Industrial Relations In Britain Research Articles

The Nuts‐and‐Bolts of Publishing in the BJIR II: Evaluation Criteria

The Nuts‐and‐Bolts of Publishing in the BJIR II: Evaluation Criteria

Governance as a paradigm for industrial relations reform and labour politics : A discussion of Bevir and Rhodes’ Interpreting British Governance

This article discusses how the notion of “governance” and the paradigm of “narratives of governance” may illuminate the study of recent developments in industrial relations and labour politics in Britain. The starting point is what may be called a “substantial”, all-encompassing understanding of governance, which is assessed against the recent trajectory of industrial relations in Britain. The article then shifts towards an “epistemological” understanding of governance, in so far as the notion of “governance” encourages scholars to decentre their approach of institutions from the traditional top-down Westminster model of policy-making to a more complex, dynamic approach. A parallel with Foucault’s project of studying “governmentality” – “la gouvernementalite” – is suggested. The final section of the article explores the notion of “narratives of governance”, and how it may provide a means of understanding changes in labour politics and in the Labour Party’s positioning over the past thirty years.

The genesis of a scientific community: the British Universities Industrial Relations Association and the field of industrial relations in Britain, c.1950–1983

Scholarship dealing with labour-related topics has been prevalent in Britain from the early twentieth century, but a scientific field dedicated exclusively to the study of industrial relations did not emerge until the second half of the century. Although the socio-economic context of the post-war years provided a fertile ground for the field's emergence, the reason for its eventual development was a socialization process that took place in the early 1950s with the establishment of an informal group of industrial relations scholars. The group would grow to become the British Universities Industrial Relations Association and its activities would help the emerging community develop a ‘disciplinary identity’ and form the institutions that would subsequently define the field of Industrial Relations.

International Review: Industrial Relations in Britain under New Labour, 1997-2010: A Post Mortem

A revival of trade unions was widely expected when Blair’s New Labour government took over from the Conservatives in Britain in 1997. This did not occur and collective bargaining continued to retreat. This article discusses the implications of the changing economic context for the government’s legal innovations, notably, statutory trade union recognition and a minimum wage, and describes the consequences for industrial relations. It concludes that New Labour’s legacy may lie in its nurturing of the institutions of social partnership and the use of conciliation.

Rethinking Institutions and Institutional Change in European Industrial Relations

This article traces the process of institutional change in industrial relations in Britain, France and Sweden over the last quarter-century in order to identify the mechanisms and forms of institutional change. These three cases demonstrate a high degree of institutional plasticity, and a greater convergence in industrial relations than comparisons of national institutions have tended to suggest. These findings in turn suggest the need to rethink both the role of institutions and the nature of institutional change in comparative political economy.

A Comparison of the British and the German Industrial Relations and its Implications

A close investigation of the industrial relations in Britain and Germany reveals that there has occurred a clear divergence. But at the same time, a converging trend is also noticed. Regarding the latter, decentralization is gaining in power. This allows companies under certain conditions and to specified extents to modify or diverge from the agreed standards. What this comparative study demonstrates is that structural determinism is overplayed. The policies that unions and management adopt in response to certain circumstances are not predetermined. Not only are they capable of acting in response to various external constraints, but the nature of their response to secure their long-term future is an outcome of internal relations between the two sides.

The Genuine Introduction of Institutions of Employee Representation and the Change of Industrial Relations in Britain : A Case Study of the Coal Mining Industry

The Genuine Introduction of Institutions of Employee Representation and the Change of Industrial Relations in Britain : A Case Study of the Coal Mining Industry

Workplace industrial relations in Britain, 1980–2004

ABSTRACTThe Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys marked a radical departure in the study of industrial relations (IR) by ‘mapping’ IR in Britain with nationally representative large‐scale surveys of workplace managers, thus permitting investigation of the incidence of practices and changes over time. This article reflects on some of what we have learned in the five surveys over the quarter century since 1980, focusing selectively on the demise of collective IR, pay determination, the IR climate, and union effects on wages and employment growth.

Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain, 1980-2004

There was a time before the first Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS80) in 1980 when what we knew of industrial relations was based primarily upon small scale surveys and case studies. WIRS80 marked a radical departure in the study of industrial relations for two reasons. First, following in the footsteps of a small number of survey forerunners, it sought to Omap' industrial relations in Britain with nationally-representative large-scale surveys of workplace managers, thus permitting investigation of the incidence of practices and changes over time. Second, it focused on industrial relations institutions and outcomes, linking them to the processes of industrial relations that had been the chief focus of studies up until that point. This paper reflects on some of what we have learned in the five surveys over the quarter century since 1980, focusing selectively on the demise of collective IR, pay determination, union wage effects, variable pay, the climate of employment relations and union effects on employment growth. Also IZA Discussion Paper #2518

Class and Industrial Relations in Britain: The 'Long' Mid-century and the Case of Port Transport, c. 1920-70

This article highlights important continuities in Britain's ‘longer’ mid-twentieth-century history, chiefly in industrial relations and social class divisions, which outweigh the discontinuities of the 1940s and 1950s that were emphasized in literature from the 1960s until perhaps the mid-1990s. The post-1950 ‘golden age’ advances by manual workers were located largely in pre-Second World War industrial relations, but class relations inherited from the 1920s and 1930s constrained the extent of manual working class advances after 1945. The focus here is chiefly on port transport, where developments substantially qualify Ross McKibbin's suggestion that the 1940s and 1950s witnessed a ‘redistribution of esteem’ in favour of manual workers.

