Showing papers on "Industrial relations published in 1978"

Political Exchange and Collective Identity in Industrial Conflict

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore whether the various events which followed the sudden increase in wages of the years 1968–70 in the main industrial countries can be accounted for by one general theoretical framework. Do the very high wage claims, the intensity of conflicts, their new forms and the new types of claim put forward, the increase in the political involvement of the unions, the spread of unionisation and of social movements into new groups of the population belong to a common pattern? Are they to be explained as a consequence of some structural trend or as a temporary alteration of the systems of political and of labour representation?

The Nature of Subordinate Participation in the Appraisal Interview

Abstract: To clarify the concept of participation in the appraisal interview, 287 bank employees were surveyed. Analysis of their descriptions of the most recent appraisal interview resulted in three factors...

Labor-Management Relations

Abstract: Part A: Contemporary labour-management relations: 1: the industrial relations system. Part B: The historical and institutional context: 2: history and philosophy of american unions. 3: membership and structure in the american workplace. Part C: Management and employees (new): 4: unions, and the new workplace (new). 5: human diversity in the workplace. 6: the non-union employer. Part D: Labour-management relations and the legal setting. 7: statutory and judicial regulation. 8: the NLRB and unfair labour practices. 9: union organization for bargaining. Part E: Bargaining structure. 10: different patterns of relations in the private sector. 11: labour-management relations in the public sector. 12: industrial relations abroad. Part F: The collective bargaining process. 13: the negotiations process. 14: union organization for bargaining. 15: management preparations for negotiations. 16: strikes and dispute settlement. Part G: Subjects of collective bargaining. 17: rights of employees, unions, and management. 18: wages - theory and practice. 19: benefits. 20: grievances and arbitration. 21: quality, productivity and employment security. Part H: An assessment of labour-management relations. 22: the consequence of collective bargaining.

Class Conflict and the Industrial Relations Crisis

Abstract: The central purpose of the thesis is to interpret in the context of theories of class structure certain developments in the industrial relations policies of British governments between 1956 and 1971. Although British sociology has long been pre-occupied with class, and although the relevance of industrial relations to the historical development of class relations is generally recognised, it is only in very recent years that a few authors have attempted class analyses of recent policy changes. The present study is probably the first to attempt a detailed analysis of the policies in this context, though the period has been one of institutional innovation rivalling the immediate postwar years. In tackling this task the thesis brings together three usually separate literatures: that on class and stratification, that on industrial relations and that on political processes. The first two of these are dealt with at length, the last less so (and perhaps, on reflection, inadequately). Nearly all the themes discussed will be found elsewhere in the literature, but originality is claimed for (i) the particular combination of themes achieved, and the relations made between them and (ii) the detailed relation of these themes to the particular body of empirical material studied. For example, the central contention examined - that recent policy developments constitute the rise of the corporate state - has very recently found its way into general discussion, but the present thesis tries to define corporatism systematically, demonstrate its place within a theory of class relations, and assess precisely the corporatist content of policies. Methodologically the thesis is unadventurous and conventional and makes no use of sophisticated techniques. Further, the great bulk of empirical material studied consists of published documents. However, it is considered that it goes beyond many conventional treatments in the extent to which its analysis of empirical material relates closely to the theoretical framework which is established. Further, although the data used are not original in the sense of having never before been exposed to public gaze, their use is original in the sense that they are studied in terms and for purposes very different from those intended by their authors. In summary, the contributions claimed for the thesis are as follows: (1) starting from a Marxian/Weberian perspective it directs attention to a central aspect of class which has been neglected in sociology's pre-occupation with problems of the identification of and subjective attitudes of classes, viz the particular combination of economic, political and ideological constraints that provide the structure of different forme of class relations; (2) it relates issues of class to recent industrial relations strategies more systematically than is usually the case in recent debates; (3) in particular, it establishes the outlines of two contrasting strategies called the Compromise and corporatism; (4) it makes use of these and other concepts to provide a sociological analysis of incomes policies and industrial relations law reform measures; (5) in less precise detail, it provides an histoire raisonee of political developments in the period concerned, interpreting them in the terms established earlier; (6) it makes an empirical study of, and relates together, certain other themes of recent literature, such as managerialism, administrative rationality as ideology, the changing role of the state and the problems this creates for existing political, ideologies.

Race, sex and minority group discrimination legislation in North America and Britain

Abstract: 37 p. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Cover title.;"May 1978." Published in the Industrial Relations Journal , Summer 1978, pages 38-55.

