Patterns of Continuity and Change in Managerial Attitudes and Behaviour in Industrial Relations, 1980‐1990
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1993.tb00378.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Author | Roger Mansfield,Michael Poole |
British
loirrnal
of
lntlurtricil
Relutrom
31
1
March
1993
0007-1080
Patterns
of
Continuity and Change in
Managerial Attitudes and Behaviour
in Industrial Relations,
1980-1990
Michael Poole*
and
Roger Mansfield**
Final version received
18
September 1992.
Abstract
In this paper,
dutu
are reported from
a
longituditiul study
of
managers’
attitudes and hehuvioiir in industrial relations bused on a sample
of
fellows
and members
of
rhe British lnsritute
of
Munugement.
An
account
of
two
surveys. carried out in
1980
und
1990,
follows an exrimination
of
theories
of
the managerial role in iridiistriul relations und the presentation
of
a
research
model. Muriugeriul attitudes
arid
hehaviour are then anulysed with respect
to
views
on
trade unions, personal commitments to collective representation,
collective bargaining, employee purticipution
and
involvement arid views on
the role
of
government. The findings have (in added significance because
survey dares roughly correspond with the so-called
‘
Thutcher years’. The
conclusion is thul some major changes in industrial relations have occurred
during the decade in question.
hut
there are
ulso
substantial continuities which
cannot he ‘read
off
directly from the dramatic alterations in the political,
economic
and
legal environment.
I.
Introduction
During the
1980s
and early
1990s,
there has been
an
appreciable expansion
in
research into managerial roles
in
industrial relations, giving grounds for
satisfaction among
all
those involved
in
this field (Guest
1991).
A
wide
range
of
studies
of
managerial strategies and styles
in
industrial relations
have thus been conducted (e.g. Poole and Mansfield
1980;
Poole
et al.
1981.
1982;
Purcell
1983;
Purcell and Sisson
1983;
Marchington and
Parker
l990),
amplified by the focus
on
behaviour at the corporate level
(Marginson
et al.
1988;
Purcell and Ahlstrand
1989).
Historical and
theoretical analyses have flourished (e.g. Storey
1980;
Fox
1985;
Snape
*I’rolcssor
of‘
Humin
Resource Man;igement and
Head
of
Human
Resource Manageineiit
Section. Cardiff Business School
*’Professor
of
Business Administration
:rid
Director.
Business
School
12
and Bamber 1989) and have been augmented by accounts of the role of
management in the reform of collective bargaining (e.g. Brown 1981;
Batstone 1984, 1988; Millward and Stevens 1986; Edwards 1987; Sisson
1987).
In
addition, there have been seminal explanatory investigations
of
managerial unionism (e.g. Poole
et
al.
1983; Bamber 1986), influential
studies of the effects of ‘Japanization’ (e.g. Turnbull 1986; Oliver and
Wilkinson 198S), and lively debates on the consequences of the rise of
human resource management (e.g. Guest 1987; Storey 1989; Hendry and
Pettigrew 1990; Keenoy 1990). Indeed, the current situation is
in
dramatic
contrast with the late 1970s when, in
The Changing System
of
Indirstriul
Kefutions
in Creut Brituin.
Clegg (1979) felt it fitting to remark that ‘[the]
truth
of
the matter is that the study of managers is
in
a
primitive state’.
Nevertheless, despite this quickening of attention, there have been
remarkably few longitudinal studies of managers,
with
the result that
it
is
difficult to say anything reliable about long-term trends and tendencies.
Above all, even though there is evidence from the
WIRS
surveys (Millward
and Stevens 1986), our knowledge of the extent to which managerial
attitudes and behaviour in industrial relations are sensitive
to
major shifts
in
the external political environment is still circumscribed.
Although the publication
of
the 1990 WIRS provides significant in-
formation about changes in managerial practice
in
the decade 1980-90,
the
contribution of the present paper will be to focus on rather different data,
which particularly identify patterns of continuity and change in managerial
uttitudes
during the same period; and its main purpose is to present findings
from a longitudinal study of British managers carried out
in
1980
and 1990.
British Journal
of
Industriul
Rehiom
2.
Theories
and
a Research Model
On the basis of the evidence from our first survey of managers conducted
in
1980, a number
of
interrelated propositions were developed to interpret
managerial attitudes and behaviour
in
industrial relations (Poole
etal.
1982).
First
of
all,
it
was argued that control was central to the managerial role, and
this was reflected in the experience by managers of two main challenges from
‘above’ and ‘below’ (Flanders 1975). Second, ideology was regarded as
a
central concept, and this was reflected
in
part in the general endorsement by
managersofthe tenetsofa freeenterprise system andin part
by
thepreference
for a ‘unitary’ rather than ‘pluralistic’ model of industrial relations.
However, while these central propositions are still important, to under-
stand patterns
of
continuity and change in managerial attitudes and
behaviour in industrial relations between 1980 and 1990,
a
more sophisti-
cated model is required. This is set out
in
Figure 1, where the following
elements are isolated:
(1)
similarities and differences
in
the wider
environment (political, economic, social, legal);
(2)
differing competitive
strategies based partly on these conditions; (3) managerial values and
ideologies (extent of commitment to a free enterprise system and
of
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