Labour and Management Co-operation: Workplace Partnership in UK Financial Services

Employee voice and representation in many work settings are increasingly dependant on what has come to be called 'partnership', 'labor-management co-operation', or 'mutual gains'. This relatively new approach is a product of the age of Human Resource Management, and is widely seen as replacing or having the potential to replace the old trades or labor union based collective employee relations arrangements. In this insightful analysis of the partnership process in the fast moving UK financial services sector, Stewart Johnstone focuses on the processes involved, the different contexts in which events are played out, and on how we should assess the outcomes. Using an analytical framework from the US that has never before been employed in a study of UK employment relations, Dr. Johnstone provides a new way of evaluating the outcomes of a variety of partnership approaches. Overcoming the limitations of methodologies that conflate union attitudes with employee opinions, this book provides a level of understanding that transcends the stalemate of recent times in which the advocates and critics of different approaches seem to have been locked. This book will appeal to all those with an interest in the current debate about "voice and representation" that is taking place amongst those involved with HRM and employee relations in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.