1,721,549 research outputs found
Competition and the Retreat from Collective Bargaining, NIESR Discussion Paper No. 318
Get PDFFor most of the twentieth century, collective bargaining provided the terms on which labour was commonly employed in Britain. However, the quarter century since 1980
has seen the collapse of collectivism as the main way of regulating employment. Our argument is that the tacit settlement between organized labour and employers was undermined by increasing product market competition. The paper first provides an overview of the changing map of collective bargaining, focusing on the private sector.
It then moves on to ask why the retreat took place, and to explore the part played by product market competition and, in particular, by the profitability of different
industries. The paper concludes with an analysis of the consequences of privatisation
Rise of High Involvement Management in Britain, NIESR Discussion Paper No. 321
No full textWe discuss the nature and genesis of high involvement management (HIM) in Britain. Although an increasing proportion of British workplaces have adopted HIM practices over the last quarter century only a minority of managements have a strong high involvement orientation. HIM is associated with Total Quality Management and other lean production methods but is no more likely to be adopted in a context of enriched jobs than where jobs are more routinized. HIM usage is linked with the characteristics of the organization itself, such as whether the organization is family-owned, and the size and the composition of the workforce. External factors are much less important. There is little evidence that HIM is driving trade unionism out, as suggested by the union substitution hypothesis. Although there is recent evidence that it is associated with higher workplace productivity there is no evidence to suggest that HIM improves worker well-being. If anything, it is associated with higher levels of anxiety. Work enrichment, on the other hand, is correlated with positive outcomes for workers and employees alike
The Changing Use of Contingent Pay at the Modern Workplace, NIESR Discussion Paper No. 319
No full textUsing nationally representative workplace data for Britain we show how employers have changed their usage of contingent pay schemes over the last quarter century. We find workplaces are more likely to use collective forms of pay system than they did in the past, and they are more likely to use multiple schemes in combination. Factors associated with each type of pay scheme have varied substantially over time. The changing incidence of each form of contingent pay primarily reflects changes in the behaviour of workplaces rather than changes in the sectoral composition of the economy
From Industrial Relations to Human Resource Management: The Changing Role of the Personnel Function, NIESR Discussion Paper No. 315
No full textThe evidence from 25 years of the Workplace Employment Relations Surveys shows that a growing number of workplaces have a personnel specialist in place and that an increasing proportion of these specialists have relevant qualifications. Personnel management is becoming more embedded and more professionalised. It is reasonable to assume that personnel specialists are hired to apply contemporary best practice and thereby, perhaps indirectly, to improve performance. Our analysis fails to support this assumption. Personnel specialists are more likely to be associated with traditional industrial relations practices rather than human resource practices. Yet, on the basis of ratings that they have provided, where more human resource practices are in place, performance is more highly rated. Moreover, where personnel specialists are present, including qualified specialists, performance tends, if anything, to be poorer
Macro Modelling at the NIESR; its Recent History
No full textThis paper charts the evolution of mainly empirical research at the NIESR over the 1970s and 80s. As was all too evident there were very large discrete technical improvements in data handling and manipulation over this period. Less well appreciated were the effects on the economy of major supply-side shocks coming from the World economy leading to ‘Stagflation’ and, interconnected but somewhat later, in the UK, marked changes in macro policy regime. This latter was strongly influenced by the seminal papers of Lucas (1976) and Sims (1980); both highly critical of the then current practices in macroeconomics, though each having very different intellectual stances. The response in the NIESR was to engage at an early stage in these innovations; applying the mantra that an informed criticism was more efficient than an uninformed one. During this period it became a leader in the econometrics of applied macro modelling under different expectations assumptions, including the rational expectations hypothesis (REH). Throughout, it remained critical of the anti-empirical drift encouraged in the Lucas Critique, criticism borne out more recently by the financial instability of the 1990s and the crisis that followed
The determinants of pay in the absence of unions
No full textSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.532(NIESR-DP--202) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
Macro Modelling at the NIESR; its Recent History
No full textThis paper charts the evolution of mainly empirical research at the NIESR over the 1970s and 80s. As was all too evident there were very large discrete technical improvements in data handling and manipulation over this period. Less well appreciated were the effects on the economy of major supply-side shocks coming from the World economy leading to ‘Stagflation’ and, interconnected but somewhat later, in the UK, marked changes in macro policy regime. This latter was strongly influenced by the seminal papers of Lucas (1976) and Sims (1980); both highly critical of the then current practices in macroeconomics, though each having very different intellectual stances. The response in the NIESR was to engage at an early stage in these innovations; applying the mantra that an informed criticism was more efficient than an uninformed one. During this period it became a leader in the econometrics of applied macro modelling under different expectations assumptions, including the rational expectations hypothesis (REH). Throughout, it remained critical of the anti-empirical drift encouraged in the Lucas Critique, criticism borne out more recently by the financial instability of the 1990s and the crisis that followed
Did raw material price rises cause the productivity slowdown? Evidence from the US and the UK
No full textSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.532(NIESR-DP--198) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
An inter-establishment study of union recognition and membership in Great Britain
No full textSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.532(NIESR-DP--201) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
- …
