Employees, managers and the Trade Union: changes and continuities in the employment relationship 1983-1998

This thesis is based around two studies in the West Midlands lock industry. It was carried I out within a broad ethnographic paradigm and focuses on the voices of those working on the shopfloor as a means of tapping into change and continuity in perceptions of the employment relationship. A longitudinal study over the period 1983-1998 within one firm, revealed interesting themes about what happens to employee attitudes when a traditional paternalistic approach to management is gradually dismantled. A comparison between this firm and another lock company indicated the ways in which issues of union leadership, the bargaining relationship and perceptions of commitment and trust, could be dramatically affected by significant change within the managerial structures and strategies of an organisation'. The thesis demonstrates how the employment relationship is most usefully seen as a 'drama of negotiation', where union leaders, employees and managers interact within a framework of expected roles and behaviours, that is clearly grounded in the particular historical and sociological contexts of the two firms.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wolverhampton

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Greene, Anne-Marie

Licence

• https://wlv.dspace7.openrepository.com/bitstreams/7a2a90cd-4041-48cd-b6fb-28d83743248e/download