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1、THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP 1 1 THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP AND THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS PAUL EDWARDS The term industrial relations (IR) came into common use in Britain and North America during the 1920s. It has been joined by personnel management (PM) and, since the 1980s, human resource m

2、anagement (HRM). All three denote a practical activity (the management of people) and an area of academic enquiry. Texts in all three fields commonly take as their starting point the corporate assertion that people are our most important asset: if this is indeed so, there is little further need to j

3、ustify a text. Yet we need first to explain what lies behind this apparent axiom. It is then important to highlight some of the key current issues about the conduct of work in modern Britain. We can then consider how IR as an academic approach addresses these issues and the distinction between it an

4、d the other two fields of enquiry. Finally, the structure of the book is explained. First, some basic explanation. Industry is sometimes equated with manufac- turing, as in contrasts between industry and services. Industrial relations has in principle never been so restricted. In practice, however,

5、attention until recently often focused on certain parts of the economy. These in fact embraced more than manufacturing to include the public sector for example, but there was neglect of small firms and large parts of the private service sector. Whether or not there were good reasons for this neglect

6、 (and the case is at least arguable), the situation has changed, and recent research has addressed growing areas of the economy such as call centres. To avoid confusion some writers prefer the term employment relations, and if we were starting from scratch this might be the best label; yet the term

7、industrial relations has become sufficiently embed- ded that it is retained here to cover relations between manager and worker in all spheres of economic activity. The focus is employment: all forms of economic activity in which an employee works under the authority of an employer and 2 PAUL EDWARDS

8、 receives a wage in return for his or her labour. Industrial relations thus excludes domestic labour and also the self-employed and professionals who work on their own account: the contractual relations between a self-employed plumber and his customers are not industrial relations, but the relations

9、 between a plumbing firm and its employees are. In the UK self-employment comprises about 12 per cent of people in employment (see table 1.1, below). The bulk of the working population is thus in an employment relationship, with the great majority of them, of course, being employees rather than empl

10、oyers. Some writers define IR no more exactly than the study of all forms of the employment relationship. This is not sufficiently precise to distinguish it from the economics or sociology of work. More importantly, there are some distinct emphases in an IR approach which give it a specific value in

11、 explaining the world of work. These emphases are discussed below. There has been much debate over the years as to whether the emphases and analytical preferences of IR make it a discipline, as distinct from a field of study. The view taken in this chapter (which is not necessarily shared by other c

12、hapters) is that IR is a field of study and not a distinct discipline. Indeed, one of its strengths is its willingness to draw from different disciplines so that people who specialize in the field have developed an analytical approach which is more than the sum total of the application of individual

13、 disciplines. Even if this view is accepted, there are competing views as to the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and whether it has responded adequately to the changing nature of work. Some of these issues are addressed below. Why is paid employment important? It is important to the employ

14、ee most obvi- ously as a source of income. Note that it is not the case that work outside employment is an easy alternative: at one time, it was argued by some that a combination of unemployment, self-provisioning and work in the informal economy provided an alternative to the formal economy, but re

15、search found that such work tends to be additional rather than an alternative to formal employment. Work is also important to the employee as a means of identity. What do you do for a living? is a standard query to locate a new acquaintance. And what goes on within the employment relationship is cru

16、cial, not only in terms of the pay that is earned but also the conditions under which it is earned: the degree of autonomy the employee is granted, the safety of the work envir- onment, the opportunity for training and development, and so on. For the employer the work relationship is crucial in two

17、different senses. First, it is commonly argued that capital and technologies are increasingly readily avail- able, so that a firms competitive position depends on the skills and knowledge of its workers. Some analytical grounding for this argument comes from the resource-based view of the firm which

18、 developed from debates on strategic management. This view sees the firm as a bundle of assets and argues that it is the configuration of these assets, rather than positioning in relation to an exter- nal market, which is central to competitive advantage (Wernerfeld 1984; see further chapter 7). Not

