The Changing Systems of British Industrial Relations, 1954–1979: Hugh Clegg and the Warwick Sociological Turn

With hindsight, the appointment of Richard Hyman to the Warwick Industrial Relations (IR) group marked a new direction for the academic field. The 1960s Oxford IR group had already begun to borrow from sociological research to better understand and reform the workplace. Alan Fox was emerging as a sociologist. However, it was only after Hugh Clegg had established the Warwick Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) that workplace sociology became a fully indigenous part of British IR, illustrated by both Hyman's Marxist analysis and Eric Batstone's qualitative factory studies. This article charts the development of Oxford/Warwick social science through the shifting content of the three ‘System’ texts. IR pluralism proved unsuccessful as public policy reform, but Clegg's Warwick research programme fostered a theoretical and empirical engagement between pluralism and radical sociology that revitalized the field. Alongside Clegg's post‐Donovan determination to study management, this new intellectual dynamic facilitated the 1980s emergence of a sceptical and empirical tradition of IR‐shaped HRM in British business schools.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed: Mark Cully, Stephen Woodland, Andrew O’Reilly, and Gill Dix, Britain at Work, as Depicted by the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey Neil Millward, Alex Bryson, and John Forth, All Change at Work? British Employment Relations 1980–1998, as portrayed by the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey Series     

Workplace Industrial Relations under Different Regulatory Systems: A Survey-Based Comparison of Australia and Britain

The focus of the paper is upon the extent to which different national regulatory systems give rise to different institutions and outcomes at the workplace. It uses data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and the third British Workplace Industrial Relations Survey to examine a number of hypotheses which suggest that the different regulatory systems of these countries have produced distinct patterns of industrial relations at the workplace. It is concluded that, while there is substantial evidence that the countries' different regulatory systems have had distinct effect on industrial relations institutions and outcomes, these are not as straight forward as earlier work has suggested.     

Research Note: Identifying the Invisible Colleges of the British Journal of Industrial Relations: A Bibliometric and Social Network Approach

The academic field of industrial relations has gone through much change in the last 20 years. On account of the rapid decline in union membership in the USA and the UK, industrial relations, which historically has focused on the employment relationship, has been searching for a new intellectual base. By conducting a bibliometric analysis of the journal British Journal of Industrial Relations (BJIR), we uncover the intellectual bases for that publication outlet for two time periods, 1986–1995 and 1996–2005. From the late 1980s to the mid‐1990s, BJIR's articles relied on the economics literature, while in the later period, it moved to the human resource and management journals, authors and articles. The possible explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Selected by the Institute of Industrial Relations Library University of California at berkely

Cold war in the working class: the rise and decline of the United Electrical workers. By Ronald L. Filippelli and Mark D. McColloch. Common Sense for Uncommon Times: The Power of Balance in Work, Family, and Personal Life. By Mark S. Guterman. From Downsizing to Recovery: Strategic Use of the Outplacement Option. By Richard Knowdell, Elizabeth Branstead, and Milan Moravec. Heroes of Unwritten Story: The UAW, 1934–39. By Henry Fruas. Internal Company Investigations and the Employment Relationship. By Warren Freedman. Labor Economics and Industrial Relations: Markets and Institutions. Edited by Clark Kerr and Paul D. Staudohar. New Frontiers in European Industrial Relations. Edited by Anthony Ferner and Richard Hyman. The New Left and Labor in the 1960s. By Peter B. Levy. Roberts' Dictionary of Industrial Relations. Prepared by the Industrial Relations Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Joyce M. Najita, Director. Studies in Labour Economics. Edited by Erkin I. Bairam. Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politicsl 1863–1993. By Eric Arnesen.     

Why a New Journal?

