ABSTRACT
Industrial relations theory has tended to assume that trade unions are central to management’s field of vision when it comes to organisational participation, as with much else (see Ackers and Wilkinson 2003). Either participation schemes are designed to weaken and marginalise unions or their aim is to make unions ‘see sense’ and behave more responsibly (Ramsay 1977). Our earlier research showed that new concerns about quality, customer care and employee commitment motivated 1980s and 1990s management Employee Involvement (EI) initiatives, supplanting the traditional emphasis on industrial relations conflict resolution (Marchington et al. 1992). Social Partnership has been widely interpreted as heralding a return of trade unions to the centre of UK organisational life. However, our recent research suggests that, while there has been a revival of management interest in representative EI since 1997, ‘partnership’ will not translate into an automatic union revival. Indeed, employers may develop effective (in their eyes) non-union forms of partnership, where unions are either too weak or too adversarial to deliver employee consent. From the perspective of UK managers, the prospects for unions in the workplace will depend on their willingness and ability to contribute towards partnership between employers and employees. And rarely will unions be the exclusive channel for achieving this.
