ABSTRACT
The emergence of innovative forms of labour-management partnerships was one of the more striking and unexpected features of British employment relations in the second half of the 1990s. The intensification of competition in product markets which flowed from globalisation and privatisation led many companies to re-examine their structures and processes with a view to improving performance. Although downsizing was one consequence of this, many enterprises began actively to engage with employees and their representatives on issues of work organisation, training and job security. The process received a fresh impetus with the election in 1997 of a Labour government committed to ‘partnership at work’, but was already underway in numerous organisations prior to that point. The challenge of sustaining these new forms of partnership has gone on to become a major focus of union-management relations at the enterprise level and has engendered intense policy debate.