Speaking both personally and officially, I am delighted to salute the appearance of this first issue of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. Since my service as the first Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations at Berkeley, I have retained a close personal attachment to the Institute and a sense of pride in its growing record of accomplishment. And because I am a student in the industrial relations field, I can speak with some personal conviction of the great need for this type of publication. As President of the University of California, I am pleased to see this new venture undertaken by the Institute of Industrial Relations, one of the University’s many important research and service organizations. The publication of new knowledge, insight, and scholarly speculation is an essential part of the advancement of learning. The free marketplace of ideas cannot operate effectively without the avenues of communication provided by the scholarly journals which serve every field of research. I am sure that Industrial Relations will prove a stimulating vehicle for the exchange and development of ideas about a highly significant segment of modern industrial society.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: SOGAT: A History of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades by John Gennard and Peter Bain Review of Full Employment Regained? An Agathotopian Dream by J. E. Meade, with a foreword by Robert M. Solow The Future of Employment Relations by P. B. Beaumont Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice in Britain edited by Paul Edwards Contemporary British Industrial Relations, 2nd edn, by Sid Kessler and Fred Bayliss Difference and Changes in Wage Structures edited by Richard B. Freeman and Lawrence F. Katz Industrial Relations in Schools by Mike Ironside and Roger Seifert Public Sector Collective Bargaining in Canada edited by Gene Swimmer and Mark Thompson The Politics of Bargaining: The Merger Process and British Trade Union Structural Development 1892–1987 by Jeremy Waddington Just the Job: A Consultation Document on the Future of Employment Law.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Union of Parts: Labor Politics in Postwar Germany by Kathleen A. Thelen British Industrial Relations, 2nd edn, by Howard F. Gospel and Gill Palmer Prices, Quality and Trust: Inter-Firm Relations in Britain and Japan by Mari Sako Technology and Work in German Industry edited by Norbert Altmann, Christoph Kohler and Pamela Meil Labour in Transition: The Labour Process in Eastern Europe and China edited by Chris Smith and Paul Thompson. Investment and Property Rights in Yugoslavia: The Long Transition to a Market Economy by Milica Uvali? Understanding Industrial Organizations: Theoretical Perspectives in Industrial Sociology by Richard K. Brown Managing the Shopfloor: Subjectivity, Masculinity and Workplace Culture by David Collinson. Walter de Gruyter Social Corporatism: A Superior Economic System edited by Jukka Pekkarinen, Matti Pohjola and Bob Rowthorn. Rethinking Labour-Management Relations: The Case for Arbitration by Christopher J. Bruce and Jo Carby-Hall Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Great Britain, 2nd edn, by Bob Hepple and Sandra Fredman Industrial Relations and European State Traditions by Colin Crouch     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: The Power to Manage? Employers and Industrial Relations in Comparative-Historical Perspective edited by Steven Tolliday and Jonathan Zeitlin. Comparative Industrial Relations: Contemporary Research and Theory edited by Roy J. Adams A Flexible Future? Prospects for Employment and Organisation edited by Paul Blyton and Jonathan Morris Life and Death at Work: Industrial Accidents as a Case of Socially Produced Error by Tom Dwyer Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation by Gideon Kunda Japan and the Global Economy: Issues and Trends in the 1990s edited by Jonathan Morris. Designing Organizations: A Decision-Making Perspective by Richard Butler. Routledge Rethinking Organization: New Directions in Organization Theory and Analysis edited by Michael Reed and Michael Hughes The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis edited by Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio Contemporary British Industrial Relations by Sid Kessler and Fred Bayliss Taming the Trade Unions: A Guide to the Thatcher Government's Employment Reforms, 1980-90 by Charles G. Hanson, Macmillan Helping the Unemployed by R. Disney The Economy under Mrs Thatcher 1979–1990 by Christopher Johnson International Comparisons of Vocational Education and Training for Intermediate Skills edited by Paul Ryan     

Unions and Employment Growth: The Canadian Experience

Using panel data from the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey, the union effect on employment growth is examined. In line with previous North American findings, private sector unions are found to slow employment growth by approximately 2.2 percent per annum. This study is modeled after two recent articles published in this journal; one using the Australian Workplace and Industrial Relations Survey and a subsequent article using the British Workplace and Industrial/Employee Relations Survey.     

The Determinants of Performance Appraisal Systems: A Note (Do Brown and Heywood's Results for Australia Hold Up for Britain?)

This article offers a replication for Britain of Brown and Heywood's analysis of the determinants of performance appraisal in Australia. Although there are some important limiting differences between our two datasets — the Australia Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) and the Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) — we reach one central point of agreement and one intriguing shared insight. First, performance appraisal is negatively associated with tenure: where employers cannot rely on the carrot of deferred pay or the stick of dismissal to motivate workers, they will tend to rely more on monitoring, ceteris paribus. Second, employer monitoring and performance pay may be complementary. However, consonant with the disparate results from the wider literature, there is more modest agreement on the contribution of specific human resource management practices, and still less on the role of job control.     

