Employee Relations: An International Journal

Pawan S. Budhwar

2003 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450310456442

This paper examines the employment relations (ERs) scenario in Indian organisations. The investigation is based on a questionnaire survey of 137 Indian firms in the manufacturing sector. The analysis of existing literature highlights the role of three key actors (management, unions, and the state) in the management of ERs in Indian organisations. It also shows the significant impact of the competitive pressures created by the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the changing nature of ERs in Indian firms. The study has key implications both for academicians and for practitioners.

John Sutherland

2003 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450310456451

This paper uses a matched workplace‐employee data set to examine the extent to which individuals’ experiences of work and experiences of practices at work, as measured by selected indicators of worker wellbeing, are explained by the nation state of the head office of the workplace. Seven dimensions of worker wellbeing are identified and examined. The paper establishes that employees have different experiences if employed in a workplace in which the head office is located in France, Germany, Japan or the USA relative to the reference category of being employed in a workplace which is UK‐owned.

Jean Jenkins Boggis

2003 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450310456460

This paper undertakes a comparative study of two large UK clothing plants in the 1990s with earlier twentieth century studies of clothing workshops undertaken in the late 1950s by Cunnison and Lupton, and in the late 1970s by Edwards and Scullion. Traditionally the clothing industry is identified with a history of low wages and poor conditions of employment. Though increasingly subject to global market pressures, research findings from this study illuminate workplaces in the 1990s with much in common with the aforementioned historical studies, offering working conditions that leave the clothing worker isolated, individualised and struggling to survive.

Donald Hislop

2003 Employee Relations: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/01425450310456479

This paper contributes to the development of the knowledge management and human resource management literatures through developing the linkages between them. Increasingly it is being acknowledged that the success of knowledge management initiatives is fundamentally predicated on having workers who are prepared to share their knowledge. It is suggested that HRM concepts and frameworks could be utilized to improve our understanding of what shapes the willingness (or reluctance) of workers to share their knowledge. Specifically the paper considers how the motivation of workers to share their knowledge may be shaped by their level of organizational commitment. Guest and Conway’s model of the psychological contract is modified to link commitment with knowledge‐sharing attitudes and behaviours. Finally, it is suggested that, if commitment is linked to knowledge‐sharing attitudes, then the apparently low commitment levels reported by a number of surveys may mean this represents a key problem for knowledge management initiatives.