Feminism Facing Industrial Relations in Britain

This is an opportune time to renegotiate the boundaries between industrial relations theory and feminist analysis in Britain. Such a bargain would involve going beyond an agreement to add ‘women’s issues’ to the research agenda, to a recognition of the gendered character of employment relations and of work itself. The formal institutions involved, namely, management, trade unions and the state, cannot be treated as gender‐neutral. Further, the very way industrial relations scholars define what is ‘inside’ the industrial relations system and what is ‘outside’ reflects masculine priorities and privilege.

Constructing British Industrial Relations

One can identify the construction and transformation of three distinct systems of industrial relations in Britain over the last century. In contrast to the view that the state has been largely abstentionist in the sphere of industrial relations, or that, where intervention has taken place, it has been ad hoc, incoherent and reactive, this article makes two arguments in explaining this pattern of institutional construction. First, that the British state has been a central actor in the construction and ‘embedding’ of industrial relations institutions. Secondly, that broad processes of economic restructuring have created the context and trigger for state action. It is the timing and character of economic restructuring which explain the distinctive evolution of British industrial relations.

Management and the Taff Vale Strike of 1900

The Taff Vale Railway strike of 1900 stands as a landmark in the history of industrial relations in Britain. There is a substantial literature dealing with the strike and resulting court case. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the underlying pressures and tensions which gave rise to the strike nor to its wider consequences: the focus hitherto has been on labour, politics and labour law rather than the dynamics of the struggle between capital and labour which raged throughout the railway industry. The strike resulted from a clash between an assertive labour movement and a beleaguered management with little financial room for manoeuvre. Victory for capital paved the way for far-reaching changes in technology and working methods without conceding the gains to labour through the agency of trade union action.

Making American Industry Safe for Democracy: Comparative Perspectives on the State and Employee Representation in the Era of World War I.

In Making American Industry Safe for Democracy, a work of historical sociology, Jeffrey Haydu explores how basic political and economic relationships were restabilized in the aftermath of the war. Haydu compares U.S. efforts to reconstruct an open-shop regime that excluded trade unions with the reform of industrial relations in Britain and Germany. Then he compares industries within the United States and traces the extraordinarily complex manner in which prewar class relations and wartime crisis led the state to restructure employee representation. In this important study of new strategies for managing work and conflict that were emerging by the 1920s, the author also forces us to reassess the role of organization in shaping working-class mobilization and protest.

The Survey Tradition in British Industrial Relations Research: an Assessment of the Contribution of Large‐Scale Workplace and Enterprise Surveys

The paper assesses the contribution to industrial relations research of the large‐scale workplace and enterprise‐based surveys of industrial relations in Britain, paying particular attention to the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS) series. It takes issue with recent criticism of survey‐based analysis in the field, arguing that industrial relations researchers have developed a distinctive and valuable survey tradition. The use of surveys in industrial relations contrasts markedly with that in labour economics, stemming from differing methodological preferences in the two fields. Some limitations of the WIRS series to date are reviewed, before considering future directions that survey research might take in order to capture the changing canvass of industrial relations in Britain.

The Commission on Industrial Relations in Britain 1969‐74: a retrospective and prospective evaluation

Examines the history of the Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR) 1969‐74 ‐ its origins, organization and policies ‐ and then evaluates its contribution as an agent of reform in the context of the perceived problems of the 1960s and 1970s. Considers whether there are any lessons to be learnt for the future given the possibility of a Labour Government, developments in Europe and the 1995 TUC policy document Your Voice at Work. Despite the drastic changes in industrial relations and in the economic, political and social environment, the answer is in the affirmative. In particular, the importance of a new third‐party agency having an independent governing body like the CIR and not a representative body like the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS); in its workflow not being controlled by government; and in its decisions on recognition being legally enforceable.

All year round: the growth of annual hours in Britain

Makes a critical examination of annual hours (AH), a relatively new development in industrial relations in Britain. First, considers the extent, sectoral distribution and development of AH before moving to examine the reasons why a growing number of employers are introducing this way of organizing working time. Goes on to review the implications for employees. Concludes that AH is only one of many “new management techniques”, that the extent of AH is still limited, and that the scheme has many detrimental implications for employees.

Industrial Relations in Europe: Theory and Practice

Industrial relations as a distinctive field of study has been principally a feature of the English-speaking countries. In most of continental Europe, aspects of employment and its regulation have normally been studied as subsidiary themes within the various social-science disciplines. In the past decade, radical changes in the practice of industrial relations in Britain and the United States have led some to question the continued viability of the subject. Yet paradoxically, in continental Europe there has been a vigorous growth of interest in developing an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the topic. The author welcomes this trend and calls for the construction of a genuinely European field of industrial relations.

International and Comparative Industrial Relations: A Study of Industrialised Market Economies

1. Introduction - studying international and comparative industrial relations, Greg J. Bamber and Russell D. Lansbury 2. Industrial relations in Britain, Greg J. Bamber and Edward J. Snape 3. Industrial relations in the United States of America, Hoyt N. Wheeler 4. Industrial relations in Canada, Mark Thompson 5. Industrial relations in Australia, Edward M. Davis and Russell D. Lansbury 6. Industrial relations in Italy, Claudio Pellegrini 7. Industrial relations in France, Janine Goetschy and Annette Jobert 8. Industrial relations in Germany, Friedrich Fuerstenberg 9. Industrial relations in Sweden, Olle Hammarstrom 10. Industrial relations in Japan, Yasuo Kuwahara 11. Conclusions - towards a synthesis of international and comparative experience of nine countries, Oliver Clarke. Appendix: employment, economics and industrial relations - comparative statistics, Greg J. Bamber and Gillian Whitehouse.

Is Germany following the British path? a comparative analysis of stability and change

This article reviews recent developments in industrial relations in Britain and Germany and examines the different adjustments to external influences of an economic, political and social structural kind. It concludes that the higher degree of stability and legitimacy of the German system is partly due to the lesser severity of external challenges and partly to structural characteristics of the two systems.