Book Reviews : Batstone, Eric, Boraston, Ian & Frenkel, Stephen: Shop Stewards in Action. The Organization of Workplace Conflict and Accommodation. Warwick Studies in Industrial Relations, SSRC. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1977

Abstract: IV. Finally, there are studies on the social consequences of the development of science during the scientific-technical revolution. The main aim of these studies is to increase the knowledge of the changes caused by scientific-technical progress and to make possible the control and government of this progress by society. This literature shows that the sociology of science spans over several disciplines, which gives it width, as far as research objects, angles of approach and techniques are concerned. However, the ideological and theoretical starting points are common among the Soviet researchers and influence their choice of object as well as their treatment of it. Science is stated as developing from its own inner dynamics, which is proved by its enormous expansion during the scientific-technical revolution in Capitalist as well as Socialist countries. Simultaneously, a specific system of society at a given point in time, will, according to Soviet authors, set the social premises for the development of science. Therefore, they state that the socialist society is superior as a system in its ability to further scientific achievement. Also, the socialist society will make possible the control and planning of scientific activity as well as the usage of the scientific results in order to plan and govern society’s develop-

Relationships Between Local Union Characteristics and Worker Behavior and Attitudes

Abstract: Relationships between union strength and union members' reactions to their work and their employer were examined among 17 local unions in the construction industry. Union strength was significantly...

Labour Conflicts and Industrial Relations in Italy

Abstract: There exists a wide-ranging literature on the peculiarities and distortions of post-war Italian economic development, and the reader is referred to this for a detailed account of the process. In the present context it will suffice to describe those aspects of the Italian economic system which help explain the course of industrial conflict and the nature of trade union policy. We shall, therefore, limit ourselves to only a few points. Some basic statistical data will be found in Appendix I.

The Subordinate's Exposure of Organizational Vulnerability to the Superior: Sex and Organizational Effects

Abstract: Sixty male and 60 female undergraduates evaluated eight randomly presented messages which were both important for organizational effectiveness and personally threatening to the subordinate. The fol...

Sweden Before and After Social Democracy: A First Overview

Abstract: This is a first report on a research project entitled ‘Sweden Under Social Democracy (1932–76)’. It aims at probing into the effects a uniquely long Social Democratic parliamentary reign have had on the present ‘welfare state’. It is argued that a causal analysis such as this has to start from a historical study and that correlational methods have little value. Sweden is therefore compared with other Western societies before and at the end of the Social Democratic era, with a view to finding out in which areas and the degrees to which Sweden was different. Two alternative hypotheses are presented: (1) The Parliamentary Hypothesis, according to which societal development is determined by parliamentary politics and from which an increasing differentiation between Sweden and countries with other parliamentary configurations is to be expected; (2) The Class Hypothesis, according to which social development is determined by the extraparliamentary social forces reflected in parliamentary politics and reproduced rather than transformed by the latter, unless there is a rupture in the political institutions. Since no such rupture occurred in Sweden in 1932 nor after, from this hypothesis it could be expected that Sweden ought to have remained in about the same relation to other Western states. A first test is then made, with reference to aspects of the social conditions of the population, capital-labour relations, educational, social, and tax policies. No definite conclusions are reached, but the evidence casts reasonable doubt on the Parliamentary Hypothesis and indicates the fruitfulness of the Class Hypothesis as a guide to future explorations.

Japan's Industrial Relations

Abstract: Until now, "lifetime employment" or the "intrafirm labor market" has been emphasized as the distinctive mark of Japanese industrial relations. We can express this in other words as career internalization. But when we make a comparison with the organized sector of America's heavy industries, it is difficult to say that that is peculiar to Japan. Career internalization itself, as far as the organized sectors of the heavy industries of both countries are concerned, has been recognized as common to both. Nonetheless, on that common ground there still are noteworthy differences. According to my observations up to now, they can be summarized as the following six.

Generalizability of Individual Difference Moderators of the Participation in Decision Making-Employee Response Relationship

Abstract: A considerable amount of research including numerous replications has indicated that individual difference moderators of the relationship between the job situation and employee responses do not gen...

The management of industrial relations

Abstract: This paper examines the need for change in the framework of industrial relations and some of the issues suggested by the Government's Green Paper It explores various management approaches to industrial relations and suggests some areas of omission front the Government's present review

The Industrial Relations Setting, Organizational Forces, and the Form and Content of Worker Participation

Abstract: Forces in the industrial relations setting and within organizations which influence the form and content of worker participation are examined. Values, socio-political climate, economic conditions, and bargaining structures are identified as especially salient contextual forces, in addition to organizational dimensions of size, centralization, and technology. Drawing upon a comparative analysis of Western Nations, testable propositions are presented concerning factors which encourage or inhibit participation.

