Employee Relations: An International Journal

Jon Sundbo

1999 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459910266385

The article deals with creation of corporate entrepreneurship as an induced empowerment process. It investigates two issues: how well firms succeed in developing entrepreneurship competences; and the conditions for success. The investigation is based on a case study of a small Danish bank. The theoretical framework consists of three categories: innovation theory; organization theory (competence building and organizational learning); and HRM theory (extended barter). It is possible to develop an innovative, learning organization based on corporate entrepreneurship. The condition is primarily that the extended barter between the firm and the employees is satisfactory for both parties.

Michael Sanderson; James Taggart

1999 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000004553

Previous research has highlighted the trend that ACAS advice has long been held in high esteem by both employers and employees alike. A study of small to medium sized manufacturing establishments in Renfrewshire, Scotland, suggests that employers prefer partial advice as opposed to impartial advice. Instead they may turn to alternative bodies other than ACAS which have the ability to offer employee relations “support”, which is beyond the remit of ACAS. In light of limited resources due to funding constraints, the implications for the provision of ACAS advice are examined in relation to alternative bodies offering employee relations help.

D.R. Cooper

1999 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459910266411

Defined benefit occupational pension schemes are a valuable employee benefit. This paper looks at problems in their design and considers whether it is possible to address them. The risk profile of money purchase schemes is described, with particular reference to employees in less secure employment categories. These considerations are set alongside the requirements employers have from occupational pension schemes. The conclusion is that money purchase schemes fail to meet employees’ needs, in particular at a time when the security and level of state pensions is being progressively eroded. An alternative defined benefit structure is proposed, that is, the revalued career average pension scheme. It is argued that this benefit structure can be made attractive to both employers and employees, as it addresses many of the problems associated with final salary schemes and provides pension scheme members with the security they value.

Neil Ritson

1999 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459910266439

Human Resource Management in the literature has been considered a second‐ or third‐order strategy largely related to implementation. Argues that the process of strategy formulation and evaluation has not been correctly conceptualised. The evidence that HR issues are fundamental to business is compelling at the level of unit labour costs, but whether they are fundamental to the strategy process has remained highly questionable. The paper suggests that a favourable HR environment has to be established before the various strategic choices can be analysed. Empirical research in two UK oil and chemical companies provides evidence that the effect of HR issues on corporate strategy is understated. The assumption of a top‐down, linear model of strategy formulation, whether positionally‐ or resource‐based, is questioned and an alternative conception is discussed.

Annemarie Piso

1999 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425459910266448

A coherent theoretical class analysis of hotel and catering workers can provide a systematic means by which to explain the behaviour of these workers in reaction to their employment. By examining the class relations within this industry, the paper challenges the notion that hotel and catering workers are in any sense unique, but rather, suggests that the economic role that these workers serve is as much a function of capitalist relations of production as that of workers more commonly associated with high levels of unionisation. Though recognising that real structural barriers exist impeding union growth and leading to individualised forms of resistance among workers, the paper sets out to emphasise that the antagonistic industrial relations arising from the work situation of hotel and catering workers can at the same time provide a fertile ground for more collective forms of resistance thus laying the basis for higher levels of unionisation.