Employee Relations: An International Journal

Anne‐Mette Hjalager; Steen Andersen

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110384165

The period 1980-1995 saw the emergence of a more professional Danish tourist sector, with increasing numbers of both employees and entrepreneurs possessing a formal degree or diploma of some kind. Investigates the profile of employees with dedicated training and finds that their educational background does not give them any particular advantages vis-à-vis employees with less relevant qualifications. The retention of employees is a critical problem in Danish tourism, but while turnover is extremely high among the unskilled, significantly better retention rates are found among those with a professional or vocational tourism education. Discusses the implications of the retention pattern, arguing that tourism shares its professional labour market with neighbouring sectors, and that the industry and educational support framework must therefore take account of this. However, there is a very real risk of losing the competition for the best-qualified staff. Finally, it is postulated that tourism is a locus for new types of career concepts; however, we still lack a genuine understanding of the role of tourism for the contingent or boundaryless career.

Sean R. Valentine

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110384507

The relationships between intention to look for work and gender, race, and job complexity are assessed using a national sample of working young adults in the USA (n = 3,622). The effects of gender and race on job complexity are also assessed. The results of the path analysis indicate that women perceive greater complexity in their jobs than do men. The findings also suggest that minority groups experience lower job complexity compared to their Anglo counterparts. Finally, intention to look for work was positively affected by racial minority status and negatively influenced by job complexity. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.

Frank Burchill

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110384516

Examines change in the further education (FE) sector since the incorporation in 1993 and its effects on aspects of human resource management (HRM) and, in particular, on employee relations. Argues that change was forced through in FE to a greater extent, and in a more compressed period of time, than in other parts of the public sector. The results of three surveys, carried out simultaneously, are used to support this argument, and to generate evidence on how the process has been perceived by three sets of important actors and reveals some of the contradictions in their interpretation of events. Highlights changes in the bargaining structure and approaches to HRM. An overall conclusion is that the situation in FE has moved from competition at the social level in terms of employers and employees and compliance at the workplace, to arm's length accommodation and compliance. Nevertheless, the situation is ripe for partnership - cooperation at the social level and commitment at the place of work.

Peter Haynes; Michael Allen

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110384697

Two general viewpoints on workplace "partnership" as a union strategy are identified: it is seen as either a potentially effective strategy for restoring union influence, or as fatally flawed. Discusses the determinants of robust union-management partnership relations in order to assist the evaluation of "partnership unionism" as a union strategy. Outlines a definition of workplace partnership based on practice. Although common elements with earlier attempts to promote or implement union-management cooperation can be discerned, it is argued that contemporary workplace partnership has distinctive characteristics arising from its specific context. Two cases are used to illustrate the internal dynamics of workplace partnership and the nature of interaction with environmental factors. The necessary components of robust partnership relations are thereby isolated. Partnership is found to be not only compatible with, but dependent upon, stronger workplace organisation. Such an understanding is found to be a possible alternative to accounts that stress union incorporation and demobilisation.

José Alberto Bayo‐Moriones; Javier Merino‐Díaz de Cerio

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110384705

Attempts to discover any possible links between company size and the handling of human resource management (HRM) in the case of Spanish industrial production workers. The data used as a basis for this study were obtained by means of a survey carried out on 965 Spanish industrial firms covering such aspects as compensation policy, job design and training. The results provide evidence of significant differences in the majority of the practices included in the survey, with a tendency towards their fuller development in larger sized firms. Some areas of human resource management, however, such as job description, promotion within the firm and the use of incentive schemes, do not differ.