The promotion of workplace partnership in the high performance workplace has become central to policy debates on the 'modernization' of employment relations in British industry. This book provides critical insights into the dynamics of partnership by way of in-depth case studies of employee experience in an under-researched industry noted for its high concentrations of skilled workers and graduates. Drawing on rich interview and questionnaire data, the authors highlight considerable conflicts of interest in the development of partnership that derive from the competitive capitalist environment in which management strategies operate.

This book makes a major contribution to the debate within the UK and abroad on the reality of workplace unionism in an era of change. Drawing on examples of union renewal, the authors present an historical overview, and compare the UK experience with contrasting international examples. It presents both qualitative and quantitative research to provide new and comprehensive evidence on trade union strategies.

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First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Analyses the impact of 'Japanese-style' management techniques such as lean production, teamworking, kaizen ('continuous improvement') and business unionism on factory workers. Investigates different facets of the organization of the labour process and employment relations within fifteen Japanese transplants in South Wales, and systematically analyses the political process of emulation in a British brownfield plant. Emphasises in particular the impact of the restructuring of workplace relations on both individual groups of workers and Collective labour organization. Provides a penetrating insight into the reality of factory life in the 1990s, by incorporating descriptions of shop-floor observations, comprehensive quantitive data and revealing comments from different grades of shop-floor workers, office workers and management.

The promotion of workplace partnership in the high performance workplace has become central to policy debates on the 'modernization' of employment relations in British industry. This book provides critical insights into the dynamics of partnership by way of in-depth case studies of employee experience in an under-researched industry noted for its high concentrations of skilled workers and graduates. Drawing on rich interview and questionnaire data, the authors highlight considerable conflicts of interest in the development of partnership that derive from the competitive capitalist environment in which management strategies operate.