Alan Fox and the managerial “unitary” frame of reference in unionised companies: context, roots, elaboration and international applicability
| Date | 18 April 2024 |
| Pages | 1275-1289 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2023-0486 |
| Published date | 18 April 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Dave Lyddon,Xuebing Cao |
Alan Fox and the managerial
“unitary”frame of reference
in unionised companies: context,
roots, elaboration and
international applicability
Dave Lyddon and Xuebing Cao
Keele Business School, Keele University, Keele, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This study investigates the origins and elaboration of the managerial “unitary”frame of reference
associated with Alan Fox, focusing on unionised firms: the industrial relations context, intellectual roots,
elaboration, adaptation by other writers, and international applicability.
Design/methodology/approach –Tracing the above requirements through contemporaneous sources.
Findings –Fox’s designation of the unitary frame needs to be understood in its 1960s’context, particularly the
promotion of “productivity bargaining”, and its furthering through management training and education. Fox’s
specific contribution is identified. Subsequent UK writers have underplayed the importance of the legal
dimension of managerial authority, especially relevant in the US context, while other extra-economic factors
bolster the managerial unitary frame in authoritarian societies such as China.
Originality/value –The use of Fox’s neglected 1960s’writings; tracking how Fox developed the unitary
frame concept and how it was funnelled into the narrow parameters of non-unionism by subsequent writers;
identifying its applicability beyond the UK (with the USA as a historical example and China as a
contemporary one).
Keywords Industrial relations, Frames of reference, Unitary, Right to manage, Productivity bargaining, UK,
USA, China
Paper type General review
Introduction
British industrial relations thinking in the late 1960s was dominated by the output of the
National Boardfor Prices and Incomes (1965–71) and theevidence-gathering and publications
of the (1965–68) RoyalCommission on Trade Unions and Employers’Associations (Donovan,
1968). Both promoted productivity bargaining as the miracle cure for many of the perceived
economic and industrial relations ills of the day. Alan Fox, a trade union historian who had
recently been appointed lecturer in industrial sociology at Oxford University, played a small,
but significant,role in this fermentwith his Donovan research paper(Fox, 1966a). Intended as a
contribution to a cultural shift in management attitudes, especially in unionised firms, this
categorisedthe unitary and pluralistic“frames of reference”,stressingthelatter’s superiority.[1]
The research papersold widely to business and was used in managementtraining (Fox, 2004,
p. 249). Accordingto Bill McCarthy (1974) a few years later, “Since1966 more managers have
read or heard of Fox on pluralism than any other formof academic stimulant.”
Fox was to deepen his understanding of th e unitary frame but this has been
overshadowed by his auto-critique of pluralism (Fox, 1973). The latter saw him add a
radical frame; the three frames of reference have been a staple of subsequent undergraduate
Alan Fox and
the managerial
“unitary
frame”
1275
The authors gratefully acknowledge the useful comments and advice given by the referees and the
special issue editors.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 23 September 2023
Revised 10 January 2024
10 March 2024
Accepted 17 March 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 6, 2024
pp. 1275-1289
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-09-2023-0486
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