19、 surprisingly, HRM and IR writers have latched on to this idea, arguing that distinctive human resources are the core resource (Cappelli and Crocker-Hefter 1996). Second, and fundamentally, these human resources THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP 3 All males 1992 10,971 658 2,260 182 2000 11,917 1,064 2,02

20、9 272 All females 1992 5,963 4,491 420 366 2000 6,489 5,032 427 423 1824 2534 3549 5064 (M) / 5059 (F) 65(M) / 60(F) Males 71.3 88.9 88.5 68.8 7.6 Females 64.1 71.7 74.9 63.9 8.2 Table 1.1 Employment, unemployment and earnings, UK Population by employment status (thousands) Total Males aged 1664 Eco

21、nomically active In employment Unemployed (ILO definition) Economically inactive 1990 18,312 16,175 15,027 1,148 2,136 2000 19,020 16,034 15,049 984 2,987 Females aged 1659 1990 16,706 11,912 11,122 790 4,794 2000 17,292 12,534 11,916 618 4,758 Distribution of employed population (thousands) Employe

22、es Self-employed Full-time Part-time Full-time Part-time Percentage of age group in employment in 2000 Age Percentage of all unemployed who were out of work 12 months in 2000, by age (ILO definitions) Age Males 1824 20.4 2549 39.3 5046.2 Females 10.3 21.2 31.6 Hourly earnings in (all full-time emplo

23、yees) and prices All Earnings Male Female RPI (1987 100) 1990 6.37 6.88 5.31 126.1 2000 10.32 11.00 9.02 170.3 Figures are for spring each year and seasonally adjusted. Earnings data are derived from the New Earnings Survey. Source: Labour Market Trends (March 2001). 4 PAUL EDWARDS are different fro

24、m other resources because they cannot be separated from the people in whom they exist. The employment relationship is about organizing human resources in the light of the productive aims of the firm but also the aims of employees. It is necessarily open-ended, uncertain, and, as argued below, a blen

25、d of inherently contradictory principles concerning control and consent. Finally, paid employment is important to society for what it expects in terms of inputs and produces as outputs. Inputs include how much labour is demanded (with obvious implications if demand is less than supply, resulting in

26、unemploy- ment) and what types of labour are sought (influencing, for example, the kinds of skills which society provides through the education system). If employment is structured on gender lines, this will have major consequences for the domestic division of labour and the roles of men and women i

27、n society; the traditional image of the male breadwinner applied not only to paid employment but also had implications for the ability of women to engage in politics, the arts, and sport. Outputs include not only goods and services but also structures of advant- age and disadvantage. These are prope

28、rly called structures because they are established features of society which are hard to change, for example differences of pay between occupations and between men and women. Issues in the Regulation of Work If work is important, how many people are in an employment relationship and how many are not

29、, and what has been happening to work relationships? The exercise in box 1.1 may be helpful. Alongside such trends have been developments in the management of work which are analysed in detail in this book. They include a decline in traditional ways in which people represent their views to their emp

30、loyers (termed indirect or representational participation), which in Britain means through a trade union. Associated with a decline of unions has been a reduction in the percentage of employees who are covered by collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a key focus in IR (the term having been

31、 coined by two of the UK founders of the subject, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, at the end of the nineteenth century). It means the negotiation of pay and other conditions of employment between an employer (or a group of employers) and a trade union acting for its members (see chapter 8). There has also

32、 been a growth in direct participation, that is involvement not through a representative structure but through work-based activity; examples are problem-solving groups and teamworking (see chapters 7 and 13). The legal framework has also changed rapidly, as discussed in chapters 5 and 6. Some of the

33、se developments reflect developments within Britain itself, some stem from Europe, some from the specific influence of multinational com- panies, and some from broader trends in the world economy. These developments in the management of work are highly important in themselves, in shaping how much au

