1st Edition

Employment Relations in Non-Union Firms

By Tony Dundon, Derek Rollinson Copyright 2004
    200 Pages
    by Routledge

    198 Pages
    by Routledge

    The precise relationship between an employee and employer is often ambiguous within complex organizational boundaries. This book re-evaluates the way employment relations are conceptualized and examines employment conditions in non-union organizations.

    The authors present a detailed analysis of the conditions and patterns of employment relations in both small and large non-union firms. They assess the impact of regulation, managerial ideology and market influences on employer strategies to avoid unionization. Using social and psychological exchange, the book concludes with an assessment of the capacity of workers to act as an agent of change in these non-union relationships. The implications for worker mobilization, trade union expansion and employer strategies are also considered in the light of detailed case study analysis.

    1. The Non-Union Phenomenon 2. The Employment Relationship Re-Visited 3. Factors Affecting the Employment Relationship 4. Research Methods and Methodologies 5. Water Co.: A Case of Exploitative Autocracy 6. Chem Co.: A Case of Benevolent Autocracy 7. Merchant Co.: A Case of Manipulative Regulation 8. Delivery Co.: A Case of Sophisticated Human Relations? 9. Towards an Explanation of Non-Union Employment Relations

    Biography

    Tony Dundon is Lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, and research director for High Performance Work Systems, Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC), National University of Ireland, Galway. Derek Rollinson is Principal Lecturer in Employee Relations, Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Analysis at Huddersfield University Business School. His main research interests are in the internal dynamics of discipline and grievance handling and control in organisations.

    'Dundon and Rollinson offer a compelling assessment of how the employment relationship is made and modified in the absence of a trade union.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School

    ' This is a masterly analysis that demonstrates the complexity of non-union employment relations and the inherent contradictions therein.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School