Based on an industrial relations case study conducted in a British Steel plant in the north east coast iron and steel industry, this book, first published in 1976, is an account of the application of sociological concepts and ideas to the process of social relations between employer and employee, and between all types of workers in industrial organisations.

This book, first published in 1973, analyses and sets in context one of the major issues in the growth of the European economy. Workers' participation played an increasingly vital role in industrial relations. This book looks at the background and development of different types of participation in Britain, ranging from workers' attempts at co-operative production, through the schemes in the nationalised industries of mining and steel, to the Fairfields Experiment and the Upper Clyde 'work-in' in shipbuilding. This book concludes with an account of the developments in worker councils and worker directors in nine other European countries.

Focussing on a period of rapid and significant change in the coal industry, this volume, originally published in 1936, sets out the economic facts of the industry and discusses the extent to which politics and industry became interwoven during the years 1910-1936. As well as covering key events such as the General Strike of 1926 and the effects this had on both the UK mining industry and the general population, this volume also examines industrial relations, the growth of the unions and modernization of the industry.

By providing a detailed analysis of the extent to which the McDonald's Corporation adapts or imposes its labour relations policies in Europe, this volume represents a real life case study revealing the interaction between a global multi-national enterprise and the regulatory systems of a number of different European countries.

Contents:
1. Introduction and overview:Understanding working time around the world Part I: Current trends and patterns in work hours: What is the evidence? 2. The enigma of working time trends 3. Working time reduction in the European Union: A diversity of trends and approaches 4:.The longest day: Working time for teachers 5. Working hours and time pressure: The controversy about trends in time use Part II: Empirical and theoretical foundations:Explaining overwork and underemployment 6. Who are the overworked Americans? 7. The incentive to work hard: Differences in black and white workers hours and preferences 8. Driven to spend: Longer work hours as a by-product of market forces 9. Natural, social and political limits to work time: The contemporary relevance of Marx's analysis 10. Revising the labour supply curve: Implications for work time and minimum wage legislation Part III: Innovations in working time and public policy 11. Working time reductions, employment consequences and lessons from Europe: Defusing a quasi-religious controversy 12. The perennial 'lump of labour' case against worksharing: Populist fallacy or marginalist throwback? 13. Better timing: Work schedule flexibility among US workers and policy directions 14. The social implications of European work time policies: Promoting gender equity? 15. History and housework: :Implications for work hours and family policies in market economies

In developed countries, the food superstore or hypermarket has become the dominant mode of food distribution; and their success has transformed the retail sector. But each new store has changed the employment regime of the stores they replace. For retailers, labour is a major cost; with opening hours being extended, and consumer demand patterns changing, one solution has been the use of part-time labour. Extensive use of such labour characterises British food retailing for example whereas it is less common in France. This book examines the reasons for such differences, and the potential which management and employees have within the operation to manage working time to their benefit. This book makes use of a four country research programme, covering France, Germany, Great Britain and Japan. Investigations and interviews at store, company and individual level, paint a picture of working time in the sector and in each of the countries. The volume provides some explanations for national differences as well as the similarities; supply and demand issues, as well as societal and social backgrounds. Large format food retailing is a major force in each country, employing millions in many di

An examination of the complex process of transformation in work organization, technology and labour and product markets that has occurred. The analysis moves between a broad appreciation of structural developments within the economies of the advanced industrial nations, and an in-depth study of enterprise and workplace. It is divided into four parts. The first part reviews the theoretical issues and debates raised by the growth of service industries and employment in the advanced industrial countries. Parts Two and Three are case studies of two service sectors - financial services and the National Health Service. Part Four relates the evidence to a broader appreciation of developments in management/workforce relations occurring in the service sector.

Originally published in 1986 the first part of this book outlines some of the general problems of technological change and labour relations. It discusses the politics of rationalisation and of industrialisation in the car industry by examining case studies of Volkswagen British Leyland and FIAT. The impact developments exert on trade unions in the UK, Germany and Italy is discussed simultaneously.

Almost a fifth of all employees work in the public sector. Employees working in the civil service, NHS, local government, education, the police and fire services also represent a large and growing body of students taking degree courses at universities. Exploring this important and rapidly changing area, this book outlines the main developments in the public sector since 1979, including topical issues such as the rise of new public management, decentralisation and contracting out. Themes which currently affect public sector employees are examined, including:

* decentralization
* contracting out
* fragmentation and the growth of individualism in the employment contract.

