Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations

This volume brings together a comprehensive assessment of the partnership approach to employment relations. Partnership represents an attempt to shift the culture of employment relations away from zero-sum and adversarial relationships. Within the British context, it has formed a critical part of the Labour government''s new employment policy and forms a key underpinning of its modernisation of employment relations. It has also been seen as central to the debate around trade union renewal and revitalisation.
Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations addresses three broad and related sets of questions. First, do partnership-style employment relations contribute to high performance management and economic improvement? Second, what are the consequences of partnership for trade union policy and practice and the institutional relations forged with employers? Third, is there a political and regulatory basis for new co-operative employment relations? Drawing from the work of leading researchers in the area, the contributions present conceptually grounded studies that explore the key dimensions of partnership in terms of the economic, organisational, social and political imperatives for the modernisation of employment relations.

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Table of contents : The context of partnership
1. Mark Stuart and Miguel Martinez Lucio: Partnership and the modernisation of employment relations: an overview
2. Peter Ackers, Mick Marchington, Adrian Wilkinson and Tony Dundon: 'Partnership and voice, with or without trade unions: changing UK management approaches to organisational participation'
3. Helen Rainbird: 'A new and modern role for trade unions? assessing partnership approaches to lifelong learning'
4. Simon Deakin, Richard Hobbs, Suzanne J Konzelmann and Frank Wilkinson: 'Corporate governance and innovation in labour-management partnerships in Britain'
The process of partnership
5. Sarah Oxenbridge and William Brown: 'Developing partnership relationships: a case of leveraging power'
6. Gregor Gall: 'Breaking with, and breaking, 'partnership': the case of the postal workers and the Royal Mail in Britain'
7. David Beale: 'The promotion and prospects of partnership at Inland Revenue: employer and union hand in hand?'
8. Mark Stuart and Miguel Martinez Lucio: 'Assessing the principles, risks and gains of partnership: a survey analysis of trade union representatives'
The outcomes of partnership
9. John Kelly: Social partnership agreements in Britain
10. David Wray: 'Management and union motives in the negotiation of partnership: a case study of process and outcome at an engineering company'
11. Mike Richardson, Paul Stewart, Andy Danford, Stephanie Tailby and Martin Upchurch: 'Employees' experiences of workplace partnership in the private and public sector'
12. Edmund Heery, Hazel Conley, Rich Delbridge and Paul Stewart: 'Seeking partnership for the contingent workforce'
13. William K Roche and John F Geary: 'Workplace partnership and the search for dual commitment'
Assessing partnership
14. Richard Hyman: 'Whose (social) partnership?'
15. Mark Stuart and Miguel Martinez Lucio: 'Coda: the future of partnership'