French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy – Nick Parsons

Books reviewed: French Industrial Relations in the New World Economy by Nick Parsons. Routledge, London and New York, 2005, xii + 222 pp., ISBN 0 415368529, £75.00.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Policing Industrial Disputes: 1893–1985 , by Roger Geary
The Price of Industrial Labor , by J. E. Annable
The Performance of Labour-Managed Firms , edited by Frank H. Stephen
Comparative Industrial Relations: An Introduction to Cross-National Perspectives , by R. Bean
Directors of Industry: The British Corporate Network 1904–1976 , by John Scott and Catherine Griff
Skilled Workers in the Class Structure , by Roger Penn
Capitalism, class conflict and the new middle class , by Bob Carter
Improving Industrial Relations - The Advisory Role of ACAS by Eric Armstrong and Rosemary Lucas
The Information Technology Revolution , edited by Tom Forester
A Textbook of Industrial Relations Management , by George Thomason
The Industrial Relations Position of Foreign-Owned Firms in Britain , by Peter J. Buckley and Peter Enderwick
Fighting Closures: De-industrialization and the Trade Unions, 1979–1983 , edited by Hugo Levie, Denis Gregory and Nick Lorentzen
Ballots and Union Democracy , by Roger Undy and Roderick Martin     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: British Industrial Relations, by Gill Palmer, Allen and Unwin Industrial Relations in Britain, edited by George Sayers Bain Unemployment: Cuuse and Cure by Patrick Minford Developments in Labour Market Analysis, by C. Joll, C. McKenna. R. McNabb and J. Shorey, George Allen & Unwin Managerial Strategies and Industrial Relations, edited by Howard F. Gospel and Craig R. Littler. White-Collar Unionism, by K. Prandy. A. Stewart and R.M. Blackburn The Democratic Class Struggle, by Walter Korpi Routledge and Kegan Capitalism, the State and Industrial Relations by Dominic Strinati     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Origins of Trade Union Power, by Henry Phelps Brown Why are the British Bad at Munufucturing, by Karel Williams, John Williams and Dennis Thomes Strikes in Post-War Britain: A Study of Stoppages of Work due to Industrial Disputes. 1948-73, by J.W. Durcan. W.E.J. McCarthy and C.P. Redman Strikes in Europe and the United States: Munugernent cind Incidence, by Kenneth Walsh. British Trade Unionism against the Trades Union Congress, by Gerald A. Dorfman Contemporary Industrial Relations in Japan, edited by T. Shirai. Understanding Industrial Relations by David Farnham & John Pimlott Kahn-Freund's Labour and the Law, by Paul Davies and Mark Freedland. International Yearbook of Organizational Democracy, Volume I, Organizational Democracy and Political Processes, edited by Colin Crouch and Frank A. Heller The Nature of Work. An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process. by Paul Thompson. Discriminaiion and Disadvantage in Employment: The Experience of Black Workers. edited by P. Braham, E. Rhodes and M. Pearn.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: The New American Workplace by Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt Working under Different Rules edited by Richard B. Freeman Social Change and the Experience of Unemployment, edited by Duncan Gallie, Catherine Marsh and Carolyn Vogler Gender and Racial Inequality at Work: The Sources and Consequences of Job Segregation by Donald Tomaskovic-Devey Comparable Worth: Is It a Worthy Policy? by Elaine Sorensen Women and Unions: Forging a Partnership edited by Dorothy Sue Cobble. Pay Equity — Just Wages for Women? by Aileen McColgan Male-Female Wage Differences: Analysis and Policy Issues by Tim Callan and Anne Wren The Origins and Evolution of the Field of Industrial Relations in the United States by Bruce E. Kaufman Industrial Relations Theory: Its Nature, Scope and Pedagogy edited by Roy J. Adams and Noah M. Meltz Key Reviews in Managerial Psychology edited by Cary Cooper and Ivan Robertson The Return to Incomes Policy edited by Ronald Dore, Robert Boyer, and Zoe Mars Case Studies in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, 2nd edn, edited by Dan Gowler, Karen Legge and Chris Clegg Total Quality and Human Resources: An Executive Guide by Barrie Dale and Cary Cooper The UK Labour Market: Comparative Aspects and Institutional Developments edited by Ray Barrell Economies of Signs and Space by Scott Lash and John Urry     

Varieties of Industrial Relations Research: Take‐over,Convergence or Divergence?

