Employee Relations: Volume 46 Issue 6

Guest editorial: Reframing Fox: the continued impact of “Beyond Contract” and “Man Mismanagement” 50 years on

Andy Hodder, Michael Gold

Understanding the frames before Fox: the development of unitary and pluralist views on organisations

Andy Hodder

This article examines the intellectual antecedents of Alan Fox’s frames of reference and contributes to academic work that seeks to unravel the pre-Donovan roots of British…

Before the “fall”: Alan Fox's “intellectual crisis” and early pluralist history and sociology

Peter Ackers

This paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological…

Alan Fox in the shadow of the labour process

Niall Cullinane

The 50th anniversary of Fox's Beyond Contract and Man Mismanagement coincides with another vital contribution to the sociology of work from 1974: Braverman's Labor and Monopoly…

Alan Fox and the managerial “unitary” frame of reference in unionised companies: context, roots, elaboration and international applicability

Dave Lyddon, Xuebing Cao

This study investigates the origins and elaboration of the managerial “unitary” frame of reference associated with Alan Fox, focusing on unionised firms: the industrial relations…

Industrial relations, the New Right and the praxis of mismanagement

Tony Dobbins, Tony Dundon

The purpose of the article is to outline the insights provided by Alan Fox in Man Mismanagement in relation to the rise of the New Right political economy and the spread of…

Radical pluralism, high inflation, and trust in historical context: the continued relevance of Fox in understanding UK public sector strikes

Melanie Simms

The paper uses key themes from Fox’s writing to reflect on the wave of public sector industrial action that developed in the UK since the early 2020s: specifically the relevance…

Pluralism and corporate governance reform

Chris Rees

The article considers the utility of a pluralist perspective in the context of current debates around UK corporate governance reform. Oxford School pluralism advanced both a…

The new pluralism: interests, identity and social change

Patrick McGovern

The paper reviews Fox’s frames of reference against subsequent changes in the composition of the labour force, shifts in social values and the arrival of the politics of identity.

Reframing: a feminist reflection on Alan Fox

Anne-marie Greene, Heather Connolly, Deborah Dean

This paper contributes to the broad aim of this special issue, reflecting on the relevance of the writing of Alan Fox to the contemporary industrial relations field. It offers an…