Persuasion and industrial relations: a case of argument in a joint consultative committee

As persuasion and argument are central to the processes of industrial relations this article makes a plea for a ‘rhetorical turn’ within industrial relations. Using Toulmin’s model of argument, it highlights the utility of such an approach through analysis of the argumentative nature of discussion within a JCC.     

The Only Way Is Up? Ordinary Topologies of Ramallah

This article seeks to conceptualize and value some of the quotidian geographies responsible for contemporary forms of urban change. The starting point for the argument is an attempt to account for recent urban change in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, particularly the proliferation of apartment buildings, using emerging work on verticality. It is argued that work on verticality focuses empirically on prominent cities and spaces of violent conflict, invokes the vertical as politically suspect and offers a theorization of space that is topographical in nature. Consequently, accounts of verticality have produced narratives that obscure topological spatial relations. This article seeks to make space for such topologies, which it is argued are crucial to producing urban and political life itself in many contexts. The concept of ordinary topologies is proposed as a means of attending to the complex and undervalued practices that are thought to be normal (but not static) and common within and across intensive or qualitative spatio‐temporal relations. This approach is fleshed out through a discussion of changing topographic–topological landscapes in Ramallah. In particular, it is argued that the increasingly verticalized landscape of the city, embodied in rapidly proliferating apartment buildings, must be understood in relation to frequent journeys to other places and changing family relations.     

Pluralism in retreat? A comparison of Irish and multinational manufacturing companies

Traditionally it has been argued that the industrial relations practices of multinational corporations tended to conform with the prevailing industrial relations practices of the host country. Recent arguments claim that this trend has now been reversed and a new orthodoxy prevails which originates in the multinational corporation's country of origin. Drawing on a sample of companies in the Irish manufacturing sector, this paper examines the extent of these changes through a comparison of indigenous and foreign companies. The evidence of change emerging from this survey does not fully support the hypothesis that the practices of multinationals are significantly different or that there is a new orthodoxy in industrial relations originating in the multinational sector. We suggest that the impetus for change in employment practices is not to be found in the multinational sector but in the dynamic nature of competitive markets and the increasingly international mobility of capital.     

The psychologisation of employment relations,alternative models of the employment relationship,and the OB turn

As part of this journal's provocation series, John Godard criticised the psychologisation of human resource management and expressed concern with the psychologisation of employment relations. This article uses four explicit frames of reference on the employment relationship to further explicate Godard's concern with the distancing of the field from questions about the structural nature of the employment relationship. This discussion is then extended to consider the magnifying implications of the turn within the field toward organisational behaviour research. Ultimately, the complexity of work and employment means that the field needs to be vigilant in embracing not only multidisciplinary but also multiperspective approaches rather than letting the field become excessively unitary.     

Places and Spaces: The Role of Metonymy in Organizational Talk

Cultural meaning making as reflected in, and constituted by, organizational talk is an established field of interest in organizational analysis. However, the discursive mechanics of the process whereby this cultural meaning making is created and maintained are less well understood. The premise of this paper is that taken‐for‐granted assumptions embedded in organizational talk can be explored through the analysis of metonymy, a trope which is under explored in the linguistic turn in organization studies. This lack of focus on metonymy is, we believe, related to the fundamentally conventional nature of the trope in use, which expresses ideas, values and relationships that seem natural, normal and routine but which are culturally bound. We address this gap and carry out a metonymical analysis of organizational talk about physical places and spaces in one organization, to show how cultural norms and meanings are reflected, maintained, and potentially changed in these figures of speech. We show how metonymic chains based on buildings can reflect, reify and simplify the symbolic order of the organization, how these symbolic meanings can be transferred on to other inanimate objects and the constructions thereby spread, how people can be constructed within this symbolic chain, and how these metonymic chains can be invoked to potentially confirm, challenge or change the organizational order.     

The Japanisation of British industry?

This article seeks to clarify the meaning of ‘Japanisation’ in the British economic context, and distinguishes at least three variants: direct, mediated and permeated or full. It is argued that a more satisfactory analysis needs to take account of the interrelationships between economic structures, economic systems, organisational units and employment practices.     

