Rethinking the employment relationship: a neo-pluralist critique of British industrial relations orthodoxy

Radical pluralism, the mainstream perspective for British and European industrial relations, centres on a Marxian, sociological conception of the employment relationship, which structures explanations of power and conflict. This theoretical critique stresses the historical specificity of the experie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Peter Ackers
Format: Default Article
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Other commerce, management, tourism and services not elsewhere classified
Employment relationship
History
Industrial relations
Pluralist
Radical
Sociology
Business and Management not elsewhere classified
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/15012
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Radical pluralism, the mainstream perspective for British and European industrial relations, centres on a Marxian, sociological conception of the employment relationship, which structures explanations of power and conflict. This theoretical critique stresses the historical specificity of the experience of work and the explanatory limitations of the employment relationship. The intellectual history of radical pluralism is traced from Fox ((1974), Beyond Contract: Work, Power and Trust Relations, London: Faber) to Edwards ((1995, 2003), ‘The Employment Relationship,’ in Industrial Relations, ed. P. Edwards, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1–36) and Blyton and Turnbull ((1994, 1998, 2004), The Dynamics of Employee Relations, Basingstoke: Macmillan). Five objections to the radical-pluralist employment relationship are outlined and an alternative, neo-pluralist sociological and historical perspective is sketched.

Similar Items