Teamworking: a new dynamic in the pursuit of management control

This article examines the introduction of teamworking in the pharmaceutical industry. It was found that the organisation of work contained a mix of benefits and costs. The balance between the two was not random; employees' response was influenced by and connected to prior experiences and expectations, management's business strategies and approach to industrial relations and HRM. The article argues that there was a new dynamic, but one cast within the familiar terrain of management seeking to maintain control and generate consent.     

Restructuring the labour process in Sweden: the offensive of the SAF and the LO response

Compromise between organised labour and capital facilitated decades of economic growth and industrial cooperation in Sweden. However, management's monopoly over the ‘right to manage’ increasingly conflicted with the labour movement's desire for industrial and economic democracy. This article analyses organised capital's ability to resist labour's reform initiative and pursue a neo-liberal agenda which has greatly shifted Sweden in this direction.     

PAY,CONTROL AND COMMITMENT: LINKING APPRAISAL AND REWARD

John Geary, who is a Research Fellow in the Industrial Relations Research Unit at the University of Warwick, explores the implementation of appraisal-linked reward systems in three US electronics plants operating in the Irish Republic. He focuses in particular on how the schemes work in practice and how employees respond to them. He argues that there are often a number of tensions within management's strategy and that the degree to which such reward systems are capable of engendering harmonious relations must be open to some scepticism. Furthermore, he questions the extent to which management's payment policy was successful in avoiding the extremes of individualism and collectivism.     

Arbitrators and the seniority rights of foremen

When arbitrators must decide the seniority rights of displaced foremen, how much do management's rights suffer?     

The aims and methods of the education and training of shop stewards: a case study

The author's research indicates that management's objectives in releasing shop stewards for courses and the shop stewards' objectives may be quite different. Views on how far courses should be “education” and how far “training”, and the best structure for courses, also emerged from this study.     

Agency,corporate control and accounting methods–the lifo-fifo choice

The study examines the effect of the firm's ownership structure on its management's choice of LIFO or FIFO inventory valuation methods. Managers of widely held firms are found to select the accounting method that furthers their own interests, thus causing the firms' owners to bear agency costs that appear to be substantial.     

Corporate takeovers,stockholder returns and executive rewards

Various motives for making corporate acquisitions have been forwarded in the managerial economics literature. Two that have received a lot of attention are the maximization of stockholder wealth and the maximization of senior management's utility. These two alternative views can lead to different acquisition decisions. The paper examines the returns to senior management and the returns to stockholders following corporate takeovers in the United Kingdom. The evidence suggests that if shareholders profit from takeovers then so do the senior' management. Of more interest, however, is the finding that if acquisitions result in a reduction in stock market value for the acquiring firm, their senior management appear to gain. In particular, senior management remuneration increases substantially after an acquisition. This evidence is consistent with the maximization of senior management's utility being an important motive in many corporate-acquisition decisions.     

Multinationals and human resource practices in Ireland: a rejection of the 'new conformance thesis'

In a previous edition of this journal, Turner et al. (1997a) claim that the industrial relations and human resource management practices of multinational companies operating in Ireland bear a close resemblance to those of indigenous firms. The advancement of this (new) conformance thesis stands in stark contrast to much recent work on Irish industrial relations. In this paper we criticize Turner et al.'s argument for its failure to appreciate and acknowledge the weight of evidence both internationally and in Ireland which points to the predominance of 'country-of-origin effects' over 'hostcountry effects', especially in countries characterized by weak industrial relations systems. We are also critical of the empirical basis of the 'new conformance thesis'. In analysing data from a recently conducted national workplace survey our doubts as to the empirical validity and generalizability of Turner et al.'s results are confirmed. In brief, the 'new conformance thesis' is refuted and the employment relations practices of foreign- and particularly US-owned establishments are shown to be very different from those of Irish workplaces.     

Privatisation and industrial relations in British shipbuilding

The causes of the 1993 strike by 1300 workers at Yarrow Shipbuilders are examined. A managerial offensive, which included a restructuring of the labour process, was instigated by the Thatcher government's privatisation of the shipbuilding industry. Drawing on shop stewards' committee minute books, particular emphasis is given to the trade union response to management's confrontationalist approach.     

British industrial relations and the European Community

The purpose of this paper is to review the influence that Britain's membership of the European Community has had on industrial relations in Britain. More specifically the so-called ‘Social Dimension’ of the 1992 internal market is assessed. The conclusion is that British industrial relations will continue to be influenced by developments in the European Community for the rest of the 1990s and beyond. However, it is more likely that there will be a weaving of a European dimension into national industrial relations systems rather than the imposition of a new EC-wide model.     

