Markets, Firms and the Management of Labour in Modern Britain

In this examination of the development of employers' personnel, human resources, and industrial relations policies in Britain in the twentieth century the author focuses on how employers organize the employment relationship, control work relations, and deal with trade unions and industrial relations. He develops an approach that emphasizes the interaction of external market forces, internal management structure and organization, and strategic choices, and argues that British employers' historical adherence to market-based strategies rather than internal strategies has had negative consequences for economic performance and national competitiveness relative to the United States, Germany, and Japan
Preface; 1. Introduction: the management of labour; Part I. The Inheritance: 2. Markets, firms, and the management of labour in the nineteenth century; Part II. Continuities and Change in the First Half of the Twentieth Century: 3. Markets, firms, and the organisation of production; 4. The evolving employment relationship; 5. Employers, unions, and collective bargaining; Part III: 6. Markets, firms, and the organisation of production; 7. Industrial relations: challenges and responses; 8. Employment relations in the post-war period; Part IV. Conclusions: 9. Markets, firms and the management of labour; End notes; Index