Partnership and the High Performance Workplace A Study of Work and Employment Relations in the Aerospace Industry

by Danford, Andrew John; Richardson, Michael; Stewart, Paul; Upchurch, Martin; Tailby, Stephanie

• ISBN13: 9781403917539
• ISBN10: 1403917531
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-14
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

The promotion of partnership in the high performance workplace has become central to policy debates on the modernization of employment relations in British industry. This book provides critical insights into the dynamics of partnership by way of in-depth case studies of employee experience in an under-researched industry noted for its high concentrations of skilled workers and graduates.

Author Biography

Andrew John Danford is Reader in Employment Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Mike Richardson is a Senior Researcher in Industrial Relations at the University of the West of England. Paul Stewart is Professor of the Sociology of Work and Employment at the University of the West of England. Stephanie Tailby is Principal Lecturer in Employment Relations at the Bristol Business School. Martin Upchurch is Reader in International Employment Relations at the University of the West of England.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
List of Abbreviations	x
Foreword	xii
Notes on the Authors	xiii
1 Modernization and Workplace Relations	1	(20)
The high performance workplace	3	(3)
From Japanization to Lean to HPWS	6	(4)
Partnership at work	10	(7)
Research design	17	(4)
2 The Legacy of Trade Union Power	21	(22)
The 1957 engineering dispute	21	(5)
Piecework to measured day work	26	(3)
Other patterns of conflict in the 1970's	29	(3)
The Thatcher years	32	(4)
Industrial democracy	36	(7)
3 Organizational Restructuring and the New Insecurity	43	(33)
Organizational restructuring in the aerospace sector	46	(3)
High performance management and organizational change	49	(15)
The new insecurity: worker attitudes to high performance management	64	(10)
Conclusion	74	(2)
4 High Performance Work Systems and the Production Worker	76	(32)
High performance work organization on the shop-floor	79	(14)
The quality of working life on the shop-floor	93	(6)
Labour control and resistance	99	(6)
Conclusion	105	(3)
5 High Performance Work Systems and the Technical Worker	108	(28)
High performance work organization and social relations in technical work	111	(11)
The quality of working life in the technical office	122	(7)
Technical labour, collectivism and resistance	129	(5)
Conclusion	134	(2)
6 Workplace Partnership: Management and Union Strategy	136	(31)
The business case for partnership	138	(6)
Partnership and union strategy	144	(1)
Partnership and union strategy: The case of Airframes	144	(12)
Partnership and union strategy: The case of JetCo	156	(8)
Conclusion	164	(3)
7 Partnership and Worker Participation: Voices from the Floor	167	(32)
Direct worker participation 169 Indirect worker participation (1): The joint consultative committee	182	(5)
Indirect worker participation (2): Union representation and partnership	187	(9)
Conclusion	196	(3)
8 Training and Development for High Performance: Supporting Partnership or Elites?	199	(24)
Skills training	203	(5)
Employee appraisals and control	208	(8)
Gender, contract and employee development	216	(5)
Conclusion	221	(2)
9 Workplace Partnership: A Question of Interests	223	(17)
The reality of partnership: conditions for mutuality or discord?	227	(9)
Conclusion	236	(4)
References	240	(17)
Index	257

Excerpts

"The promotion of social partnership and management techniques of the high performance workplace has become central to the political agenda of 'modernization' at work. Policies aimed at 'democratizing' the workplace by way of new forms of employee participation and cooperative industrial relations can, it is argued, offer firms a 'high road' to market competitiveness and business success. This book questions such assumptions. It provides an alternative perspective that penetrates the realities rather than the rhetoric of the modernization project. The authors adopt critical analysis of concrete processes of change and place at the centre of their enquiry the interests of workers - those who are often the objects of managerial initiatives rather than democratic participants. The book provides rich case study data of the attitudes and work experiences of skilled manual and non-manual workers in the UK's aerospace industry, a location of high skill 'knowledge work' that has been under-researched compared to other employment sectors. A fascinating picture emerges of conflicting interests and deep contradictions in the regulation of the employment relationship."--BOOK JACKET.