Comparative industrial relations theory: the role of national culture

This paper explores the use of national culture in comparative industrial relations theory to explain the cross-national pattern of industrial relations institutions. A critical review of the existing body of theory argues that it has not adequately explained cross-national differences in the main industrial relations variables. The review also establishes that, with few exceptions, national culture is currently given negligible weight as an explanatory variable. It is argued that a cultural theory of cross-national difference is required. Following a critical assessment of the work of Hofstede, a cultural model is developed based on his definition and specification of culture. Some hypotheses linking Hofstede's dimensions of culture with our industrial relations variables are derived. As an empirical test of the model, industrial relations variables are regressed on Hofstede's cultural indices. National culture is found to be significantly associated with all the major characteristics of industrial relations systems investigated. The paper concludes that national culture is the primary determinant of cross-national variations in industrial relations institutions and that culture is likely to be a force for ongoing diversity in labour market systems.     

FACTORY MANAGERS: THEIR ROLE IN PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AND THEIR PLACE IN THE COMPANY[1]

Studies of recent developments in personnel management have concentrated on personnel specialists. It is also necessary to consider how general managers view labour relations. This article analyses a survey of the senior site managers, ‘factory managers’, in 229 large manufacturing establishments. The need to examine higher levels of firms notwithstanding, the establishment level remains of crucial importance, for it is here that policies are implemented. Factory managers might be expected to see labour relations as unimportant. In fact, they saw them as crucial to the operation of the plant, and the managers played a substantial role in decisions on personnel questions. They saw labour relations not in terms of overcoming union opposition, or even of formal institutions, stressing instead the involvement of individual employees. This article analyses these findings and raises some questions about the extent and depth of British management's commitment to this new style of labour relations.     

Management style and large scale survey evidence

In this article supposed differences in the way industrial relations is managed are examined in the light of evidence from the 1980 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The author, in considering the Survey's classification of management styles, finds little evidence to support the belief in distinctive differences in the way industrial relations is conducted.     

Integrating the Crisis Management Perspective into the Strategic Management Process

The fields of strategic management and crisis management have been evolving separately despite their potential for synergistic integration. This paper explicates how adding crisis management's defensive/preventative capability to strategic management's offensive market positioning orientation can yield a more comprehensive approach to the strategic management of organizations. The traditional strategic management process is reviewed first and then analysed with respect to the gap that exists in this orientation. Examining the differences and similarities in perspectives between strategic management and crisis management and then reviewing the crisis management process provides a basis to proceed with a synthesis of the two fields. The paper concludes with the presentation of a new integrated strategic management process model that pushes forward the boundaries of strategic management and internalizes crisis management activities into that process.     

Management by management

There is more to be lost through management's not doing its proper job than from encroachment from labor or government. When a manager abdicates his responsibilities, the result is a lack of balance in management style.     

The impact of EU accession on Turkish industrial relations and social dialogue

This article examines whether the European Union membership process is transforming the ‘deep structure’ of Turkish industrial relations. We make an attempt to illustrate this through the prism of Turkish experience in social dialogue regarded as an indispensable tool of the European social model. Turkish industrial relations is characterised by restrictive labour laws, employer hostility to unionisation, a large informal economy and labour market, and strong state intervention, which have historically constituted the main elements of ‘the deep structure’ of Turkish industrial relations. In procedural terms, the institutions for social dialogue have been established but the influence of the social partners is limited because of the dominance of the state and the weakness of labour. The existing attempts at developing social dialogue rest on shaky foundations emanating mostly from the state's and employers' disrespect of basic labour rights.     

US Multinationals: changing the framework of Irish industrial relations?

Traditionally it has been argued that the practices of multinationals conform to the industrial relations practices of the host country. Recent arguments claim that a new orthodoxy prevails which originates in the multi-national's country of origin. The authors find little evidence for a new orthodoxy in Irish industrial relations     

Start-up and ageing in greenfield sites

Greenfield sites are believed to be locations where a separate and distinct approach to the management of people can most easily and successfully be introduced. After discussing different definitions of greenfield sites and examining whether the ageing of greenfield sites should best be characterised as a dichotomy or a continuum, this paper presents a two-dimensional framework of analysis for the employee relations policy of new plants. This characterises greenfield sites and assists in judging the extent to which a strategic HR approach can be sustained. Drawing on eight case studies, the paper examines both the start-up and consolidation phases of new plant development. A number of factors which inhibit sustaining a strategic HR approach are examined, focusing on the tension between ideology and markets. The paper concludes that the four-quadrant matrix approach appears to help assess both the initial approach and management's ability to sustain this over time. Suggestions for further research to test the matrix are made.     

Learning from past mistakes? recent reforms in Italian industrial relations

Since the early 1990s, major reform efforts aimed at reducing industrial conflict, rationalising public sector labour relations, restructuring collective bargaining arrangements, and re-establishing tripartite ‘con-certation’ have transformed Italian industrial relations. This article argues that because these new reforms have been accompanied by significant shifts in both Italy's political system and the unions’ own organisation, they stand a better chance of succeeding than previous reform projects.