Industrial relations (IR) research faces various pressures of internationalization. Not only do global economic forces increasingly shape the subject of the discipline, employment relations, but also the academic community itself is becoming more international. The article discusses whether and in what ways IR research is affected by these trends. It is based on a comparative, longitudinal study of journal publications in the USA, Britain and Germany. The findings reveal significantly different patterns of IR research across the three countries. In particular, the strong variation between US and British research patterns challenges the common notion of a homogeneous Anglo‐Saxon style in conducting social science research. The analysis suggests that despite growing internationalization, IR research continues to be strongly embedded in nationally specific research cultures and traditions.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Delusion oflncomes Policy, by Samuel Brittan and Peter Lilley
Power, Authoriry and Restrictive Practices: A Sociological Essay on Industrial Relations, by Alan Aldridge
The Ideology of Work, by P. D. Anthony
Woman at Work, by L. Mackie and P. Pattullo
The Post Ofice Engineering Union, by Frank Bealey
Shop Stewards en Arbeiderszeggenschap: Een Onderzoek naar Arbeidersverhoudingen in de Britse Metaalverwerkende Industrie, 1830-1 975, by M. J. Huiskamp. Samson
Industrial Relations in West Germany, by T. Sullivan
The Emerging European Enterprise, by Gareth P. Dyas and Heinz T. Thanheiser. Macmillan
Organisation Behaviour in its Context, The Aston Studies Volume 111, by D. S. Pugh and R. Payne
Critical Issues in Organisations, by S. Clegg and D. Dunkerley     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
The State and the Unions: Labor Relations, Law and the Organized Labor Movement in America, 1880–1960 by Christoper L. Tomlins
A History of British Trade Unions since 1889 Vol II 1911–1933 by H. A. Clegg
History and Heritage by Alan Fox
Man Mismanagement by Alan Fox.
Casual Labour: The Unemployment Question in the Port Transport Industry 1880–1970 by Gordon Phillips and Noel Whiteside
Employee Relations Bibliography & Abstracts edited and compiled by Arthur Marsh.
Dismissed by L. Dickens, M. Jones, B. Weekes and M. Hart
The Future of the Automobile. The Report of MITs International Automobile Program , (1984), by Alan Altshuler
Innovation and Management Control: Labour Relations at BL Cars (1984), by Paul Willman and Graham Winch
Consent and Efficiency: Labour Relations and Management Strategy in the State Enterprise by Eric Batstone, Anthony Ferner and Michael Terry
Women's Working Lives: Patterns and Strategies by S. Yeandle
Women's Work Histories: An Analysis of the Women and Employment Survey by S. Dex.
The Sexual Division of Work by S. Dex
Industrial Relations in Latin America by Efrén Córdova
Disorganised Capitalism: Contemporary Transformations of Work and Politics by Claus Offe
Industrial Realtions and the Law in the 1980s: Issues and Future Trends , edited by Patricia Fosh and Craig R. Littler     

Selected by the Institute of Industrial Relations Liberary University of California at Berkeley

Catching the Wave: Workplace Reform in Australia. By John Mathews. Comparable Worth and Gender Discrimination: An International Perspective. By Morley Gunderson. Cooper Crucible: How the Arizona Miner's Strike of 1983 Recast Labor-Management Relations in America. By Jonathan D. Rosenblum. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Issues and Strategies. By George Henderson. The Employer's Legal Handbook. By Fred S. Steingold. The Future of Industrial Relations: Global Change and Challenges. By John Niland, Chrissie Verevis, and Russell D. Lansbury. Labor and Community: Mexican Citrus Worker Villages in a Southern California County, 1900–1950. By Gilbert G. Gonzalez. Labor Arbitration: An Annotated Bibliography. Edited by Charles J. Coleman and theodora T. Haynes. Labour's Dilemma: The Gender Politics of Auto Workers in Canada, 1937-79. By Pamela Sugiman. The Promise of Mediation: Responding to Conflict through Empowerment and Recognition. By Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger. Ranbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s. By George Lipsitz. Success While Others Fail: Social Movement Unionism and the Public Workplace. By Paul Johnston. Trade Union Growth and Decline: An International Study. By Walter Galenson.