Culture and workplace industrial relations: a Nigerian study

Although much interest is being directed towards the study of cultural influences on management and organisation, little attention is given to the effect of these influences on workplace industrial relations. This article reports the findings of a study based on two textile factories from the Hausa and two from the Ibo cultural groups in Nigeria.     

Corporate governance and workplace employment relations: the potential of WERS 2004

The relationship between corporate governance and workplace employment relations is reviewed drawing on the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004. The paper reviews recent analysis and policy developments, and then considers the contribution of earlier WERS‐based research on this topic. The innovations in WERS 2004 are outlined, and it is suggested these provide several opportunities for further analysis in this area. The paper then presents an illustrative example of the use of WERS 2004, and concludes with recommendations for further changes in future WERS surveys.     

A mutual gains perspective on workplace partnership: Employee outcomes and the mediating role of the employment relations climate

Recent years have witnessed increased research on the role of workplace partnership in promoting positive employment relations. However, there has been little quantitative analysis of the partnership experiences of employees. This article examines how the kinds of attributions employees make regarding indirect (union‐based) and direct (non‐union‐based) employee participation in workplace partnership might influence the process of mutual gains. It uses employee outcomes to reflect partnership gains for all stakeholders involved (i.e. employees, employers and trade unions). The article contributes to existing knowledge of workplace partnership by examining the potential role of the employment relations climate as an enabling mechanism for the process of mutual gains. The findings suggest mutual gains for all stakeholders are varied and mediated through the employment relations climate.     

Strike and changing workplace relations in a Chinese global factory

This article engages with the debate around global capitalism and labour politics in the context of China. Data were drawn from fieldwork on a Taiwanese‐invested factory, where a strike was staged in 2004 spreading from one department to the whole factory. After it ended, the protest encouraged further struggles in the factory and inspired workers in other factories. While the original‐place‐based networks and their attached gangsters had previously divided and pacified workers, the function of place‐based networks and gangsters were dramatically changed in favour of the workers' interests during the strike. The author further argues that the expansion of capitalism in China has raised the marketplace and workplace power of workers but their associational power is impeded by the state socialist legacy.     

Business education and employment relations: the case of Germany

Here the author discusses the interrelationship between the university teaching of business economics and management practice in employment relations in Germany. It concludes that they are mutually supportive. In particular, the educational philosophy is very conducive to the adoption of a human resource management approach.     

Workplace unions and workplace industrial relations: the Italian experience

An examination of the Italian system of workplace trade unionism and industrial relations reveals an interaction of legal protection and union and managerial behaviour that has contributed to the rapid development of local bargaining. Both this and the recent problems of union representativeness have implications for British students.     

就业需求与工业化相互关系的实证研究

长期以来,工业化文献中多数从供给的角度强调资本是解决工业化问题的决定作用,忽视市场需求约束,把欠发达国家视作天然的萨伊法则统治的古典世界,刘易斯(1989)指出经济发展理论的中心问题是要理解一个社会由原先储蓄和投资还不到国民收入的4％-5％转变为自愿的储蓄达到国民收入12％～15％以上的这个过程,而随着发展中国家出现了大量过剩的生产能力,学者们开始探索发展     

Regulating employment conditions in a hospital network: the case of the Private Finance Initiative

A key component of the UK government's modernisation agenda has been encouragement of public–private partnerships to enhance public service delivery. In contrast to adversarial forms of contracting out associated with the degradation of employment conditions, public–private partnerships are intended to deliver mutual gains and empower the workforce. These degradation and empowerment interpretations concentrate on developments at the workplace. In this article, we develop a third interpretation of the consequences of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which links workplace practice to state regulation, highlighting the growing importance of state re-regulation and the contradictory effects on the workforce. Drawing on a case study of a large acute hospital PFI scheme, we highlight the degree of re-regulation of employment conditions that has been necessary to make PFI more palatable to the workforce and trade unions. These measures have fostered blended outcomes for the workforce.     

Multiple foci of commitment in a professional service firm: balancing complex employment relations

Employees of professional service firms (PSFs) have attachments to multiple groups, which may be either compatible or conflicting: their employer, their clients and their profession. We analyse the antecedents of commitment to these three foci based on a survey of 510 employees in a large PSF in Norway. The main findings are as follows: (1) low quality of internal work relations is negatively associated with employer commitment and draws employees towards external foci of commitment – the clients and the profession; (2) role conflict is associated with stronger commitment to the client organisation and the profession; and (3) autonomy and transferability of skills are associated with stronger commitment to the profession, but does not undermine commitment to the employer. The article contributes to our understanding of the conditions under which employees identify with external groups and when commitment to the employer may be compromised. The findings have implications for how managers can help to increase the commitment of employees involved in complex employment relations.     

Gender and regional employment differences: an industrial relations approach

This paper analyses gender differences in regional employment in Europe. An industrial relations approach is used, which requires that regulations and institutions in the labour market be analysed in regard to power relations in the workplace. Gender relations and working conditions are seldom included when welfare-state arrangements and the functioning of the labour market are discussed at a national level. The results of this study show that welfare-state policies, in a broad sense, support women's opportunities to take part in paid work in the labour market. Women in Europe are beginning to occupy an increasing share of the new jobs that are created as they improve their labour-force participation rates. Women are also moving into higher growth sectors of the economy to a larger extent than men. But in terms of occupations, hierarchies and power relations, the mechanisms of segregation in the workplace are changing very slowly. While considerable literature exists on the segregation processes within organizations, very little deals with how to change segregation patterns and how to balance the differences in power between women and men in the workplace.     

