Book Reviews
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1990.tb00369.x |
| Published date | 01 July 1990 |
| Date | 01 July 1990 |
British Journal
of
Industrial Relations
28~2 July 1990 0007-1080 $3.00
Book
Reviews
Beyond the Workplace
by Paul Marginson, P.
K.
Edwards, Roderick Martin, John
Purcell and Keith Sisson. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1988. 284 pp..
f35.
When the second Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS) of 1984 was being
planned, there was vigorous discussion as to whether it was appropriate
to
focus
attention on the work-place when it was clear that
so
much that was relevant was
occurring at higher organizational levels. The argument was resolved in a most
fruitful way. The WIRS went ahead broadly as in 1980 (and a successor was
promised for around 1990),
to
provide material that has been richly used and, in the
case of some legislators and econometricians, abused. But the ESRC
also
made
money available for a further survey aimed at higher organizational attitudes, and
the outstanding experience of the authors
of
this volume was marshalled
to
carry it
out. The result is one
of
the most important industrial relations studies
of
the
decade.
The methodological problems were formidable. The higher levels
of
firms’
organizations have none
of
the tangibility of a work-place, and respondents at
different levels are hardly likely to have the same view
of
things.
Two
questionnaires
were used, one aimed at the corporate and intermediate divisional levels, and one
aimed at the establishment and replicated at the higher levels. Six manufacturing and
service industries were sampled
in
a refined technique that obtained a total of 378
interviews from the hierarchies arising from
175
establishments. The techniques of
statistical analysis that were necessary to permit solid generalizations from this
approach are awesome.
One aim of the study was to obtain a systematic description
of
the nature and
extent
of
industrial relations structures and policy-making at corporate and
divisional levels within large companies.
A
second was to explore the involvement of
managers from those higher levels
in
the enforcement of policy
in
the work-place and
in
decisions on local industrial relations matters.
As
would be expected from these
authors, the resulting study adopts a sophisticated analytic approach, addressing
major controversies in industrial economics and organizational behaviour, as well as
industrial relations. How far does the structure of large firms influence the conduct
of
industrial relations? How much importance is accorded to industrial relations
considerations
in
broader business decisions? Can managerial approaches to labour
be dignified with the description ‘strategic’? What does the overused notion of
decentralization actually amount to? How different are perceptions
of
autonomy at
different organizational levels?
All
these questions receive fascinating and enlightening treatment.
A
complex but
strong analysis emerges from the data, providing a convincing picture
of
the ways in
which managerial power is exercised under different business circumstances, with
regard both
to
other managers and to the work-force. Particular attention is given
to
the way in which new technologies are innovated and pay is negotiated. Perhaps the
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