Reviews of Management Characteristics and Labour Conflict and Working Togethe

Brosnan, Peter

Smith, D. F.

English

Open Journal Systems at the Victoria University of Wellington Library

REVIEWS H. A. Turner, Geoffrey Roberts and David Roberts. Management Characteristics and Labour Conflict. Cambridge University Press, 1977, pp. 80. One very much doubts that this book would ever have reached publtcatton were it not for the reputation of at least two of 1ts three authors H A. Turner and G. Rob-erts (better known for their work with G Clack entitled Labour Relations in the Motor Industry). It represents what ~ppears to be an attempt to rescue something from a research project which failed The authors go to some considerable lengths at the beginning of the book to fUSttfy their reasons for puolishing their findings. To· be fair. they are probably rather more honest than many researchers in explaining the original intentions of their research, what went wrong, and what they managed to salvage. The outcome, reported in this book, forms what the authors them-selves describe as a 'modest enquiry' into the relationship between certain manage-ment characteristics and the conflict expenence of a number of indtvidual firms The study is very much a pilot one, bastng tis findings upon an examinatton of 45 enterprises in six industries. The research origtnally arose from a concern to answer the questton of why 1t is that even within certain industries con-sidered to be highly strike-prone. there are firms whch are never or rarely involved in labour stoppages. This feature has not gone unobserved in some of New Zealand's troubled industries. most notably meat-freezing Attempts to explatn strike-prone-ness have etten centred upon an examina-tion of the shortcomings of the industrial relations system. The Donovan Commission. for example, proposed changes to the sys-tem of collective bargainirg in Britain which it was felt would reduce the incid-ence of unofficial strikes. An alternative hypothesis for explaining labour unrest might be concerned tnstead with the part played by the kind of approach individual managements take towards the conduct of thetr labour relations. In this present study, the authors chose to tnterviow management representatives of a number of strike-prone and strike-Ire~ ftrms, to ascertain whic~ characteristics might be revealed as important tn a com-parison between them. Quite clearly, a mater hurdle in this kind of enquiry involv-es choosing appropriate data to collect, and a means of measunng such data. For example. major dtfliculties were encounter-ed in the attempt to assess the relationship between e'(penditure on industrial relations (for example in the employment of special-ist Industrial relattons personnel) and the amount of tndustrial conflict Most firms kept no records of such expenditures, Pnd nor was tt possible to neatly categorise those who were involved tn industrial rela-ttons matters and those who were not Similarly with industrial confltct. only one measure of conflict was used, that of st rike tncidence. Unorganised conflict such as abs~nteeism and labour turnover might be just as , if not more impor!a,t, and yet few m3na~ements kept records of these. Such matters as tho~e ou•l•ned above relating to the question of research design must be borne in mtnd in any attempt to assess the study's ftndtngs The quality and measurement of data in this study leave much to be desired. and as a result. it would be fair to say 1hat many of the ftnd-tngs are tnconclusive nnd somewhat banal. Even tn those places where positive rela-tionships between variables were noted, the ou!hors' tnterpretat;ons are extremely spec-ulative and open to considerable dispute In terms of its expressed aims, therefore, the study must ba considered less than successful No clear links emerged between dtfferences in the state of labour relations by industry groups and the circumstantial or managerial dtstinctions between them Apart from presenting some limited inform-alton which the authors' claim confirms the dtfferences in patlerns of strike-proneness between ftrms within the same industry, the 87 study does little to d1scover tile cause::; of these differences. Indeed. It would appear that many of the possible causes of such differences, for example, comparative physi-cal cond1t1ons of work in various estab-lishments, were not examined in the study In summAry, one must conclude that the study suffers from a number of methodolog-ICal we.:knesses and suspicious interpreta-tion of data. making 1ts overall va lue rather questionable In the~r conclusion the authors appear to recogn1se th1s, and de-Cide that if 11 has done nothing else than perhaps the book may at least have helped to open up the whole subject of manage-ments' impact on 1ndustrial relations to a more scientific analytical approach than has hitherto been common A worthy hope mdced but one with which 11 IS difficult to JUStify the publication of a book of this kmd Nevertheless, and desp1te