Employee Relations: An International Journal

Ian Roper

2000 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450010377579

This article explores the implementation of quality management initiatives in four local authorities and considers how far such a scenario offers a possibility for social partnership between management and trade unions. Although no collective bargaining processes are defined in the social partnership model, it is contended here that the implied collective bargaining model in social partnership is Walton and McKersie’s “integrative bargaining” model. It is further contended that the scenario of implementing quality management in local government offers all the preconditions for integrative bargaining to take place – both in terms of the legitimate presence of recognised unions and through the pursuit of an issue in which management, staff and trade unions may have mutual interests. In practice, however, conditions for integrative bargaining outcomes did not emerge. Evidence for this was based on assessing senior manager and union branch official opinions through interviews, and on survey responses from Unison members.

Rozhan Bin Othman; June M.L. Poon

2000 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450010377588

The link between business strategy and human resource management (HRM) practices has received considerable attention from researchers. It is generally believed that integrating strategy and HRM will result in positive organizational outcomes. The empirical evidence for the strategy‐HRM relationship is, however, still inconclusive. For example, it is still unclear as to how these two variables are linked and what other variables are involved. Therefore, this study sought to test a model of the relationships among competitive strategy, HRM practice, quality management approach, and management orientation. Data from a survey of 108 manufacturing companies were analyzed using path analysis. The results indicated that management orientation predicted quality management approach, competitive strategy, and HRM practice. In addition, quality management approach and competitive strategy mediated the relationship between HRM practice and competitive strategy. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Patricia Findlay; Alan McKinlay; Abigail Marks ; Paul Thompson

2000 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450010349165

Research on organisational learning is limited in three ways; in terms of the type of organisation and the type of employees which are seen to benefit from a learning culture; and in terms of the consensual assumptions made about the nature of learning within the workplace, assumptions which contradict the reality of the workplace for most people. Other researchers have attempted to form a typology of learning; they are narrowly constructed and often internal to the enterprise; learning is often de‐contextualised from other organisational processes. In response to these criticisms, we have framed and measured a holistic concept of learning that more readily takes account of organisational context. This paper presents data on learning within two traditional companies operating in the food and drinks sector. In particular it is concerned with long‐term organisational learning in light of discussions of the mutual gains workplace, reflecting more general concerns about organisational behaviour.

Kirsty Newsome

2000 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450010377597

This article is concerned with exploring changes in the organisation of work in the graphical industry. The aim is to examine the link between employer attempts to restructure work and resilience of the prevailing machinery of collective regulation within the sector. It is structured around three main areas of work organisation change, notably the search for organisational flexibility, attempts to recast the nature of work and finally the intensification of work. It concludes by arguing that threats to union organisation emanating from the restructuring of work currently appear to be at the “edges”. The argument is that a “community of interest and identity” predicated upon strong levels of union organisation has created the necessary apparatus to redress or resist attempts to dilute unionism. However the article closes by highlighting the continuing gender segregation within the sector and argues that this community of interest must extend to cover all workers within the industry.