Employee Relations: An International Journal

McCarthy, William

1993 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459310047339

Twentyfive years on, the Director of Research of Britains RoyalCommission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations 1968 reviewssubsequent events in pay and incomes policies, analyses theircontemporary relevance, particularly over the need for aneffective incomes policy. From the starting point of theneed for stable internal pay structures, the analysis covers thecascade effect of uncontrolled pay drift. Feltfairinequities especially at management levels are shown as a prime causeof pay inflation and as a consequence of high unemployment. Concludeswith a fourpoint agenda for change which tackles and differentiates theprivate and public sectors, and concludes with an indictment ofperformancerelated pay.

Ford, Janet; Wilson, Marilyn

1993 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459310047348

A substantial proportion of people in debt are inemployment. Increasingly, employers can be required by the courts torecover debts for creditors from employees via the attachment ofearnings process. However, there are claims that the process has a rangeof negative consequences for both employers and employees, includingcosts, lowered motivation, and changes in the recruitment and retentionof labour. Presents data from a recent study of the attachment ofearnings process which assess the validity of a number of these claims.Draws attention to the differential perceptions of the significance ofattachment on the part of employers and employees and the consequencesof this for managing attachment within employing organizations.

Holmes, Teresa; Cartwright, Sue

1993 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459310047357

There are many compelling social and economic reasons why managersand professionals may decide or be obliged to consider changing careersat mid life. While 30 years ago, only two out of every 100 executiveswere likely to make a radical career change, during the last decade,this figure has risen to 35 per cent. In reviewing the literature,examines the needs and motives for career change and the individual,organizational and wider societal factors likely to facilitate or impedethat change. Reports on a continuing study comparing the experiences andcharacteristics of successful and unsuccessful midcareer changers andsuggests that personality differences may play an important role indetermining outcomes.

Flood, Patrick; Turner, Thomas

1993 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459310047366

A feature of the industrial landscape in the 1990s is the emergenceof a growing number of nonunion companies. Numerous factors have beensuggested to explain this increase such as an increasingly competitiveproduct market fear of unemployment a shift in managerial attitudestowards trade unions and the use of human resource management policieswhich are inimical to unionism. However, the most comprehensive attemptto establish the factors which increase the probability of unionavoidance among companies is to be found in the industrial relationsliterature in the USA. Based on a survey of Irish manufacturingcompanies, evaluates the explanatory framework which has emerged fromthis literature and concludes that its validity is questionable in anIrish context.