Industrial Relations In Britain Research Articles

Contrasting Patterns of Industrial Relations in Britain

Given that Mrs Thatcher is no longer Prime Minister, now seems an appropiate time to try and provide an assessment of where industrial relations currently stands in Britain, and what has been the impact of Thatcherism on the system. This exercis,e has a certain intellectual as well as practical appeal given the grand claims which have been made about rhe extent of change in the UK since 1979. It is true to say that there ,has be,en considerable change to the national institutions and the legal framework for industrial relations in Great Britain. But, at the same time, there are also tloub,ts as to whether this has been reflected in concrete industrial relations practices at the workplace. Interesting as this debate is however, it is argued here that it ,is misleading because a whole series of assumptions are made about the character of British industrial relations, both in 1979 and in 1991, which are not applicable across the economy as a whole. A much more useful approach is to focus on the variety which exists in British industrial relations, and to outline in a series of patterns of industrial relations rather than trying to describe a universal all embracing picture.

Bringing culture back in: pluralism and societal corporatism as contexts of strategic adaptation

Abstract. The limited literature on offshore industrial relations in Britain and Norway has focused on the deviant nature of such arrangements compared to national traditions. The ‘newness’ of the sector and the special nature of the oil industry have been used to explain the deviance. This study, instead, controls for such factors and shows how contrasting patterns of adaptation can be related to system properties. Industrial relations in the two countries can be viewed as ideal‐type approximations of pluralism and societal corporatism. Within the tradition contrasting pluralism and neocorporatism, the dominant perspective has deliberately excluded cultural aspects, stressing instead structural form. The article argues for the reintroduction of culture and shows how British and Norwegian offshore developments reflect fundamentally different orientations towards industrial relations. Culture is not, however, conceptualized as ideosyncratic characteristics of the two countries. It stems instead from different histories of labour‐capital relations.

Book Review: Strike Free: New Industrial Relations in Britain

Book Review: Strike Free: New Industrial Relations in Britain

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Unions in Transition, edited by Seymour M. LipsetUnions in Crisis and Beyond, edited by P. Edwards, P. Garonna and F. TodtlingStrike Free: New Industrial Relations in Britain, by P. BassettThe Nation State: the Neglected Dimension of Class, by Carolyn M. VoglerThe Political Economy of Corporatism, edited by Wyn GrantEconomic Crisis, Trade Unions and the State, edited by Otto JacobiIssues in Management Labour Relations in the 1970s, by S. G. PeitchinisSharing Ownership in the Workplace, by Raymond RussellSex Discrimination Law, by David PannickThe T. U. C. Overseas, by Marjorie NicholsonFuture Employment and Technological Change, by D. Leach and H. Wagstaff

Industrial Relations in Britain

OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS academic social science has seen the growth of hybrid fields that have challenged the position of such established dis ciplines as sociology, political science, economics, psychology, and history. Criminology, media studies, and industrial relations now compete favoura bly for resources, students, and influence. Their claims of practical relevance have not been lost on policy makers, job seekers, and those who hold the purse strings for higher education. The promise of combining academic rigour with practical solutions to contemporary problems, as well as the prospect of providing a training ground for fast growing professions, has given these and other hybrids a privileged position in many universities, to the conster nation of those in traditional fields. The latter have responded by defending the traditional academic division of labour, as their students stream elsewhere, or remodelling their programs to win back students with the promise of relevance and jobs. Whatever the choice, it does not take long to learn that hybrid disciplines are not without their problems. Perhaps most fundamental is the promise to provide theoretically sound explanation and practical guidance in day-to day conduct, to provide both text book and cook book in the same package. Hybrid departments try to deal with the problem by hiring both researchers and practitioners, who, whether or not they talk to one another (and my experience is that they do not), at least reflect the diverse leanings of the field. But this only displaces the problem and invites endless debates about whether

Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey.

Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey.

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey

Industrial Relations in Britain.

This work has 17 chapters, covering trade unions, management, collective bargining, industrial conflict, the labour market, labour law and state intervention in industrial relations. Each chapter is an essay which brings together the most up-to-date theoretical and empirical work. Each focuses on trends over the past two or three decades, and says something about likely developments over the 1980s. The emphasis is on analysis and explanation, as well as on description.