The Eurozone and financial integration: the employment relations issues

Together the macroeconomic and financial attributes of monetary union are changing the rules governing the European economy. This paper assesses the consequences of these changes for employment relations in member states. The analysis focuses on three matters in particular. First, how labour market actors are responding to the fact that macroeconomic policies are not only out of their own control but may therefore fail to correspond to the needs of particular countries. Second, how employment relations are adapting to the new microeconomic challenges released by the move towards deeper financial integration inside the EU, which has its main impact on the structures of corporate finance and thus on corporate strategy. Finally the implications of both patterns of change for the EU employment policy are assessed to gauge the impact of monetary union on the European social model.     

Reframing employment relations: the case for neo‐pluralism

Industrial Relations can no longer stumble along, gathering empirical data, without reframing its underlying theoretical assumptions. The ‘new problem of order’ focuses on links between employment and society. Recent social science and public policy concepts develop the Durkheimian assumptions of IR Pluralism. Neo‐pluralism offers a more credible IR paradigm than Kelly’s Marxism.     

Lean production,employee learning and workplace outcomes: a case analysis through the ability‐motivation‐opportunity framework

This study examines an implementation of lean production in fast‐moving consumer goods manufacturing, analysing how it has affected employee learning and job quality. We find major variation in these outcomes. Where line managers have relinquished significant control, and workers have had the requisite levels of literacy, more powerful forms of learning have occurred, and the outcomes are mutually beneficial. However, deeper learning has yet to take hold where production pressures are high, line managers are not enabling and workers lack self‐efficacy because of low literacy. Better outcomes depend on greater investments in the development and ongoing support of front‐line managers and in literacy development. The study shows how the ability‐motivation‐opportunity framework can be used to organise relevant theory and throw light on the systemic nature of workplace learning.     

Shop steward leadership and the dynamics of workplace industrial relations

Here the author reviews a new wave of research in how shop stewards actually operate in the workplace. He presents a selection of findings from a study conducted in several manufacturing companies which suggests that the shop steward operates in an essentially dynamic environment.     

Tripartite consultation: an emergent form of governance shaping employment relations in China

This article examines China's approach to industrial consultation by examining six tripartite bodies at the national, provincial and county levels. It argues that the institutionalisation of tripartitism is consistent with China's overall approach to market reform being characterised by experimentalism, gradualism, dynamism and a gradual softening of party domination. Despite limitations, it is accepted that China is building a transition tripartite system that is bolstering the autonomy and representational capacity of the social partners.     

The decentralisation of employment relations in the British public sector

The aim of this article is to investigate differences between the British public and private sectors in terms of the decentralisation of employment relations. Drawing on data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, the article arrives at three main conclusions. First, the analysis reveals that while local‐level managers in both sectors have similar levels of responsibility for employment relations issues, those in the public sector are, on the whole, significantly less likely to be able to exercise authority. Second, the results indicate some marked variations in practice within the public sector, with managers in education having the greatest level of authority. Finally, the article explores the extent to which differences in local‐level authority between the public and private sectors can be explained by higher‐level collective bargaining, and the presence of higher‐level personnel specialists. These factors have only a partial influence, and do not fully explain why local‐level employee relations managers in some areas (notably health) are less able to exercise authority than their counterparts in the private sector.     

Exploring the interaction of firm-level change and national institutional environments in shaping employment and union relations: a comparative case study of four European airlines

Drawing on the example of the airline industry, this paper explores in a longitudinal comparative case study the question of how firm-level changes and national institutional environments interact in shaping employee and union relations. Adding to previous research in comparative institutional analysis and comparative employment relations, we illustrate that the way in which industry pressures and national-level effects play out to influence employee and union relations depends on firm-level changes, mainly in the form of firm growth, acquisitions and the foundation of new subsidiaries. We show in particular that depending on firm-level changes, the very same firm might engage differently with a given institutional context at different points in time. Hence, our work illustrates the importance of firm growth, acquisitions and the foundation of new subsidiaries in explaining the shifting interaction between the firm and its institutional environment, and its implications for changing employee and union relations within firms.     

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.     

Behavioural responses to employment discrimination: a study of Hong Kong workers

This study examines the behavioural responses of Hong Kong workers to employment discrimination. Based on the exit-voice framework proposed by Hirschman, five possible responses (i.e. neglect, quit, internal voice, external voice and litigation) are identified. The effects of certain personal attributes and work-related factors on these responses are evaluated. Two different data sets, focusing on gender discrimination and family status discrimination, are analysed. The results of logistic regression indicate that workers with higher levels of education and sensitivity to discrimination are more likely to complain and less likely to neglect their work or resign. Additionally, men and women respond differently to sex-based discrimination. Work-related factors such as employment sector, job tenure and employer size are also found to exert significant effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.