ABSTRACT
So far, we have considered the management of employees and the structure and implementation of workplace practices as perceived and described by managers. This chapter and the next change tack and focus on the employment relationship as seen by employees. This chapter covers the substantive elements of peoples jobs, while Chapter 8 looks at the attitudes held by employees and examines the extent to which the two are intertwined. The two chapters in combination provide an introduction to some, though not all, of the topics covered in the employee survey. We hope, in doing so, to illustrate the opportunity for further exploration of the data; in particular, to those who have conventionally not been part of the WIRS milieu, such as sociologists and organisational psychologists, as well as to those interested in industrial relations and human resource management.