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Industrial Relations in Britain

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Industrial Relations in Britain

Book Review: Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The De/PSI/SSRC

Book Review: Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain: The De/PSI/SSRC

Reviews

Review of Management and the Multi-racial Workforce, Diversity and Decomposition in the Labour Market, Studies in the Labour Market, Industrial Relations in Britain, Women's Rights in the Workplace, Eclipse of Equality

Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain. The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey.

Workplace Industrial Relations in Britain. The DE/PSI/SSRC Survey.

Joint Consultation in Britain: Towards an Explanation

Joint consultation has had a checkered history during the last 50 years. Both in the Second World War and in the late 1940s, consultative committees were widespread in manufacturing companies. Many observers of the industrial relations scene at that time based their great optimism for post war industrial relations in Britain on the efficacy of joint consultation. Subsequently, joint consultation came to be regarded as a failure and as in a state of decline due to the growth of workplace bargaining. In the course of the last three or four years, the results of several surveys have been published which cast light on current arrangements and have led to claims of a renaissance in joint consultation.

Book reviews

The Grievance: Poems from the Shop Floor. By Martin Glabermann, 32 pp., 95¢; Labor Law for the Rank & Filer. By Staughton Lynd, 64 pp., $1.50; Waterfront Supercargo. By Tom Murray, 60 pp., $1.95; Steelmill Blues. By Steve Packard, 32 pp., 950; Longshoring on the San Francisco Waterfront. By Reg. Theriault, 32 pp., 950; Night Shift in a Pickle Factory. By Steve Turner, 64 pp., $1.95; Foundry Foreman, Foundrymen. By Lloyd Zimpel, $1.95: all from Singlejack Books, 1979–80, Box 1906, San Pedro, CA 90733. The Rosenberg File: A Search for the Truth By Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983. xv, 608 pp., $22.50. Ethnic America: A History. By Thomas Sowell. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1981. 353 pp. $16.95. A History of Retirement: The Meaning and Function of an American Institution, 1885–1978. By William Graebner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980. x, 293 pp. $22.50. Mechanics and Manufacturers in the Early Industrial Revolution: Lynn, Massachusetts, 1780–1860. By Paul G. Faler. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981. xviii, 267pp. cloth $34.00, paper $9.95. The Southern Common People: Studies in 19th Century Social History. Edited by Edward Magdol and Jon L. Wakelyn. Westport, CT. Greenwood Press, 1980. xii, 386 pp. $27.50. The Pursuit of a Dream. By Janet Sharp Hermann. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. xi, 290 pp. $17.50. Race and Politics in North Carolina, 1872–1901: The Black Second. By Eric Anderson. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. xi, 372 pp. $30.00 cloth, $12.95 paper. Anarchist Women: 1870–1920. By Margaret S. Marsh. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. vi, 214 pp. $19.50. Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians, and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900–1960. By John Bodnar, Roger Simon, and Michael P. Weber. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982. 286 pp. $22.95. The Ford Hunger March. By Maurice Sugar. Berkeley: Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, 1980. 146 pp. $5. The Hollywood Writers’ Wars. By Nancy Lynn Schwartz. Completed by Sheila Schwartz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. xiii, 334 pp. $17.95. Naming Names. By Victor S. Navasky. New York: The Viking Press. 1980. xxiii, 482 pp. $15.95. Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954. By Juan Ramon Garcia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980. xvii, 268 pp. $25.00. The Miners’ Fight For Democracy: Arnold Miller and the Reform of the United Mine Workers. By Paul F. Clark. Ithaca, NY: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations/Cornell University, 1981. vi, 190 pp. $16.95. Facing Mechanization: The West Coast Longshore Plan. By Lincoln Fairley. Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, 1979. xiv, 447 pp. $8.50 paper. Organizing Dixie: Alabama Workers in the Industrial Era. By Philip Taft; Revised and Edited by Gary M. Fink. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981. 232 pp. $26.50. Guide to England's Industrial Heritage. By Keith Falconer. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1980. 270 pp. $29.50. Workers and Employers: Documents on Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Britain Since the Early Nineteenth Century. Edited by J.T. Ward and W. Hamish Fraser. London: Macmillan Press Ltd. & Archon Books, 1980. xxxii, 374 pp. £27.85. Leisure in the Industrial Revolution, c. 1780‐c. 1880. By Hugh Cunningham. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. 222 pp. $25.00. The Challenge of Labour: Shaping British Society, 1850–1930. By Keith Burgess. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980. ix, 269 pp. $23.00. Politics in Industrial Society: The Experience of the British System Since 1911. By Keith Middlemass. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980. viii, 512 pp. $37.50.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Labour Law‐text and Materials, by Paul Davies and Mark FriedlandThe Law of Redundancy, by Cyril GrunfeldHepple and O'Higginr Employment Law, by B. A. HeppleTrade Union Low, by Richard KidnerDifferentials for Managers and Skilled Manual Workers in the United Kingdom, by Michael P. Fogarty and EileenEconomic Change and Employment Policy, edited by Robert M. LindleyThe Economics of Women and Work, edited by Alice H. Amsden.'Occupational Segregation: A Comparative Study of the Degree and Pattern of the Differentials between Men and Women's Work in Britain, the United States and Other Countries', by Catherine HakimDisadvantaged Groups on the Labour Market and Measures 10 Assist Them, by Harish C. JainLabor Economics: Choice in Labor Markets, by Don Bellante and Mark Jackson Worker'sCapital and Labour: Studies in the Capitalist Labour Process, edited by Theo NicholsWomen at Work, The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell. Massachusetts, 1826 1860, by Thomas DublinWorkers and Employers: DocwnenLs on Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Britain Since the Eighteenth Cenrury, edited by J. T. Ward and W. Hamish FraserMasters and Journeymen: A Prehistory of Industrial Relations 1717–1800, by C. R. DobsonTransition to Workers' Self‐ Management: Its Dynamics in the Decolonizing Economy of Malta. by Gerhard KesterResponses to Participation at Work: A Study of the Attitudes and Behaviour of Employees, Shop Stewards and Managers in a Manufacturing Industry. by Mick MarchingtonCo‐Determination in Business: Workers' Representatives in the Board Room. by Robert J. KühneThe Denigration of Capiralbm. edited by Michael Novak.International Encyclopaedia for Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Editor in Chief Dr Roger Blanpain