This stimulating, up-to-date and intellectually rigorous text is thematic, rather than sector specific, and reflects the way this subject is taught in a range of courses. It will complement alternative texts in this area and will be a valuable resource for students of public policy, public sector management, human resource management, employee and industrial relations.

The public sector is one of the largest employers in the UK. Employees working in the NHS, local government, education, the police and fire services also represent a large and growing body of students taking business degree courses at universities.
This book also looks at the issue of employee relations in the public services. Starting from a legal, economic and financial context, Corby and White outline the main developments in the public sectors, decentralisation, contracting out, fragmentation and the growth of individualism in the employment contract.
The contributors then develop and analyse the themes which are currently affecting public sector employees - pay, equal opportunities, competitive tendering, flexibilities, quality and the position of trade unions.
This is a stimulating, up-to-date and intellectually rigourous text which will be essential reading for students of public policy, public sector management, human resource management, employee and industrial relations. The thematic approach will compliment many alternative texts which are more descriptive and focused on individual services.

To reflect the need for increasing expertise in a highly complex legal arena, the Conseil International du Batiment pour la Recherche L'Etude et la Documentation (CIB) inaugurated an international task force, TG15, to study the area of construction disputes around the world, which now has more than 120 members in 30 countries. Drawing from an international expert author based from the CIB taskforce, and edited by coordinators of TG15, experts representing both the legal and construction professions, this book aims to provide a first reference for those considering, or already, working in the international workplace. Each of the 25 national monographs report on construction dispute practice and procedure according to a standard format, providing the reader with the necessary tools for managing conflicts and resolving disputes on construction projects in different countries.

Comprising the study, documentation, and comparison of plant-level workers' participation around the world, this volume meets the challenge of offering a global perspective on workers' participation, representation, and models of social partnership. Value chains, economic life, inter-cultural exchange and knowledge, as well as the mobility of persons and ideas increasingly cross the borders of nation-states. In the knowledge age, the active participation of workers in organizations is crucially important for sustainable and long-term growth and innovation. This handbook offers lessons from historical, global accounts of workers' participation at plant level, even as it looks forward to predict forthcoming trends in participation.

This book is a wide-ranging, radical and highly innovative critique of the prevailing orthodoxies within industrial relations and human resource management. It contains a detailed examination of the evolution of industrial relations arguing that the area is often under-theorised and influenced by the policy agenda of the state or employers. Subjects covered include:
* cenral problems in industrial relations
* the mobilisation theory of collective action
* the growth of non-union workplaces and the prospects and desirability of a new labour-management social partnership
* a historical account of worker collectivism, organization and militancy and state or employer countermobilisation
* a critique of postmodernism and accounts of the end of the labour movement.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415186722

Industrial relations has traditionally been a national affair, characterized by distinct local laws, practices and cultures. The process of European integration, exemplified by the Single Market Programme, the Maastricht Treaty and the imminent prospect of Economic Monetary Union, has created a framework within which national practices have been exposed to growing cross-border influences - including European Union legislation requiring European Works Councils to be set up in large transnational firms. Might European integration create the basis for a new distinctly European-level of industrial relations? And what impact would this have on exisitng national systems? This volume explores the prospects for the emergence of a distinctly European pattern of industrial relations, in which the European-level organizations representing employers and trade unions gain in importance vis-a-vis their national organisations. In particular, individual contributions analyze the impact of the "Social Chapter" to the Maastricht Treaty, which created a new institutional framework within which European-level employers and trade unions can negotiate.

This book examines the most economically critical and politically sensitive issues of China's reform process -- labor market development, changing industrial relations, the altered role of trade unions, and labor-state and labor-capital conflict. By examining the nature of contemporary work in various sectors of the Chinese economy, the contributors demonstrate that formal ownership patterns, still heavily dominated by the state, are not a comprehensive guide to the character of the current economic system.

Building on the work of labor historians, industrial relations scholars, and institutional labor economists, this book offers not only a comprehensive analysis of the changing nature of shopfloor labor-management relations in the large manufacturing firms of this century, it also supplies empirical evidence of the effect of these institutional changes on labor productivity growth and injury rates. No other study has dealt with the broad sweep of shopfloor governence during the twentieth century, paid as careful attention to the process by which shopfloor institutional arrangements changed over these years, or offered hard evidence on the relationship between changing shopfloor institutions and changing shopfloor outcomes.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203431316

Recent economic trends are changing forever the face of Japanese industrial relations; "Japanese Management and Labour" explores these changes. Authors Mari Sako and Hiroko Sato examine the responses of both Japanese management and labour, and that of the Japanese government, to these economic transitions. In Part 1 of the work, recent trends in Japanese labour markets, labour law and corporate strategy are explored. As labour and management yield to these new economic pressures, changes in industrial relations are shown to be the inevitable result. Part 2 analyses the interaction between the state, management and labour. Both the macro and the micro levels are given full consideration, as the government of Japan seeks to strike a balance between the often antithetical needs of labour and management. This compilation of current research has been collected by leading Japanese scholars, and effectively challenges the traditional view of lifetime' employment while focusing on the growing economic pressures that Japanese management and labour currently face. "Japanese Management and Labour" is sure to add to the lively debate now taking place regarding management in recessionary Japan.