Flexibility and labour management: Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the 1990s

The rapid economic growth and structural reform that have taken place in China over the past two decades have had a substantial impact on the system of labour management in Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The purpose of this article is to document and analyse the nature of these changes in state-owned enterprises and joint venture companies. The effect of these changes on work relations, employment relations and industrial relations will form the basis of the analysis. The emphasis in the analysis will be on how work, employment and industrial relations have accommodated the demand for greater flexibility. Labour management in six manufacturing firms in the Shanghai region will be examined. This research is a pilot project for a larger-scale research in 1999. While no attempt is made to generalize the research findings, the research clarifies the extent and limits of flexibility in the current Chinese economy.     

Unequal and low pay in the public sector

This article assesses unequal and low pay in the public sector, and UNISON’s action on these issues. It is argued that gendered employment and pay are crucial to an understanding of sources of conflict and pressures for institutional change. The case is made for ‘mainstreaming’ women in accounts of public sector industrial relations.     

The psychological contract in Chinese-African informal labor relations

This qualitative study analyzes Chinese-Ghanaian employment in trade as an example of South-South cross-cultural labor relations. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, employment practices and labor conflicts are discussed with regard to psychological contract and equity. The analysis is guided by a process model of psychological contract that has been adjusted and extended in consideration of the dimensions of foreignness and cross-cultural communication. After briefly introducing the situation in Ghana we elaborate that under conditions of foreignness, employment relations are conflict prone because of contradictory equity expectations of employers and employees. We discuss how Ghanaian employees perceiving their psychological contract as violated attempt to restore equity by means of voice, silence, retreat or destruction and often fail due to lack of mutual cultural understanding between employers and employees. We conclude that exit in contrast to expectations is a viable option for employers rather than employees, but most employment relations, though defective, are perpetuated.     

Varieties of National Metonymy in Media Accounts of International Mergers and Acquisitions

International mergers and acquisitions (M&As) often invoke national identification and national cultural differences. We argue that metonymy is a central linguistic resource through which national cultural identities and differences are reproduced in media accounts of international M&As. In this paper, we focus on two revealing cases: the acquisition of American IBM Personal Computer Division (PCD) by the Chinese company Lenovo and the acquisition of American Anheuser‐Busch (A‐B) by the Belgian–Brazilian company InBev. First, we identify the forms, functions, and frequencies of national metonymy in media accounts of these cases. We present a typology that classifies varieties of national metonymy in international M&As. Second, we demonstrate how these metonyms combine with metaphor to generate evocative imagery, engaging wit, and subversive irony. Our findings show that national metonymy contributes to the construction of emotive frames, stereotypes, ideological differences, and threats. Combinations of national metonymy with metaphor also provide powerful means to construct cultural differences. However, combinations of metonymy with wit and irony enable the play on meanings that overturns and resists national and cultural stereotypes. This is the first study to unpack the deployment of metonymy in accounts of international M&As. In doing so, it also opens up new avenues for research into international management and the analysis of tropes in management and organization.     

Multinationals and changing national business systems in Europe: towards the ‘shareholder value’ model?

This article reviews recent development in employment relations in MNCs, within the context of the varied and changing business systems within Western Europe. Focusing on Germany, France, Sweden and the UK, we analyse both the effects of national corporate governance systems on MNCs, and the extent to which MNCs specifically, and globalisation more widely, have affected the nature of national business and employment systems. While elements of a move towards a more ‘Anglo‐Saxon’, economically liberal model of corporate governance and employment relations can be detected in all four countries, this is far from complete. Cross‐national differences in business systems within Europe therefore continue to exert effects upon MNCs.     

Employment relations in small- and medium-sized enterprises: insights from Ghana

This study examines employment relations in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. This is done through in-depth case studies of three private firms in the service sector. A review of the extant literature on SMEs revealed a dearth of knowledge on employment relations in SMEs in Africa. Previous research into SMEs in developing countries – and Africa in particular – has focused on economic policy initiatives, problems in raising capital and obstacles to the development of SMEs. In an attempt to fill the gap in the literature, this study uses recruitment, selection and retention, remuneration, discipline and welfare practices to explore the nature of employment relations, the factors that influence and shape them, and the extent of informality involved. The findings cast doubt on the stereotype: small implies/equals informal employment relations in SMEs in Ghana. The study also identifies the factors that influence employment relations and, in addition, reveals that under competitive pressures, SMEs have developed employment relations systems that enable them to have a competitive advantage in their product market/service delivery.     

