Industrial Relations Institutions Research Articles

The British Variety of Capitalism: Institutional Change, Industrial Relations and British Politics

Institutionalist approaches to the study of politics have long exhibited a tendency to emphasize continuity at the expense of change. This article seeks to elaborate an institutionalist theoretical framework that explicitly integrates a theory of change — one which emphasizes the interaction between structural economic change and state action — and to illustrate it through an examination of the evolution of postwar British industrial relations institutions. The article examines the British variety of capitalism in comparative perspective to ask first, how adequately it has been characterized in the past, and second, how it has changed in response to both domestic and international factors. The British case is, in fact, a pivotal one for contemporary institutional theory because it appears to manifest greater institutional change than most institutional approaches anticipate, and because the British political economy is not easily assimilated into common typologies of varieties of capitalism. The picture that emerges challenges institutionalist accounts of British political economy that characterize Britain as a long-standing liberal market economy and identifies the conditions under which the institutions regulating the labor market and class relations were transformed in postwar Britain.

The Core Principle and Fundamental Theorem of Industrial Relations

This paper describes the original paradigm of industrial relations, as developed in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. The original paradigm had three faces: science-building, problem-solving, and ethical/ideological. It is argued that the core principle that spans and unites these three faces is rejection of the orthodox economic model of a competitive labour market. This proposition may also be stated as rejection of the proposition that labour is a commodity. Building on this core principle is the fundamental theorem of industrial relations. It states that a free market capitalist economic system cannot survive and efficiently perform without the practices and institutions of industrial relations that humanize, stabilize, professionalize, democratize and balance the employment relationship.

Do Industrial Relations Institutions Influence Foreign Direct Investment? Evidence from OECD Nations

The potential impact of industrial relations institutions on economic outcomes has been a key element in analyzing the governing of the global workplace. We present case information and analysis that show that there are trade‐offs between higher levels of economic outcomes and greater equity and employee voice associated with more and deeper labor market institutions. The estimates from the model show the impact of industrial relations system policies within a nation on a country's foreign direct investment (FDI) from other nations for the period 1985 through 2000 using data from nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). Examples of the impact of major transformations in national industrial relations systems on FDI for UK and New Zealand also are presented. Our results show that higher levels of industrial relations institutions from the firms’ perspective are usually associated with lower levels of FDI.

The Core Principle and Fundamental Theorem of Industrial Relations

This paper describes the original paradigm of industrial relations, as developed in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. The original paradigm had three faces: science-building, problem-solving, and ethical/ideological. It is argued that the core principle that spans and unites these three faces is rejection of the orthodox economic model of a competitive labour market. This proposition may also be stated as a rejection of the proposition that labour is a commodity. Building on this core principle is the fundamental theorem of industrial relations. It states that a free-market capitalist economic system cannot survive and efficiently perform without the practices and institutions of industrial relations that humanize, stabilize, professionalize, democratize and balance the employment relationship.

The IRI and Its Swedish Connection

The story of the International Industrial Relations Institute (IRI), its de facto leader Mary van Kleeck from the United States and its first chairman Kerstin Hesselgren from Sweden begins in 1925, when the IRI was established at a congress for welfare and personnel workers in Holland. At first the organization was focused on scientific management and industrial relations but during the Great Depression its activities began. revolving around economic planning. The story of the IRI thus reflects a shift in the approach to social engineering, from being a question of industrial relations to becoming a matter of economic planning. The present article also tries to answer the more precise question why some 20 Swedes first joined and then abandoned the organization. (Less)

“We Simply Have to Do that Stuff for our Survival”: Labour, Firm Innovation and Cluster Governance in the Canadian Automotive Parts Industry

AbstractBased on a case study of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union in southern Ontario we argue for a critical reconstruction of both the labour geography and industrial cluster literature. The former stresses the active role of labour in the formation of economic landscapes, but has yet to explore labour's agency in production and how labour institutions shape technological change, firm innovation and industrial policy and strategy. Conversely, much of the industrial cluster and regional innovation systems literature is silent on the role of unions and industrial relations institutions in fostering innovation. We conclude with two main points. First, while some contend that positive union roles in innovation can only stem from partnerships with management and team working, we argue that innovation is more likely to emerge and worker interests are better protected when traditional collective bargaining structures and progressive employment legislation play a central role. Second, positive workplace and cluster level cooperation in the Canadian automotive parts industry are jeopardized by the broader and ongoing macro‐economic restructuring of OEM global production networks due to over‐capacity and intense cost‐cutting pressures reverberating down the supply chain.