34、tonomy workers have in their work and their ability to shape key decisions that affect them. But what goes on within IR can have substantial effects on wider aspects of society. To take but one example, THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP 5 Box 1.1 Labour market participation, pay, and inequality Consider t

35、he population of working age. Official statistics distinguish between the economically active and the inactive. The former group is then divided into those currently employed and the unemployed. The employed can be divided according to status (employee or self-employed), whether the work is full- or

36、 part-time, and so on. Table 1.1 provides some basic figures on these categories, together with information on unemployment and earnings. Table 1.2 gives abbreviated data on the distribution of employment by sector. What are the main patterns that can be observed? It may also be useful to consider w

37、hat such terms as economically active mean and how statistics on such things as unemployment and earnings are compiled. There are several important features of work in Britain which need to be borne in mind in considering the implications of the figures. Details and further discussion can be found i

38、n Gregg and Wadsworth (1999). The number of economically inactive people of working age has risen, particularly among the over-fifties. Early retirement is a common means for firms to shed labour. What might this say about the nature of jobs? Work has polarized across households: there are more fami

39、lies where all the adults work, and more where no one is in paid employment. What might this say about links between work and home? Regional differences in employment and unem- ployment rates are also substantial, as a glance at the relevant figures in Labour Market Trends will show. For example, in

40、 January 2001 unemployment (based on those claiming unemployment benefit, not the ILO definition used in table 1.1) was 6.6 per cent in the region of highest unemployment in the UK, the north-east of England, but within that region rates for localities ranged from 3.4 to 12.3 per cent. In the lowest

41、 unemployment region, the south-east, the average rate was 1.9 per cent, with localities varying between 0.5 and 7.4 per cent. If we look at households where someone is in work, the number of hours per week devoted to work has risen since about 1980. Work effort intensified over the same period, at

42、first in manufacturing and then in services (Green 2001). Why might this be, and what does it say about workers experience of work? Mens employment rates have fallen while womens have risen. But this latter rise is largely restricted to women with working partners; there is no change for single wome

43、n or lone parents. The gender pay gap has narrowed, but it remains substan- tial, and has in fact widened for women working part-time. Why? Wage inequality has risen (as it has in other countries, though generally more slowly) to reach levels higher than during most of the twentieth century. Why? ch

44、apter 8 shows that the decline of unions and collective bargaining explains some of the rise in wage inequality; as mentioned below, moreover, it appears that international differences in IR structures help to explain the size of the gender pay gap. It might be helpful to pause to consider what mech

45、anisms might explain such links between processes and outcomes, and which of the other features in the bullet points in box 1.1 could be the result of trends in the handl- ing of IR. IR thus has important implications for life beyond its own terrain. What are the pressing current issues in employmen

46、t? Three examples are given, partly for their substantive importance, but also to signal the critical view of them which is developing within IR. 6 PAUL EDWARDS Table 1.2 Distribution of employees by sector, UK (thousands) 1990 2000 Mining, quarrying, electricity, gas and water 406 204 Engineering 1

47、,544 1,258 All other manufacturing 3,334 2,705 All services 16,643 18,597 Wholesale and retail trade, repairs 3,741 4,126 Hotels and restaurants 1,207 1,395 Financial intermediation 1,055 992 Renting, research, computers etc 2,410 3,207 Health and social work 2,311 2,541 Engineering machinery, elect

48、rical equipment plus transportation equipment. Source: Summarized from data in Labour Market Trends (March 2001), which contains a more detailed breakdown. The first concerns so-called high-commitment or high-involvement work systems. These are discussed in detail in chapter 13, but essentially embr

49、ace systems such as teamworking and are often linked to new managerial techni- ques such as Business Process Re-engineering. Some research in the UK and the US finds that these systems work in that they produce improvements in efficiency and (though the evidence is much more controversial here) can be associated with benefits for workers too (see chapter 19). Yet it is also found that they exist only rarely; perhaps 2 per cent of UK workplaces conform to the