Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004

Based on the primary analysis of the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), this is the fifth book in the series which began in 1980. A large-scale and complex project, it consists of five discrete surveys, face-to-face interviews with around 3,400 managers and 1,200 worker representatives, plus completed questionnaires from approximately 30,000 employees. It is designed to be representative of all employees in Britain, with the exception of those in workplaces with less than ten employees. This book provides a descriptive mapping of employment relations examining the principal features of the structures, practices and outcomes of workplace employment relations. The reader can examine differences according to the characteristics of the workplace and organization, including workplace size, industrial sector, and ownership. This book will be a valuable "sourcebook" for students, academics and practitioners in the fields of employee relations, human resource management, organizationalbehavior and sociology. With an accompanying website, it includes up to the minute research delivered by the DTI, PCAS, PSI and the ESRC and is a unique and important contribution to the subject area.

List of figures	p. x
List of tables	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
List of abbreviations	p. xvi
Reporting conventions	p. xviii
Introduction	p. 1
About the survey	p. 2
Survey development	p. 2
Survey design and sample coverage	p. 3
Questionnaire design	p. 6
Conduct of the survey	p. 7
The political, economic and labour market context since the 1998 survey	p. 8
Structure of the book	p. 10
Nature of the analyses	p. 11
A profile of workplaces and employees	p. 13
Introduction	p. 13
Workplace and organization characteristics	p. 13
Workforce composition	p. 23
Conclusion	p. 34
The management of employment relations	p. 36
Introduction	p. 36
Who manages employment relations?	p. 37
The changing role of managers responsible for employment relations matters	p. 46
From 'personnel management' to 'human resource management'?	p. 58
The integration of employment relations in the business strategy	p. 61
Auditing the employment relations function	p. 68
Conclusion	p. 69
Recruiting, training and work organization	p. 71
Introduction	p. 71
Recruitment and selection	p. 71
Working patterns	p. 78
Contractual status	p. 80
Off-the-job training	p. 82
Performance appraisals	p. 87
Work organization	p. 89
Job influence and autonomy	p. 97
Work intensity	p. 100
Employee well-being	p. 101
The non-employed workforce	p. 103
Conclusion	p. 107
Representation, consultation and communication	p. 108
Introduction	p. 108
Trade union membership density	p. 109
Trade union recognition	p. 117
Trade union representatives	p. 123
Stand-alone non-union representatives	p. 125
Joint consultative committees	p. 125
Summary of arrangements for employee representation	p. 132
Direct communication methods	p. 134
Summary of arrangements for direct communication	p. 139
Employees' perceptions of arrangements for information-sharing and representation	p. 139
Conclusion	p. 143
Employee representatives	p. 144
Introduction	p. 144
Characteristics of representatives	p. 145
What do representatives do?	p. 148
Representatives' access to facilities and training	p. 155
The nature of representatives' constituencies	p. 158
Contact with constituents and management	p. 162
Contact with other representatives	p. 166
Relationship with management	p. 168
Conclusion	p. 175
The determination of pay and other terms and conditions	p. 178
Introduction	p. 178
Methods of pay determination	p. 179
Variable pay schemes	p. 189
Determination of employees' terms and conditions	p. 193
The distribution of pay, fringe benefits and pay satisfaction	p. 196
Consultation over redundancies	p. 201
Consultation over health and safety matters	p. 203
Conclusion	p. 205
Workplace conflict	p. 207
Introduction	p. 207
Collective conflict	p. 208
Collective disputes procedures	p. 211
Individual disputes procedures	p. 214
The incidence of individual disputes	p. 224
Other potential indicators of discontent	p. 230
Associations between indicators of conflict	p. 232
Conclusion	p. 233
Equality, diversity and work-life balance	p. 235
Introduction	p. 235
Promoting equality of opportunity	p. 237
Work-life balance	p. 249
Conclusion	p. 273
Workplace climate and performance	p. 275
Introduction	p. 275
Management-employee relations	p. 276
Labour productivity and workplace performance in the private sector	p. 286
Comparing measures of labour productivity from the management interview and the Financial Performance Questionnaire	p. 294
Conclusion	p. 301
Conclusion	p. 304
Introduction	p. 304
Overview of main findings	p. 305
Overarching themes	p. 309
Design issues for a possible sixth WERS	p. 318
Technical appendix	p. 320
Introduction	p. 320
The sampling frame and the sample	p. 321
Piloting and development work	p. 325
Fieldwork	p. 328
Coding and editing	p. 332
Weighting	p. 334
Sampling errors	p. 337
Further information	p. 340
Accessing the data	p. 341
Notes	p. 342
Bibliography	p. 356
Index	p. 367
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey

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