Recession in Japan has changed the face of Japanese industrial relations. Part one of the study outlines recent trends in Japanese labour markets, labour law and corporate strategy. It focuses on specific categories of labour such as: white collar workers; women workers; foreign workers; and older workers. The second part examines the changing interaction between the state, management and labour at both the macro and micro level. Topics include: the public sector and privatisation; collective bargaining and joint consultation; and labour-management relations in small firms. Drawing on research from leading Japanese scholars, this study considers the future of industrial relations in Japan in the face of increasing economic pressures.

Airline pilots in various countries around the world have made determined use of industrial action. The use of strike action by the pilots challenges the view that militant trade unionism is confined to lower-paid workers and is associated with a left-wing political orientation. This phenomenon provides the author with an opportunity for singling out the basic factors underlying attitudes and behaviour in industrial relations. His starting point is a 'systems model' of industrial relations which is submitted to critical examination and refined, enhancing its usefulness as a research methodology. In particular he stresses the importance of personality elements in the parties to the disputes. The book, first published in 1972, also provides an analysis of the development of the airlines and their institutions.

There have been dramatic shifts in the behaviour of labour markets and the conduct of industrial relations in the last century. This volume explores these changes in the context of four very different societies: Germany, Sweden, Britain and Japan. However, despite their manifest differences, the author demonstrates that for long periods their labour markets were similar in many crucial respects. The book discusses:
* the failure of neo-corporatism in Britain in the 1970's and the subsequent rise of Thatcherism;
* the rise of Japan as a model for orderly industrial relations in the 1970's
* the collapse of the German and the success of the Swedish labour markets in the 1930's.

In spite of Japanese investment in America and the debate on the competitive edge of Japanese enterprise, we know little about the actual people who are managing and working in Japanese plants. "Japanese Industry in the American South" describes the industrial cultures found in three Japanese industrial plants in the American South. Choong Soon Kim discusses why Japanese industries are coming to the South, to what extent Japanese industrial management in the South replicates the industrial relations model used in the home plants in Japan, and examines the reactions of Americans toward the Japanese expatriates. The Japanese have had a profound effect on Southerners. Meeting the challenges of the Japanese has led Americans to rediscover their own strengths and weaknesses.
"Japanese Industry in the American South" offers a different perspective. Western scholars have emphasized the positive aspects of traditional values and practices for Japanese industry, and haveeven romanticized their effects. Utilizing his bicultural experience, Choong Soon Kim discusses how the American public tends to over-estimate Japanese knowledge about American culture and the Japanese ability to be competitive with their American counterparts. He also talks about the idea many Americans still have that Japanese industrialists are so knowledgeable about the South that they can exploit what are seen as southern characteristics: white, rural, polite and non-union--of people who are supposedly eager to work hard for low wages. Conversely, the numerous concessions, compromises, and accommodations required by the Japanese are exposed and analyzed here. "Japanese Industry in the" "American South" reveals a morebalanced view of Japan's success as well as struggles to remain competitive in an American setting.

Human Resources Management in Construction fills an important gap in current management literature by applying general principles of human resources management specifically to the construction industry. It discusses and explores findings from research to supplement the theoretical and practical procedures used. It explores issues such as the technology used and the pattern of social and political relationships within which people are managed.

Nowhere is the tension attending simultaneous political democratization and economic liberalization more sharply felt than in the realm of labour relations. What is happening in Soviet trade unions today? How will the emerging independent unions respond to anticipated rises in unemployment? What kind of social regulation of the labour market will be appropriate in the future? These papers from a pathbreaking US-Soviet conference on labour issues reveal a considerable diversity of views on questions whose resolution will be essential to social peace in this period of transition. Among the noted contributors are Joseph Berliner, Sam Bowles, Richard Freeman, Leonid Gordon, V.L.Kosmarskii, Alla Nazimova, Michael Piore, Boris Rakitskii, Iurii Volkov, Ben Ward and Tatiana Zaslavskaia.