History of the British Industrial Relations Field Reconsidered: Getting from the Webbs to the New Employment Relations Paradigm
| Author | Bruce E. Kaufman |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2012.00907.x |
| Published date | 01 March 2014 |
| Date | 01 March 2014 |
History of the British Industrial Relations
Field Reconsidered: Getting from
the Webbs to the New Employment
Relations Paradigm
Bruce E. Kaufman
Abstract
Sidney and Beatrice Webb are commonly cited as the founders of the British
field of industrial relations. Are they, however, if the field is centred not on study
of unions and collective bargaining but rather on the entire employment rela-
tionship? A ‘qualified yes’ answer is given; however, getting there involves major
revision to the conventional historiography of the field. To illustrate, the article
presents a traditional and revised family tree of British industrial relations.
Numerous insights and implications follow.
1. Introduction
Sidney and Beatrice Webb are commonly cited as the founders of the British
field of industrial relations (IR). Yet, at the same time, the field has evolved
from a relatively narrow focus on unions and collective bargaining to a
broader consideration of the entire employment relationship. The question
examined here is: can the work of the Webbs at one and the same time serve
as the foundation for both the original and new IR paradigms? Although
the question is answered with a qualified yes, in the process the conventional
historiography and understanding of the British IR field gets significantly
revised at key place. Since history is open to multiple constructions and
interpretations, this account is not claimed to be the history of British IR
but rather an alternative way of framing it. Given space limitations and the
length and breadth of the subject, I necessarily have to paint with a broad
brush; also presumed is background familiarity with key persons and
events.
Bruce E. Kaufman is at Georgia State University; Griffith University and University of
Hertsfordshire.
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British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2012.00907.x
52:1 March 2014 0007–1080 pp. 1–31
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2012. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
2. Conventional view
The history of academic British IR is described in Ackers and Wilkinson
(2003b), Hyman (1989, 2003), Lyddon (2003), and Frege (2007, 2008). The
main points are quite similar across studies and have been diagrammatically
represented in Figure 1. It outlines the main features of the British IR family
tree, as described in the studies just cited.
The IR field’s history is typically divided into pre-history and institution-
alized sections, demarcated by the horizontal dashed line. The pre-history
starts with the landmark work of the Webbs in the 1890s, moves to G. D. H.
FIGURE 1
Family Tree of British Industrial Relations: Conventional History.
The Webbs
Cole
Burton Chairs
Oxford School
Donovan Commission
Marxist-Radical Pluralist Mainstream
American
Unitarist HRM
British Pluralist
HRM
Pluralist Unitarist
IR = Study of the Employment Relationship
Marxist-Radical
2British Journal of Industrial Relations
© John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics 2012.
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