Employee Relations: An International Journal

Russell D. Lansbury; Duncan Macdonald

1994 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459410066247

Australia offers an example of a formerly centralized system of industrial relations which is in the process of significant change towards a more decentralized and deregulated system. However, many of the criticisms of the previous system, which focused on its inflexibility and rigidity, were based largely on anecdotal evidence. The results of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey revealed that many of these criticisms did not appear to be supported. Presents further evidence, based on a series of detailed case studies, that there was a good deal of flexibility at the workplace level under the so‐called centralized system. It argues that many of the criticisms of the arbitration systems and of union resistance to change, especially by employer organizations, have been misplaced. Indeed, where management pursued a clear strategy to achieve greater efficiency, and actively involved both employees and unions in the process, their initiatives were generally well received and successful.

Carole Brooke

1994 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459410066265

During 1990, one of the largest service sector companies in the UK was in the process of implementing major change. Top management believed that total quality management (TQM) was an appropriate vehicle for such change. However, the research suggested that the quality objectives of the organization were contradicted in practice. This contradiction resonated with an apparently entrenched bias in the literature towards objective and realist philosophies of TQM implementation. It was concluded that the inability of TQM theory to handle cultural aspects and employee concerns had been translated into a critical gap between espoused philosophy and implementation techniques. Analyses empirical material by applying semiotics to the work process. Highlights that so‐called “quality methods” distance individuals from their acts of labour. Human resource concerns become subsumed beneath heavily objectified techniques which separate the individual from the software product itself. By reference to the work of writers in the TQM field, demonstrates how a general gap has been created between desire and deeds which allows quality to drain away. For the company under study it was an ironic impasse: it had introduced methods to promote quality which instead acted as barriers to its achievement.

Hans Jürgen Drumm

1994 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459410066274

Poses the question whether, on an academic level, human resource management (HRM) is a scientific discipline of management. To arrive at an answer, brings together findings of a survey concerning the foundations of HRM then links them by four central hypotheses. The first (rather speculative) hypothesis claims that, in Germany at least, the discussion of HRM problems over the last 30 years has been selective and influenced by different and changing paradigms of HRM. The second hypothesis is that nearly all formulations of HRM concepts have to be embedded in a national context. The third hypothesis states that even given the restricting effect of hypotheses one and two, a theory pitfall exists preventing any theoretical foundation of effective HRM and forcing us to construct intelligent, but untested, HRM hypotheses. The fourth hypothesis links the problems of these untested hypotheses with the problem of ethical norms for HRM in theory and practice. The final judgement is that the high theoretical requirements of HRM as an academic discipline cannot be fulfilled.

Roger Welch

1994 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459410066283

Examines the development of the current position in Britain, along with initiatives at EC and now EU level, to institutionalize collective structures for employee involvement along common lines. In the context of the latter, the emphasis will be on the European Commission′s proposals for European undertakings to establish European works councils (EWCs). As will be detailed below, these proposals were contained in a draft directive, agreed in 1991, and are now being progressed under the provisions of the Social Protocol. Also draws on empirical research undertaken in East Anglia to determine the extent to which trade unions continue to be recognized, and the employers′ awareness of the content of EC/EU initiatives. Discusses the implications of this research for the future direction of employee involvement in this country. Particular emphasis is given to the interests of trade unions and the extent to which they should welcome initiatives from the EU, such as the EWC Directive.

Gregor Gall

1994 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459410066292

Over 80 companies and organizations have recently changed their collective bargaining arrangements to introduce “single table bargaining” (STB). This sharp rise follows on from only a small number of companies introducing this change in the 1980s. Under STB all the different unions and grades of workers, including manual and non‐manual workers in the same company who had previously bargained separately, are brought together into one bargaining unit. Linked to the move to STB are changes in payment and conditions of work. Seeks to examine the reasons for the growth in STB and the potential benefits and disadvantages to the trade unions and their members as a result of the changes arising from STB.