Employment Relations

Citation

Cunningham, I. (2001), "Employment Relations", Employee Relations, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 643-646. https://doi.org/10.1108/er.2001.23.6.643.1

Ed Rose’s book Employment Relations claims to be an essential text for undergraduate, CIPD, postgraduate students and Independent Learners. The aim of the book appears to be to provide students with a theoretical underpinning to the study of employment relations, while also aiding them in developing skills needed by practitioners. The book is divided into 13 chapters that cover much of the standard themes for teaching purposes. There are dedicated chapters to employers and trade unions, the role of the state, collective bargaining, negotiation, industrial action, and the non‐union environment.

Each chapter is generally comprehensive in its coverage. For example, in chapter 2 “Employers and the management of industrial relations”, Rose covers managerial control and the labour process, Taylorism, Braverman, typologies of personnel management and an introduction to human resource management. In chapter 4, the coverage of the state examines theoretical perspectives on the role of government, includes a large section on government economic policy 1945‐1999, and an evaluation of New Labour’s Employment Relations Act 1999.

These early chapters of the book present the reader with quite a daunting challenge. For example, chapter 1 introduces the parties to employment relations, proceeds to take a historical summary of the development of British industrial relations, followed by an overview of the theoretical approaches to employment relations and finishing with a summary of the economic context. Indeed, the section on theoretical approaches to industrial relations includes a summary of mobilisation theory and postmodernism. These are necessary inclusions that reflect the contemporary debates in the subject area, but this reviewer questions the capacity of undergraduate students to understand the nuances of each approach within what would probably be a one semester course. However, for postgraduate students this material should stimulate further reading and a more in‐depth understanding of the subject area.

The quality within the commentary of these chapters is generally good, and there are also some additional points worth mentioning. In a similar vein to the Salamon (2000) edition of Industrial Relations Theory and Practice, chapters are interspersed with real examples of union and company policies and interactive case studies. For example, chapter 9 examining negotiation provides an “interactive case” based on an actual pay round and provides substantial background case material and roles for students to engage in role plays. The chapters on discipline and grievance and redundancy also contain case studies for students to role‐play. For tutors who struggle to develop new case studies in these areas to satisfy the requirements of CIPD skills modules, these should provide a useful tool. In addition, the text includes questions to the reader for the purposes of self‐evaluation, with appropriate responses at the back of each chapter for guidance.

Moreover, as well as this standard fare the book does attempt to provide students with insights into other contemporary developments in the employment relationship. For example, in chapter 5 “The new industrial and workplace relations” a section is devoted to work in call centres, with specific attention given to prospects for union organisation. There is also a chapter (11) dedicated to discussing discrimination in the employment relationship. The focus of this chapter is mostly related to ethnicity and gender, but it does give some limited consideration to issues surrounding disability, age and sexual orientation.

A criticism of this book is that in trying to cover the breadth of ground that it does, some of the commentary lacks depth. For example, the sections within various chapters on the impact of the European union on UK employment relations are a little too descriptive. In addition, the section in chapter 4 on the recognition procedures of the Employment Relations Act would have benefited from some additional analysis of lessons from previous efforts to legislate in this area during the 1970s or from the experience in the USA. In addition, in covering industrial action there is an over‐emphasis on strike patterns and the law to the detriment of debates regarding other forms of resistance and conflict within the workplace.

Moreover, this reviewer is not entirely convinced of the merit of discussing industrial action and employee participation within the same chapter. Rose argues that the rationale for this is that “democratic and participative processes ensure that conflicts do not pose a threat to the dominant class‐based interests within wider society” (p. 352). However, it would have been useful to explore this rationale in a little more depth.

An additional issue with this book, and similar texts such as Salamon’s, which this reviewer feels needs to be raised, is that in trying to provide an academic and technicist knowledge of the subject matter of employment relations, the author is in danger of falling between two stools. Certainly, the CIPD require that “thinking practitioners” in HR should have both the skills and academic knowledge to achieve graduate status and perform effectively in the workplace. However, to try and cover both aspects in one volume is a difficult balance to achieve. There are very few links between the chapters outlining the theoretical perspectives on employment relations and the ones that are more skills‐based, practitioner‐orientated. There is a summary of Foucault’s and Weber’s contributions to the study of discipline within chapter 10, but these amount to little more than two pages before proceeding to substantial review of the design of disciplinary procedures. This reviewer feels, that this amounts to an imbalance in terms of developing an adequate understanding of the area of discipline.

However, these criticisms are not designed to dismiss this book. Its content is wide‐ranging and in many areas informative. It should provide a useful addition to the reading lists of IR students.