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.     

Human resource management and industrial relations in European companies

The paper explores the different patterns of labour relations in European companies. It is based on comparative research carried out in fifteen companies in Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain. ^{1 1}This paper is based on a comparative research study conducted in 1991 in fififteen industrial companies in Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain. The research team consisted of Paolo Perulli and Ida Regalia (Italy), Alain Lipietz (France), Bruno Cattero (Germany), Paul Marignson (Great Britain) and Fausto Miguelez (Spain). In each country, three case studies were made of companies in thse chemical, food-procesing and engineering industries. Interviews were conducted with the company management as well as with workers' representatives and trade unionists. Of course, this methodology does not allow us to gen eralize our findings, even less to compare national or sectoral patterns. What it does allow us to do, however, is, first, to sugest hypotheses on common trends and major differnces by using the cases studied as anecdotal evidence; second, it allows us to show how apparently similar patterns of personnel management and of labour relations display different features im different cases; third, it enables us to see whether some of these features are systematically asociateed with other variables. View all notesIn each country, three companies in the chemical, food-processing and engineering industries have been studied, through interviews with the company management as well as with workers' representatives.

The starting point is the observation that employers' policies of Jabour relations are today more differentiated than in the recent past: while many employers tend to involve unions in the re-organization of work, have frequent meetings with them and grant them full recognition, others pursue more unilateral paths to industrial adjustment and others still adopt a mixed policy of union involvement on some issues or for some categories of workers and of individual bargaining on others.

An analysis of the major differences among the companies studied is then developed by illustrating three types of choices that managers have to make. The first concerns the extension of the involvement of workers' representatives in decisions. The second has to do with the use of direct relationships with individual workers, as an attempt to bypass the unions or simply as a new method to increase the overall information and communication. The third alternative regards the degree of homogeneity in the management of human resources, in which some rules and advantages may apply to either the whole labour force or some professional (and possibly age or gender) groups only.

In the final section, some possible determinants of the differences in employers' strategies of labour regulation between firms and countries are examined. Special attention is paid to two institutional factors: the role of legal rights to information, consultation and negotiation in different national contexts, and the type of workers' representatives which are present in the companies.     

Trends and developments in east central European industrial relations

This article overviews developments in industrial relations in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland since the fall of the communist regimes in 1989, and assesses the extent to which key developments in these countries reflect both change and continuity from the communist period. We explore the four main institutions through which industrial relations have been conducted: trades unions, workers’ councils, employer organisations, and the tripartite arrangements involving representatives of unions and employers with the state.     

Ownership nationality and industrial relations practices in British non-manufacturing industries

This article reports that foreign-owned plants in non-manufacturing in Britain display the same personnel management style as those in manufacturing with a greater commitment of resources to personnel management, more systemic labour deployment and higher pay levels than their British counterparts.     

The study of management in British industrial relations *

In this article the author gives a general overview of the study of management in industrial relations and examines the assumptions underlying the increased attention being given to management by industrial relations specialists.     

Citizenship and industrial relations

Under the Victorian ideal of laissez-faire, industrial relations are conducted unilaterally by employers unimpeded by employees' rights of citizenship. The four facets of citizenship—civil, political, industrial, and social—impinge in a variety of ways on the employment relationship. Civil citizenship, by barring discrimination on account of race or sex, interferes with maintenance of segregated pools of cheap secondary labor. Political citizenship enfranchises propertyless workers and alters the enactments of legislatures. Industrial citizenship creates the institutional basis for collective bargaining. Social citizenship confers economic benefits and protective regulations not driven directly by market forces. Political ascendancy of laissez-faire advocates undermines rights of citizenship and has a retrograde effect on industrial relations.This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the First Industrial Relations Congress of the Americans in Quebec City to the Study Group on Industrial Relations as a Field and Industrial Relations Theory on August 27, 1988. I thank Jack Barbash for the opportunity to present it there.     

Microchips and industrial relations

Microelectronics may be precipitating another industrial revolution. Greg Bamber considers relevant public policies in several countries. He identifies the likely issues of conflict and concludes that Britain should set up an Agency for New Technology to spearhead more positive government action, which could help to induce a climate of high trust at the workplace.     

Spatialising industrial relations

In this article, we argue for a deeper and more theoretically informed engagement between the fields of industrial relations and geography. We lay out a number of concepts developed more fully by geographers and show, through four vignettes, how such concepts can add to our understanding of industrial relations practices.     

Trends and developments in industrial relations and industrial relations law: Trade union discipline and non-strikers

Perhaps the most controversial change introduced in the 1988 Employment Act was the statutory right given to union members not to be disciplined by their unions for continuing to work during lawful industrial action approved by a majority in a secret ballot. Here the authors examine the legal contexts, implications for trade unions and the wider industrial relations and political significance of this important new right.     

Evaluating change in European industrial relations: research evidence on trends at organizational level

This paper uses evidence from organizations with more than 200 employees in several countries across Europe to explore the proposition that industrial relations in Europe is becoming more convergent around a non-union HRM model. The evidence indicates that, although there are some similar moves taking place, national patterns remain distinctive, the IR/HRM distinction may not be sustainable in Europe and there are significant elements of continuity in industrial relations in Europe alongside the changes that are taking place.     

Power in industrial relations research

Power is a concept which is much discussed but seldom properly understood, not least in industrial relations theorising. Here the author outlines the role of power in the context of several recent studies which have focused explicitly on the concept of power in industrial relations.     

The industrial relations of work-sharing

There is growing recognition in Britain that high levels of unemployment are likely to survive the current recession and economic policies. This explains the continuing interest in the work-sharing issue within British unions; this article examines some of the industrial relations issues and implications of the practice.     

The wildcat strike and industrial relations*

Institutionalised collective bargaining can be seen as a limited vehicle for the promotion of workers' demands. This detailed participantobserver case study in a plant in northern New Jersey describes the process of a wildcat strike and evaluates its efficacy as a means of advancing important aspects of workers' interests outside the conventional, institutional channels.     

An industrial relations perspective on the high-performance paradigm

Recent studies have suggested that various human resource management (HRM) practices are associated with enhanced economic performance in organizations. This research has led to what we call the high-performance paradigm, a belief that firms can improve performance by adopting certain high-performance work practices (HPWP). We apply an industrial relations (IR) perspective to the high-performance paradigm to extend the insights of HRM studies. After identifying how the perspective typically adopted in IR research differs from that used by HRM researchers, we briefly review the literature on HPWPs, identify limitations in the existing research approach, and suggest issues and areas for future research. In general, we suggest that research on HPWPs has made a valuable contribution to the literature. We urge HRM researchers, however, to devote more attention to underlying conflicts at work, focus more explicitly on the implications of new forms of work for workers, and pay greater attention to the role that cultural forces, unions, and governments play in shaping the workplace.