Predicting Differences in Employee Relations Practice from Values and Beliefs of Managers

Abstract

There is a vast literature on managers' values and beliefs. However, there have been very few attemps to identify British managers' values or beliefs and relate them to employee relations practice. Marsh's survey of practice included questions on managerial values but this researcher did not attempt to develop a set of values which could explain differences between organisations. The objective of the current research reported here was to identify a paradigm of values and beliefs about employee relations as a basis for understanding differences in practices. The central proposition for the research was: There are among British managers identifiable values and beliefs about work, employment, management, effective organisations and the role of government in employee relations to explain, in part, differences in employee relations practice.