The Future of Employment Relations

This study demonstrates that an institutional vacuum is emerging within employment relations. As managerial demands for decentralized, individual arrangement have intensified, collective bargaining has declined. Yet, so far, few employer management innovations have arisen to replace or supplement these traditional collective processes. This vacuum is already evident in the UK, the author’s starting point, and in the USA, and may well increasingly occur in Australasia and Europe. Beaumont first examines the strengths and weaknesses of collective bargaining and the impact of human resources management policies and practices. He then considers some of the alternative institutional arrangements, including works councils, that might fill the current gap. Throughout, the analysis is set firmly within the broader public policy context and stresses the need to address, by legislation or other means, the ramifications for employment relations of different national approaches to competitiveness.