The Economic Deterioration of the Family: Historical Contingencies Preceding the Great Recession

The “Great Recession” in the United States exposed contradictions between the economic well‐being of families and capital that developed in the decades prior to this latest downturn. Using social structure of accumulation theory, a qualitative institutional analysis, and quantitative time‐series models, this article investigates historically contingent relations between the nature of public assistance, family economic deterioration, and capital accumulation. To sustain the circuit of capital, I argue that the family propped up economic growth first through public cash assistance and then through private expenditures, the latter of which lead to the economic deterioration of families dependent on unprecedented levels of debt.     

Customers,competitors and choice: employee relations in food retailing

This article examines the nature of employee relations in three of the leading food retailers in the UK. It compares and contrasts policies and practices by analysing the links between product markets, management choice, and employee relations. Special reference is made to features of work relations, employment relations, and industrial relations     

Assessing the Cross-Sex Validity of the Goldthorpe Class Schema Using Log-linear Models with Latent Variables

In this paper we use log-linear models with latent variables to estimate and compare the structure of job characteristics and their relation to positions in the Goldthorpe class schema for male and female employees. We proceed by estimating latent class models of job attributes and then evaluate the degree of similarity in these models between men and women. Sex differences in the patterns of association between the various latent types of job attribute and between those attributes and the Goldthorpe class schema are then assessed. The structure of job attributes is found to be generally similar for men and women; and the Goldthorpe schema is shown to be a similarly effective predictor of these attributes for both sexes. The class structure of employment relations is therefore argued to be equivalent across the sexes, so confirming the generality of class relations as conceptualised by Goldthorpe and his colleagues.     

The psychologisation of employment relations?

This article argues that HRM is by nature a multidisciplinary subject area, and that it has traditionally been closely associated with the field of industrial relations (IR). However, it appears to have increasingly been taken over by industrial and organisational (I‐O) psychology, and in the process increasingly associated with organisational behaviour, which has also been taken over by I‐O psychology. Coupled with the narrowing and marginalisation of IR, this has meant an increasing ‘psychologisation’ not only of the study of HRM, but of the study of employment relations in general. This article discusses why this appears to have been happening, what its implications might be and what (if anything) might be done about it. Focus is on developments within North America, although the issues raised apply, perhaps, to different degrees, across liberal market countries and possibly beyond.     

Towards a Theory of Organizational Improvisation: Looking Beyond the Jazz Metaphor

abstract This paper calls for research on organizational improvisation to go beyond the currently dominant jazz metaphor in theory development. We recognize the important contribution that jazz improvisation has made and will no doubt continue to make in understanding the nature and complexity of organizational improvisation. This article therefore presents some key lessons from the jazz metaphor and then proceeds to identify the possible dangers of building scientific inquiry upon a single metaphor. We then present three alternative models – Indian music, music therapy and role theory. We explore their nature and seek to identify ways in which the insights they generate complement those from jazz. This leads us to a better understanding of the challenges of building a theory of organizational improvisation.     

From Dramaturgy to Theatre as Technology: The Case of Corporate Theatre*

ABSTRACT This article examines a piece of corporate theatre. Although theatre has entered organization studies through the dramatistic writing of Kenneth Burke and the dramaturgical writings of Erving Goffman, this article is concerned with an approach variously described as organizational, radical, situation or corporate theatre that treats theatre not primarily as a resource, an ontology or a metaphor but as a technology. This approach involves the deployment by an organization of dramatists, actors, directors, set designers, lighting specialists, and musicians to put on performances in front of audiences. Using frameworks derived from studies of theatre a particular piece of corporate theatre is described and analysed. It is argued that this form of theatre appears to be used to contain reflection and to promote the views of a particular group within an organization. It does not confront an audience but subtly suggests alternative ways of evaluating, construing and understanding issues. This may be achieved by anaesthetizing audience reaction by encouraging imaginative participation in the performance so that cherished beliefs and values do not appear to be directly challenged.     

Understanding the employment relationship: markets,hierarchies and power

The employment relationship is fiercely contested both in theory and practice. This article examines recent theoretical initiatives in economics that have sought to illuminate the nature, specificity, and complexities of the employment relationship. It examines claims by proponents of the new institutional economics (NIE) that they can account for the historical emergence of authority relations and the dominance of hierarchical work organisations without reference to the forces of class power, coercion and labour subordination. The NIE is contrasted with the ‘old’ institutional economics (OIE) and the distinctive insights of an industrial relations perspective. The paper considers in conclusion whether a synthesis of NIE and industrial relations research would achieve a deeper understanding of the institutional forms of wage‐labour in contemporary capitalist economies.