Determining wages in Europe's SMEs: how relevant are the trade unions?

This article discusses wage setting in SMEs in eight European countries, how wage setting in small firms differs from that in larger firms and how trade unions address the issue. The context is the increased decentralisation of wage setting. Wage setting is analysed at four different levels: the workplace, the regional, the industry and the national level. The main finding is that trade unions' ability to secure higher wages for workers in SMEs depends not upon workplace organisation, but upon well functioning industrial relations institutions. That is, if workers in SMEs earn less than employees in larger companies, this is due not to the size of the company but to the absence of a comprehensive collective bargaining system that encompasses SMEs.

Book Review: Historical Studies: Trade Unions and the State: The Construction of Industrial Relations Institutions in Britain, 1890–2000

Book Review: Historical Studies: Trade Unions and the State: The Construction of Industrial Relations Institutions in Britain, 1890–2000

Investigating the Cause of Death: Industrial Relations and Plant Closures in Australia

This is the first study to focus on how unions affect the likelihood of plant closures in Australia. Australia is of special interest in this connection, the authors argue, because of its unique industrial relations institutions, which, at the time of the study (1990–95), limited the capacity of established unionized firms to remove unions except through plant closure. An analysis of Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey data shows that two of three measures of unionization had a robust positive influence on the probability of plant closure, and the third had a weaker positive influence. Depending on the specification, for example, a 10 percentage point increase in union density (one of the two measures found to have strong influence) was associated with a 1.3–1.7 percentage point increase in the probability of plant closure—representing a substantial increment, since the mean closure probability among these plants was about 16%.

Pay Developments in Britain and Germany: Collective Bargaining, ‘Benchmarking’, and ‘Mimetic Wages’

This article examines the impact of national industrial relations institutions on pay movements in Britain and Germany between 1980 and 2000. Pay increases are slightly higher in Britain, despite the breakdown of multi-employer bargaining and agreements in the UK and their persistence in Germany. Evidence shows that pay decisions in Britain are mainly determined by imitation and not by markets. The article suggests that a system of ‘pay benchmarking’ in Britain acts as a substitute for the German ‘sectoral agreement model’ and explains similarities in pay movements.

Ver.di and trade union revitalisation in Germany

Recent research on the fate of organised labour in western Europe has emphasised the capacity trade unions have to develop and implement revitalisation strategies as well as the fact that different trade union movements implement different strategies. In the case of Germany, trade unions have tended to defend existing mechanisms of social partnership and restructure the movement through mergers. This article argues that this approach has severe limitations given the diverse transformation of the German political economy. It presents research on the revitalisation strategies of Germany's new service sector trade union Ver.di established in 2001. The article argues that Ver.di has an awareness of the necessity of adopting new and comprehensive strategies for revitalisation, but that it is tending towards traditional strategies. This disadvantages those regions and sectors where institutions of industrial relations are not embedded.

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

Implications of Work Choices Legislation

It is widely recognized that the character of Australia’s industrial relations systems and institutions have changed dramatically over the last two decades. Most obviously, wages and employment conditions are no longer so dependent on arbitrated industry- and occupationbased awards, and instead are much more likely to - be the of product enterprise and workplace bargaining (Wooden 2000). But despite the major changes that have occurred, the current Coalition government has long made it clear that, in its view, the reform agenda was far from complete and that not for a hostile Senate, further change could have been expected. The opportunity to press ahead with this agenda was thus delivered at the 2004 federal election when the Coalition, unexpectedly, won control of the Senate.

Editorial

The increasing internationalisation of the economy and major challenges arising from outsourcing and demographic trends are leading to a progressive interdependence of national economies, highlighting the differences in standards and values between one system and another. As a result benchmarking takes on a particular importance, as seen in a number of papers in this issue exploring institutions of labour law and industrial relations from the comparative point of view in the economic, social and legal context.

