ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the commonly levelled charge that trade unions are typically defensive or disinterested in job redesign. It discusses the criticism of job redesign and explores the dysfunctions between theoretical prescription and the real needs of the clientele are exacerbated by the potential consequences of microprocessor-based technology. The chapter suggests that adherence to the narrow contextual framework may almost certainly minimise the effectiveness of the practice of job redesign as a tool which might help to smooth the management of change in the capital/labour mix of given sectors of the economy. The point of departure between the type of job redesign and work organisation favoured by trade unionists and that embraced in the theories which populate management and behavioural sciences, centres around the issue of control. Recent empirical research carried out by the Trade Union Research Unit at Ruskin College, has shown that jointly bargained changes in work organisation can significantly reduce actual hours of work at plant level.
