British Managers' Attitudes and Behaviour in Industrial Relations: A Twenty-Year Study

A unique longitudinal study of Britain's managers conducted in 1980, 1990 and 2000 permits comparisons of managerial attitudes and behaviour in industrial relations over twenty years. We find clear evidence of the relationship between macro‐level political and economic movements of the period from 1980 up until the late 1990s on managerial attitudes, the impact of changes in power relations and the ‘lag effect’ of institutions. The most unexpected findings are the modest rise of managerial unionism in the 1990s and the limited evidence of the replacement of collective bargaining by either individual or group involvement or by employee financial participation.     

A Comparative Analysis of Developments in Industrial Democracy

The purpose of this article is to analyze recent developments in industrial democracy (worker participation in management) in a comparative perspective. To give the article focus, the period from the mid-1980s onward is selected for analysis, and four countries (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Australia) are targeted for systematic examination. Developments in both indirect and direct participation are explained on the basis of elements in the models that we present. Three particularly strong conclusions emerge. First, there are clearly a number of common forces that have affected developments in each country, but the precise forms of participation that have emerged vary in many key respects. Second, organizational changes at the level of the firm appear to be particularly important in the recent period. And finally, the very complex patterns that are observable reinforce our theoretical arguments of the importance of a complex multivariate approach.     

Neither fish nor fowl? An assessment of teacher capability procedures

There has been an increasing focus on the performance of workers through appraisal, performance-related pay and performance management and this emphasis on measuring performance has extended to the public sector—more specifically, to the teaching profession. This paper uses research commissioned by the DfES to investigate the operation of capability procedures introduced to deal with the perceived problem of incompetent teachers. It revealed that the procedures suffered from a number of defects both in modus operandi and style and there was little evidence that their application resulted in either improved performance or dismissal when satisfactory performance was not achieved.     

Distributed group support systems: Social dynamics and design dilemmas

A “distributed group support system”; includes decision support tools and structures embedded within a computer‐mediated communication system rather than installed in a “decision room.”; It should support groups who are distributed in space but not time ("synchronous”; groups), as well as “asynchronous”; groups whose members participate at different times. Pilot studies conducted in preparation for a series of controlled experiments are reviewed in order to identify some of the problems of implementing such a system. Many of the means used by groups meeting in the same place at the same time to coordinate their activities are missing. Embedding decision support tools within a different communications medium and environment changes the way they “work.”; Speculations are presented about software tools and structuring or facilitation procedures that might replace the “missing”; coordination channels.