Privatization, Markets and Industrial Relations in China

Within a context of gradual privatization and rapid marketization in China, this paper draws on detailed research of the perceived impact these have had on the work, status and attitudes of different industrial relations 'actors' within seven enterprises in Guangdong and Shanghai in 1998–9. It will be shown that the main pressure for tightening control over the workplace has come from the development of markets and that privatization has had important but limited catalytic effect in this process. Considerable internal and external constraints restrict the impact of privatization, which stem from China's continued ambivalence towards capitalist market relations.     

Collective Bargaining as Industrial Democracy: Hugh Clegg and the Political Foundations of British Industrial Relations Pluralism

Hugh Clegg and Allan Flanders are generally recognized as the founding fathers of postwar British academic Industrial Relations (IR). While Flanders is regarded as the chief ‘theorist’ of pluralism, Clegg’s own contribution is seen mainly in terms of his empirical research and public policy work: as the author of numerous detailed studies and the field’s major textbook, the first Director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit at the University of Warwick, a member of the Donovan Commission and many other enquiries. Indeed, Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining (1976) is often regarded as Clegg’s one and only foray into IR theory. This paper explores Clegg’s largely forgotten early writing on industrial democracy to argue that he made a critical, independent theoretical contribution to the British IR paradigm.     

Industrial Relations and Economic Performance

Postwar concern about our industrial relations system has been dominated by three issues: pay; performance at workplace, company and national level; and industrial action. In each case the focus of interest is the link between the institutions, procedures and processes of the system and the outcomes that it generates. This paper evaluates evidence on these three issues for the last quarter-century, since the publication of the Donovan Report in 1968. Special attention is given to information from successive WIRSs. The evidence suggests that (i) industrial action is of minor importance; (ii) the industrial relations system can no longer be held to stymie company performance; (iii) the pay-jobs trade-off is as intractable as ever.     

Interests, Institutions and Industrial Relations

In the comparative politics literature there are two main approaches to the impact of international economic change on national policy patterns. The first — new institutionalism — has been very influential in comparative industrial relations scholarship. The second, which focuses on the role of interests, has been less prominent. Comparing industrial relations reform in Australia and New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, this paper argues that there are a number of limitations to an institutionalist approach and outlines a framework for the comparative study of the impact of international economic change on national patterns of industrial relations which integrates both institutionalist and interest‐based approaches.     

Recent Developments in US Industrial Relations

The persistence of economic pressures that first challenged American industry in the 1970s continues to reshape US industrial relations. In an effort to maintain their competitiveness, US firms have developed a panoply of strategies ranging from confrontation and labour control to collaboration and employee empowerment. This essay reviews evidence relating to the development and diffusion of these alternative strategies and their implications for long-term US competitiveness. In this context, the recent work of Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations is discussed as well as a number of public policy options intended to facilitate the implementation of high value-added production systems. The essay concludes with a discussion of the implications of recent trends for industrial relations research.     

Feminism Facing Industrial Relations in Britain

This is an opportune time to renegotiate the boundaries between industrial relations theory and feminist analysis in Britain. Such a bargain would involve going beyond an agreement to add 'women's issues' to the research agenda, to a recognition of the gendered character of employment relations and of work itself. The formal institutions involved, namely, management, trade unions and the state, cannot be treated as gender‐neutral. Further, the very way industrial relations scholars define what is 'inside' the industrial relations system and what is 'outside' reflects masculine priorities and privilege.