Third Way conservatism? The Popular Party and labour relations in Spain

Third Way policies are generally understood as policy shifts towards the centre implemented by traditionally leftist parties in government. This article argues that Third Way policies can also be the preferred policy course of conservative governments. The conservative Popular Party (PP) government under José María Aznar in Spain is used as an illustrative case study. The article focuses on labour relations to establish the existence of Third Way policies in Spain and links them to the strategies that unions have developed in their attempt to recover lost ground. The article posits that the specific contents of the Third Way policies in Spain, coupled with the policy continuity between the PSOE and PP governments, provided a relatively stable institutional industrial relations framework. This allowed unions to develop new strategies that were able to halt their decline and regain some strength lost during the 1980s.

Comparative industrial relations theory: the role of national culture

This paper explores the use of national culture in comparative industrial relations theory to explain the cross-national pattern of industrial relations institutions. A critical review of the existing body of theory argues that it has not adequately explained cross-national differences in the main industrial relations variables. The review also establishes that, with few exceptions, national culture is currently given negligible weight as an explanatory variable. It is argued that a cultural theory of cross-national difference is required. Following a critical assessment of the work of Hofstede, a cultural model is developed based on his definition and specification of culture. Some hypotheses linking Hofstede's dimensions of culture with our industrial relations variables are derived. As an empirical test of the model, industrial relations variables are regressed on Hofstede's cultural indices. National culture is found to be significantly associated with all the major characteristics of industrial relations systems investigated. The paper concludes that national culture is the primary determinant of cross-national variations in industrial relations institutions and that culture is likely to be a force for ongoing diversity in labour market systems.

Grievance Arbitration and the Charter: The Emerging Issues

The Charter has had the effect of casting a long shadow of uncertainty over our established industrial relations institutions. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of grievance arbitration. In this paper, the author deals with the issues at stake, and the reasons why bot h arbitrators and judges are having such difficulty in deciding upon the extent to which grievance arbitration should be influenced by the Charter.

Industrial Action and Conflict Resolution in the New Member States

With the historic enlargement of May 2004, the European Union faces new challenges. How the industrial relations systems of the new Member States respond to the challenges of accession, the single market and, eventually, EMU will play a crucial role in determining the ease of their assimilation within the enlarged Union. This article, based on a research and development project undertaken by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, investigates and assesses a specific aspect of their industrial relations institutions, the mechanisms of extra-judicial conflict resolution. The existence of effective and efficient collective conflict resolution procedures and institutions strengthens social dialogue and the latter, again, plays an important role in the creation or reform of the existing dispute resolution procedures. Consequently, the article concludes that successful dispute resolution is directly correlated with the nature, scope and quality of collective bargaining and social dialogue in the new Member States.

New media after the Dot.com bust

In spite of its designation as part of the “cultural economy”, New Media work was depicted as free‐floating, unimpeded by stuffy national political‐economic regulations. Studies of New Media workers before and after the Dot.com speculative bubble, however, indicate that New Media work was and is influenced by national policy environments. In the United States, New Media work is carried out primarily by independent contractors. The use of a multi‐skilled contract workforce has increased following the decline in labor demand. In Sweden, New Media workers turned to unions following the downturn to deal with rising unemployment. Germany represents a middle ground case with a largely non‐unionized workforce that is, however, influenced by collective industrial relations institutions and norms regarding employer roles. These divergent paths suggest that national policy continues to play a role in shaping work, even in international cultural industries.

Influence of globalisation on employment relationship: an African perspective

Globalisation in the contemporary world has become a common catch phrase despite lack of consensus on this phenomenon. There are different ideological dispositions on this issue; that is, whether globalisation is good or bad and/or whether it leads to convergence or divergence. Other deficiencies in the globalisation concept are limited agreement on its causes and ramifications. Nonetheless, it is evident that the global economy has been accompanied by numerous changes in the world of work. The changes have included: liberalisation of markets; decrease of protectionism; the removal of other trade barriers, such as tariffs; disappearance of international boundaries; and an increase in trade among different countries. It has been suggested that the changes be accompanied with matching industrial relations institutions. In view of these factors, the paper evaluates contemporary changes that have taken place in the African context pursuant to the globalisation process. Finally, perceived potential ramifications of these developments on employment relationship are evaluated.