英语论文网

本文探讨发展伙伴关系为基础的方法，在英国的工作场所的劳资关系。从一个独特的数据集制造、科技与金融结合（MSF）工作场所的代表，和工作场所的个案研究，探讨了工会的态度和经验合作及评估支持的声音和深化合作议程给他们开放机制层面。研究表明，当无国界医生的代表出现的责任放在他们的伙伴关系的言论，很少有证据表明，管理也得到了回报。

This paper explores the development of partnership-based approaches to industrial relations at the British workplace. Drawing empirically from a unique data-set of Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union (MSF) workplace representatives, and a workplace case study, the paper explores the attitudes and experiences of trade unionists to partnership and assesses the level of support and voice mechanisms open to them in furthering the partnership agenda. The study shows that whilst MSF representatives appear open to the responsibilities placed upon them in the rhetoric of partnership, there is little evidence to suggest that management has reciprocated.

KEY WORDS: PARTNERSHIP, TRADE UNIONS, INVOLVEMENT, VOICE, MUTUALITY

Social Partnership and the Mutual Gains Organisation: Remaking Involvement and Trust at the British Workplace
Introduction
The concept of partnership has, in recent years, dominated the discourse of industrial relations. In the UK, the USA and also at the European level, policy makers have sough to advocate the reconstruction of labour-capital relations around a new form of partnership-based, pluralist dialogue that is alert to the demands of the enterprise and the need for common solutions to employment issues. This 'modernisation' of employment relations is underpinned by a desire to replace the legacies of 'hostile' industrial relations with a new era of consensus. The aspirations and supposed benefits of the 'new agenda' are eloquently captured in the European Commission's Green (consultative) Paper on the organisation of work:

The concept of partnership includes ..workers and mangers in the firm. The renewal of the organisation of work can only be achieved by the firms themselves, involving management workers and their representativesa€|..This could lead towards a partnership for the development of a new framework for the modernisation of the organisation of work, taking account of the interests of both business and workers. a€|Such a partnership could make a significant contribution to achieving the objective of a productive, learning and participative organisation of work. (European Commission, 1997: 22 - Partnership for a New Organisation of Work).

The potential of the partnership approach is clearly an important European strategy (and research priority), yet, to date, little empirical work has been conducted on the practical utility of the concept and significant research questions remain un-addressed [i] . How, for example, is the partnership approach to be developed and implemented at industry and workplace level? How will this process of implementation be shaped or constrained by national-specific legacies of social dialogue? Crucially, given the emphasis on trade unions to adopt new bargaining issues and approaches, what are the attitudes, experiences and concerns of actual workplace trade union representatives to the partnership agenda?

This paper examines the partnership approach by focusing specifically on the British case. It draws empirically from a unique survey of workplace representatives of a large British trade union, the Manuf