Does partnership at work increase trust? An analysis based on the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

In the late 1990s, partnership at work was embraced with some enthusiasm by a number of stakeholders in employment relations and incorporated in the 1999 Employment Relations Act. The implementation of the Information and Consultation Regulations has also been extensively signalled. We might therefore expect to see some evidence of partnership‐related practices in Britain. The 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004) provides an opportunity to explore the extent of partnership practice, and also, for the first time, to explore its link to trust relations. This article reports evidence from WERS 2004 suggesting that partnership practice remains relatively undeveloped and that it is only weakly related to trust between management and employee representatives and to employees’ trust in management. Direct forms of participation generally have a more positive association with trust than representative forms. There is also modest evidence that trust may be associated with certain workplace outcomes. The case for partnership and more particularly representative partnership as a basis for mutuality and trust is not supported by this evidence.     

Foreign direct investment,cost competitiveness and the transformation of the Irish economy

Ireland has been the economic success story of the 1990s. Growth in GNP and in employment has far exceeded those seen elsewhere. We ask first whether this is simply a delayed catching-up process. Even if this turns out to be so, the question remains as to what the key differences in policy were between the unsuccessful phase, from 1950 to 1988, and the phenomenally successful phase since then. We present a brief overview of the key differences in terms familiar from conventional growth theory, and go on to look more carefully at the constellation of factors explaining the precise timing of the turnaround in economic fortunes.     

Schooling in a Corporate Society

This article defines a measure of the quality of life in the regional capitals of Poland and compares the results. This taxonomic measure is based on a set of diagnostic traits, including housing conditions, state of the natural environment, labor market, personal safety, and range of cultural services available. For this purpose, a set of variables from 2011 was observed for each regional capital. This research is important in defining the difference between our target cities from the standpoint of social development. It also allows us to classify the cities into groups based on the quality of life of their inhabitants.