Book reviews

Book reviews in this article: EUROPEAN INSIGHTS: MANPOWEREdited by Barrie O. Pettman, WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS: DOCUMENTS ON TRADE UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN BRITAIN SINCE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURYJ. T. Ward and W. Hamish Fraser (eds.), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN THE NHS—THE SEARCH FOR A SYSTEM Nick Bosanquet(ed.), STRIKES IN BRITAIN C. T. B. Smith, Richard Clifton, Peter Makeham, S. W. Creigh and R. V. Burn, MORE BAD NEWSGlasgow University Media Group, Routledge and Kegan Paul MANAGING AND DEVELOPING NEW FORMS OF WORK ORGANISATIONG. Kanawaty (ed.), NEW FORMS OF WORK ORGANISATION 1 NEW FORMS OF WORK ORGANISATION 2 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: THE FIREMEN N. F. Dufty,

Workers and Employers: Documents on Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Britain Since the Eighteenth Century.

Workers and Employers: Documents on Trade Unions and Industrial Relations in Britain Since the Eighteenth Century.

Some reflections on industrial relations

James Prior, Secretary of State for Employment, argues that, although the responsibility for improving industrial relations in Britain rests primarily with employers and trade unions, limited legal changes can achieve a more balanced framework of legal rights and obligations within which trade unions can operate, improve the operation of industrial relations.

From Donovan to Where? Interpretations of Industrial Relations in Britain Since 1968

It was inevitable that the publication of the Donovan Report in I968 should become a milestone in the history of industrial relations in Britain. 1 Reconsidered ten years later, however, the Report seems inadequate as a signpost to subsequent developments. The three years' deliberations and the mountains of evidence provided an authoritative, though even at the time not universally accepted, view of the industrial relations situation in the I960S, but the economic, social and political changes of the I970S have made much of the discussion seem strangely out of date and almost irrelevant to current concerns and problems. Taking the Report as its point of reference it is the aim of this paper to discuss the analysis it offered in the light of subsequent events; and to consider whether alternative interpretations provide the basis for more satisfactory accounts of current trends in industrial relations in Britain. Although, as the fate of the Donovan Commission itself illustrates, there are great dangers in considering a short time period, I shall take the risk of concentrating on developments since I968.

The Development of Industrial Relations in Britain 1911-1939.

The Development of Industrial Relations in Britain 1911-1939.