2 – great britain

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter reviews various characteristics of the labor force in Great Britain such as population, total labor force, activity rates, length of work year, industrial and occupational structures, unemployment, and labor market policies. Among all the developed countries, Britain has had the most evolutionary system of industrial relations in the twentieth century, with few major breaks or new directions, at least until the events of the last decade or so. In part, this has been due to the fact that Britain already had a relatively modern economy by 1900 in terms of the structure of its labor force and even its industrial relations institutions, and in part it has been due to Britain's escape from the worst traumatic effects of two world wars. Two further factors, other than the domestic and marital responsibilities that differentiate females from males in the labor force, are that a lower proportion of females go into higher and further education, and that the pensionable retirement age for women is generally 60, rather than 65 as for men.

Supervisory power as an influence in supervisor-subordinate relations.

Abstract: Ninety subjects were randomly assigned to a supervisory role in either a reward only, penalty only, or reward and penalty power condition. The subjects then supervised both successful and unsuccess...

The Changing Role of the State in Industrial Relations in Western Europe

Abstract: The central purpose of this paper is to account for and interpret the major changes which have been taking place in relations between the state, trade unions and (to a lesser extent) employers during the period and in the countries covered by this study. The first step will be briefly to establish a simple conceptual framework which will assist this task of analysis. Next, since the immediate post-war period was an important formative one for industrial relations institutions its main features and subsequent changes will be sketched on a country-by-country basis. Against that background it will then be possible to examine the direction of changes which have taken place in each country since the late 1960s. Finally an attempt will be made to reach some general conclusions.

Occupational Structure, Collective Organisation and Industrial Militancy

Abstract: The growth of white-collar employment has been the most notable, and certainly the most often noted, feature of occupational change within late capitalism. For some two decades, non-manual employees have represented the largest single occupational category in the United States, and the general trend in Western Europe is clearly in this direction. Not suprisingly, the implications of this trend for the labour movement first attracted serious discussion in America: the decline in the traditional proletariat was widely regarded as a central cause of the stagnation and even decline in trade union membership after the late 1940s (e. g. Bell 1954). The premise of this analysis was often that non-manual workers did not possess, and could not be expected to acquire, the collectivist and/or anti-capitalist sentiments seen as the necessary inspiration of a viable labour movement. On occasion this line of argument has been developed to grandiose proportions as an explicit antithesis to the Marxian conception of the historic role of the working class. Thus Bell comments (1974:125–6) that in the utopian visions of Marx and the socialist movement, the working class, made conscious of its fate by the conditions of struggle, was seen as the agency not only of industrial but of human emancipation. … Yet if one takes the industrial worker as the instrument of the future, or, more specifically, the factory worker as the symbol of the proletariat, then this vision is warped. For the paradoxical fact is that as one goes along the trajectory of industrialization — the increasing replacement of men by machines — one comes logically to the erosion of the industrial worker himself. In fact, by the end of the century the proportion of factory workers in the labor force may be as small as the proportion of farmers today. … Instead of the industrial worker, we see the dominance of the professional and technical class in the labor force — so much so that by 1980 it will be the second largest occupational group in the society, and by the end of the century the largest.

The Board of Trade and Industrial Relations 1896–1914

Abstract: From the standpoint of the late Victorian and Edwardian governing classes, the most disturbing feature of the ‘social problem’ was the breakdown of British industrial relations. The long ideological and political truce observed by organized labour more or less since the 18405 had ended. A new and more militant trade unionism had emerged which condemned the consensus policy of the craft unions and challenged both the prerogatives of management and the conventional criteria of wage determination. Not only did it endanger social stability, it was also regarded in government circles as a major obstacle to British economic growth. Industrial unrest would, it was feared, disrupt production, intensify resistance to technical innovation, and weaken Britain's cost competitiveness in world markets. In the establishment press, in the parliamentary reports, and in the political memoirs and diaries of the period, one therefore finds a growing concern to secure industrial peace; a concern reflected in the growth of state intervention in industrial relations.

Economic Development, Labour Conflicts and the Industrial Relations System in West Germany

Abstract: In the following outline of economic development in the Federal Republic of Germany, we shall discuss the changes in conditions for the reproduction and exploitation of labour under West German capitalism, and the effect these have had on the growth of capital and the situation of the workers. Unfortunately, this description must remain sketchy and limited to a few indicators on the macro-economic level; it neither refers to differences between specific industrial sectors nor deals with cyclical fluctuations of economic development in detail. The description is based on three periods that can be more or less clearly identified with regard to the conditions which existed during them.

Industrial Conflict, Workplace Characteristics and Accommodation Structure in the Pilbara Iron Ore Industry

Abstract: The Pilbara Iron Ore industry of Western Australia is one of the most important export earning sectors in Australia. It is also widely regarded as being one of the most strike-prone. This preliminary analysis offers some insight into the attitudes and institutions which appear to be influential in sustairting the current pattern of indtrstrial conflict. It is argued that researchers can play a useful role in helping to create more effective industrial relations structures and procedures.