the some-me~ shallow and questionable nature of their findings. one feels that perhaps the authors should rece1ve some commendation for the1r attempts to explore such a difficult 1rea Unfortunately. in doing so, they add y t another book on industnal relations which makes little practical or theoretical contributiOn to an understanding of the f1eld 0 F SMITH V1ctorra Univers1ty of Wellington Brian P1cot. Cla1re Drake. Ted Thompson and Noel Woods Work-ing Together. New Zealand Plan-ning Council, June 1978, pp. 9. Working Together IS the New Zealand Ptann1ng Council's diSCUSSIOn paper on 1ndu .tnal ret !lions The p~per deals wllh seven topics 1 An economy under s;ege summanzes the Plannmg Counc1l's v1ew l)f the New Zea-land economy and argues t~at the d1ff1 cult cond1l1ons requ•re management and un1ons to mm1m1ze expectat•ons and reduce conflict Areas of responsibility rgues that the government ha• n mportant role tn 1ndu t1 ell r 'lt n d diSc make~ a pi o manpower planmng 88 Unt~crs :undt ng and comm unicating puts the case th .. t better communications will g~ w 1!1Creased trust and better human r 1 t ns 4 Lrcder::.:•ip, cCucatiGn and training argu E' tha' better trainmg of management and union executives w1ll affect " work-place relationships" and "the nation's econom1c health. A strong case is also put for vocational training 5. Towards fair and responsible income distribution IS the maJOr section in the paper It deals w1th several ISSues. The virtually Irresolvable problem of fa1r shares' and the pernicious effect of in-flation on the existing income distribu-tiOn A call is made for "responsible' barga1ning and it is argued that every-one would be best served by our having fewer but bigger unions and national 1ndustry agreements as opposed to occu-pational agreements. The paper states the need for a means by which issues of nat•onal Importance can be discussed by organisations of those involved 6 Job enrichment and participation endor-ses moves towards more participation in industry 7 Responsibility and legislation again puts the case for responsibility' by both managements and umons while argumg that much of New Zealand's 1ndustnal law is in need of reform The paper has a number of strengths and weaknesses Councll Chairman. Frank Holmes. pinpo1ntcd two 11 the weakest aspects 1n h1s Introduction when he stated 11 is 1nev1table that •I will be crrtic1sed as superf1c1al and idealistiC Cons1denng the text runs for less than s1x pages the charge of superficiality 1s •nev1t.1ble The 1deai1Stlc approach is less tuStlflable The paper constantly makes calls for more responsibility. an 1dea wh1ch must seem quaint to those on both the left and the nght"' and 11s terminology m a number of places. o g social part-n (p ge 41 hlghl1ghls the 'u"'lary" 'reme of reference wh1ch appears to l1e behind the report The strengt~s of the paper l1e 1n 1ts h1ghl1ghllng some pert1nent problem areas uch as the need for vocat1onal traintny n OnjunctJo.n w1th manpower plann1ng and reforms to mdustnal law. There 1s little In the paper, however, fo r the senous praclll1oner or student of Industrial rela-tions. The paper is clearly addressed to the man in the street' (as it should be) but II is disappointing that the paper is so bnel and equally d1sappomtmg that public reactions should be limited to "not more than 1-2 pages" (page 3). Industrial rela-tions issues are not as simple as this PETER BROSNAN V1ctona University of Wellington '-'' BOOK NOTE: Future Lobby and the NSW Association for Mental Health The Right to Share Work? An IntErim Report on Permanent Part-time Work. Sydney 1978. This brief report (22 pages) makes a forceful case lor more permanent part-t1me work. II argues that demand lor such work s strong and growmg and that 1t is desir-able in both an economic and social sense The need lor more llex1ble employment pat-terns is stressed, as are advantages and disadvantages of permanent part-time work lor workers. employe's and unions. While being an Australian report , much of it applies with equal Ioree to New Zealand. Copies may be obtained from: Permanent Part-lime Work Study Future Lobby and NSW Assoc1at1on for Mental Health SUite 2 1st Floor 194 M1ller Street North Sydney 2060 NSW Australia. DON J TURKINGTON PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED BAIN, George Sayers and Elsheikh, Farouk Union Growth and the Business Cycle : An Econometric Analysis . Warwick Stud-IOS in Industrial Relations, Blackwell, Oxford, 1976. CELGG, Hugh, Trade Unionism under Col-lective Bargaining : A Theory Based on Comparisons of Six Countries. Warwick Studies in Indust ria l Relations, Blackwell, Oxford, 1976. Future Lobby and the NSW Association fo r Mental Health The Right to Share Work? An Interim Report on Permanent Part-time Work Sydney, 1978. RIMMER, Malcolm Race and Industrial Con-flict : A Study in a Group of Midland Foundries. Warwick Studies in Industrial Relations, Heinemann, London, 1972. ® 89 

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