ABSTRACT
The relations between management and operatives have been extensively formalised in what are now usually called ‘industrial relations’. These formal relations are centred on issues concerned with the essential ‘act of exchange’ that is involved in working for a business. The employee exchanges a certain amount of work for a certain amount of money. The exchange may be carefully regulated in quality of work and working conditions, but essentially it is the exchange of work for money. Industrial relations are based on economic considerations. They are materialist. For this reason many people have taken great pains to emphasise that they are not the whole story of the relations between management and operatives.
