Documents Barry, Michael 10 results

"This paper examines the German low cost airline industry by analysing how the growth of low cost competition has influenced the industry's pattern of employment relations. The paper highlights the role of Lufthansa, as both the traditional flag carrier and the leading site of employment relations within the German aviation sector. The paper explains how Lufthansa has positioned itself to face low cost competition by, among other initiatives, creating its own low cost subsidiary (Germanwings). Competitive pressures, stemming from the liberalization of European aviation and demand for low cost travel, have produced a marked divergence in this industry from the typical pattern of German employment relations. The paper explains this divergence by situating the case study within the varieties of capitalism literature. "

"The authors identify 10 core principles of industrial relations (IR) theory and policy, based on the writings of British IR founders Beatrice Webb and Sidney Webb and U.S. IR founder John Commons. These principles are then represented diagrammatically in an expanded IR version of the Marshallian demand/supply (DS) model. The DS and IR models, representing on one side the merits of abstraction and parsimony and on the other realism and complexity, are applied to a case study: an analysis and explanation of the reasons behind the formation of the Australian IR system in the 1890s and its evolution to 2010. Although the DS model captures important forces behind the shift from a centralized and unionized employment system in the early period to a significantly decentralized and deunionized system in the latter period, the evidence indicates the extra structural and behavioral elements in the IR model are important for a full and accurate explanation. "

"The Research Handbook of Comparative Employment Relations is an essential resource for those seeking to understand contemporary developments in the world of work, and the way in which employment relations systems are evolving around the world.
Special consideration is given to the impact of globalization and the role of multinational corporations, including their consequences for the fate of workers' rights under existing national systems of employment relations (ER) regulation. This Handbook is unique in taking an explicitly comparative approach by discussing ER developments through a series of paired country comparisons. These chapters include a wide selection of countries from all regions, looking beyond those that are frequently discussed. The expert contributors also examine comparative issues from a range of perspectives, including industrial and employment relations, political economy, comparative politics, and cross-cultural studies. These impressive features make this important reference tool the most comprehensive of its kind."

"The decline of institutional industrial relations has led to a major reassessment of the way that traditional industrial relations actors operate. Yet, the debate about institutional change has been characteristically asymmetrical in as much as some institutional actors have figured extensively while others have been much less prominent. Historically, employer coordination has not captured the attention of the industrial relations community and there are relatively few contemporary studies of the activities of employer associations. The purpose of this article is to review and critique the literature on employer associations and explain how the traditional concept of countervailing power can be developed to reconceptualise employer coordination. We then argue for a research agenda to re-examine employer associations in light of ongoing changes to employment relations systems that require these bodies to revise the ways that they coordinate employer interests. "

"Using new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, we examine the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, accounting for possible interactions with union and management-led high-commitment strategies. We focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices. Our findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and HIHR policies. There is no evidence in our estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e., that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or full mediation (i.e., that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being). If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management. This is the first time – to the authors' knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being have been estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, whilst controlling for workplace institutions that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers."

"The industrial relations (IR) field in Canada and the United States (US) emerged in the late 1910s-early 1920s and is thus on the cusp of its 100th anniversary. The impetus for the creation of the IR field was growing public alarm in both countries over the escalating level of conflict, violence, and class polarization in employer-employee relations. The two countries established federal-level government investigative committees, the Royal Commission on Industrial Relations (1919) in Canada and the Commission on Industrial Relations (1911-1915) in the US, to travel cross-country, gather evidence, and report their findings and overall evaluation.

To commemorate the IR field's centenary, this paper conducts the same type of cross-national ER evaluation, but with modern methods. First, this exercise requires a formal evaluation instrument, like a physical exam worksheet. Adopted is a modified version of a balanced scorecard. Second, the scorecard's framework and questions should be theoretically informed. The framework used is a modified version of the diagrammatic model of an IR system presented by Mackenzie King in Industry and Humanity (1918). The third step is to fill in the scorecard with data from individual workplaces, which are obtained for the US from a new nationally-representative survey of 2000+ workplaces, the State of Workplace Employment Relations Survey (SWERS). The fourth step is to aggregate all the diagnostic measures to obtain a summary numerical estimate for each of the companies of its state of ER performance and health.

Based on a 1-7 (7 = highest) scale, then converted to F to A grades, we find that the average ER grade given by managers is B+ and by employees C+. The company scores are graphed in a frequency distribution that visually represents, for the first time in the literature, the lowest-to-highest pattern of employment relations performance and health across the US."

"This cutting-edge book charts the latest ideas and concepts in employment relations research. Mapping out the intellectual boundaries of the field, The Future of Work and Employment outlines the key research and policy outcomes for work and employment in the age of digitisation and artificial intelligence. Internationally renowned contributors unpack the implications of the latest developments in employment relations, from the rise of the gig economy to the role of platform companies, from perspectives such as employment (in)security, equity, fairness, wellbeing and voice. Reviewing the extant literature on the future of work, and exploring the biggest issues facing the modern workforce, this book argues for a research base that allows more sober reflections on the grand claims that dictate the future of work. Empirically-grounded and incisively-argued, the book forms critical reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of business and human resource management, featuring insight into the latest developments in the field. Researchers, policymakers and practitioners will also benefit from its implications for policy and its blending of theory and practice."

"The frames of reference model developed by Fox, and extended by a number of other authors, is arguably the central paradigm framework in the employment/industrial relations field. Despite its importance and popularity, use of frames of reference to structure empirical analysis and develop hypotheses is relatively rare and, to the best of our knowledge, the framework and its key constructs and principles have themselves never been empirically examined with data from a representative cross-section of workplaces using quantitative methods. This article, with the aid of a new four-country (Australia, Canada, UK, and US) survey data set on 7000+ workplaces, initiates this kind of empirical study. The frames of reference distinguish three main types of employment relationships: unitarist, pluralist, radical. We select six attitudinal/behavioral indicators from the data set that distinguish which frame a workplace is in, combine them to form a Relational Quality Index, plot the 7000+ Relational Quality Index observations as four-country frequency distributions, and use different statistical criteria to indicate the relative size of each frame. We next do regression analysis in which the 7000+ workplace Relational Quality Index scores are the dependent variable and construct from the data set 20 frames of reference explanatory variables. As theory predicts, workplaces with stronger common (opposed) interests have better (worse) employer–employee relations."

"The ‘frames of reference' concept has been a significant and enduring feature of industrial/employment relations since being developed by Alan Fox; and yet there has been only limited scholarly research seeking to develop the frames. We introduce this special issue by reviewing the extant literature on frames which provides a backdrop to the five article contributions that explore the frames in both new and historical light. The special issues ask the following questions: Do the traditional frames continue to provide insights into the perceptions and behaviour of employers and employees? If not, how might existing frames be broadened by new (or indeed historical) developments and insights? A re-examination of frames of reference is both important and timely given the many changes currently impacting work and employment. Our hope is that by reflecting on and celebrating the influence of Alan Fox on our thinking, we can also chart a forward-looking research agenda that continues to use his insights and apply them to the field as well as developing and continuing to engage with them."