companies?
Financial institutions
Who are the important sources of financing for the employer? Which is the employer’s main bank? How much debt does each creditor hold and how is it secured? Who underwrites the employer’s securities? Does the company receive World Bank or development bank money?
Government / regulators
What social and economic justice violations exist? Who regulates the company? Look for environmental record, community complaints, discrimination charges, and product and service safety. What types of relationships exist between the company and the government/ministers? Are there public subsidies or government contracts? At the international level, are there relevant compacts or codes of conduct with the OECD, the UN Global Compact, global union federations, World Bank or the ILO? Is the company following its own policies?
Public / civil society
Are there important civil or community groups that could have a significant financial (or electoral) impact on your company?
Suppliers / vendors / donors / subcontractors
Who are the most important suppliers and vendors? If there are time delays, what is the impact? What subcontracting exists and what companies are involved? Have there been any changes in quality of product or service with subcontracting? Is there any regulation of subcontractors? Are there plans for future subcontracting or privatisation?
Politicians
Who are the political decision-makers that could impact your company or industry? What are their interests? Do any of them have important upcoming elections?
Media
Where does the company advertise? How much is spent on advertising which products or services? What news and social media outlets are most important to the company?
As a worker, you are often able to ask the employer directly for information. Employers are often willing to assist workers who want to better understand how their company works. If it is a large company, you might want to approach the public relations office.
Workers often have a great deal of information about the company and how it really works, including which are the important customers, suppliers, vendors, governmental regulators and competitors.
If you are dealing with a multinational company, talk to the workers and unions from other countries. Many unions are part of global union federations, international works councils or international union networks.
The Internet is obviously a major source of information. Remember to look at financial analyst and industry websites.
Friendly staff or students at your local universities, colleges or libraries may be able to help you gather information as well.
Discuss the following 7 key research questions for your main decision-maker and each of their key relationships.
Think about whether you want to develop a research committee for your union or campaign. You may find that there are workers in your union who enjoy working on the Internet or seeking information from other workers and company representatives.
You might want to prepare a written research report on the decision-maker, their key relationships and the relationships of their relationships.
Do you want to form a research committee for your union or campaign?
Would it be helpful to create a written research report?
Keep it simple
Keep your research as simple as you can. Prioritise the research on the main decision-maker and the one to three key relationships. Build on what you and other workers already know about the company.