Employee Relations: An International Journal

Christine Y. Edwards; Olive Robinson

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000005898

Part-time working has been traditionally associated with poor quality, low skill jobs in the secondary labour market. Explores the expansion of part-time work into skilled occupations using case studies in nursing and the police. Employees in both services have pay and conditions wholly pro-rated with full-time colleagues. However, despite a potentially strong bargaining position in relation to the employer, these part-timers had not achieved complete equality with full time counterparts. Demonstrates a breaking of the mould of poor quality part-time jobs showing that better jobs can be worked on a part-time basis. Concludes, however, that full equality is unlikely to be achieved without strategic intervention at the workplace level.

Abigail Marks

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000005897

Suggests a way in which the psychological contract can be reconceptualized as a construct with multiple foci. Presents an argument for examining psychological contracts with importance placed on work groups. Concludes that previous conceptualizations of the psychological contract have concentrated on the relationship between employee and organization. Argues that it is, however, more multifarious.

Gillian A. Maxwell; Sharon Blair; Marilyn McDougall

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110405161

Analyses the notion and value of managing diversity to establish its current theoretical positioning and potential organisational significance. Focuses on a recent case study examination of equality at work in a major, national public sector organisation. Affords an insight into an organisational shift towards managing diversity, through the lens of key organisational stakeholders. Within this case, proposes three emergent practical implications of managing diversity which may have resonance for other public sector organisations.

Malcolm Sargeant

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110405170

Concerns the current and proposed mandatory requirements for employers to collectively consult those who work for them. Shows that the rhetoric in favour of consultation as a process of co-operation in the mutual interests of both employers and employees can lead to weak and ineffective legislation. Rather than having a model of mutuality of interests, it might be necessary to adopt a conflictual model, where mandatory consultation is seen as imposing obligations on employers and giving rights to employees.

Suzanne Richbell; H. Doug Watts

2001 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450110405189

Reviews the concept of a "greenfield site" within human resource management (HRM) and shows that the ways in which distance is conceptualised or measured in describing greenfield sites needs to be made explicit. This is particularly important when comparing different studies and in attempting generalisations about the introduction of new HRM practices on greenfield sites. The distance factors which may impose a constraint on the introduction of new HRM practices at a greenfield site are the site's distance from a firm's existing operations, its distance from geographical concentrations of similar economic activities and its distance from regions with traditional patterns of management-employee relations. Concludes by arguing that it is inappropriate to treat the greenfield factor as a dichotomous variable and that there are various shades of green.