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E-raamat: Consultation at Work: Regulation and Practice [Oxford Scholarship Online e-raamatud]

(Associate Fellow, Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick Business School), (Professorial Fellow, Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick Business School)
  • Formaat: 226 pages, Tables
  • Ilmumisaeg: 25-Oct-2012
  • Kirjastus: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN-13: 9780199605460
  • Oxford Scholarship Online e-raamatud
  • Raamatu hind pole hetkel teada
  • Formaat: 226 pages, Tables
  • Ilmumisaeg: 25-Oct-2012
  • Kirjastus: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN-13: 9780199605460
The practice of consultation between senior managers and employee representatives has a long history in British employment relations yet has often been overshadowed by discussions on collective bargaining. In the last few decades, the importance of consultation has been elevated by two main trends: the decline in trade union membership and the retreat from collective bargaining in the private sector on the one hand, with the result that consultation may be the only form of collective employee voice available; and the programme of legislative support for consultation by the European Union since the 1970s on the other.

The book charts the meaning and development of consultation in the twentieth century and explores the justifications for the practice. It shows how EU intervention to promote consultation evolved and changed, paying particular attention to the adoption of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations, which became fully operational in enterprises with 50 or more employees in 2008. Analysing the half-hearted response to EU consultation initiatives by the social partners in Britain, it provides a critical assessment of successive UK governments' handling of the issue. Drawing on the authors' empirical research in twenty-five organizations, the book closely examines the take-up and impact of consultation regulations, and explores the processes involved in effective consultation.

Consultation at Work looks at the dynamics of consultation and draws a contrast between "active" consultation of the type envisioned by the EU, and more limited consultation used as a means of communication. Discussing the UK experience in comparative perspectives, it asks what has to happen for the take-up of consultation to improve and suggests the changes that should be made to the EU Directive and UK ICE Regulations.
List of Tables
x
List of Boxes
xi
Preface and Acknowledgements xii
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
xv
1 Consultation at Work: Competing Agendas, Differing Expectations
1(22)
What is consultation?
1(5)
Lessons from history
6(1)
Early examples of management style and union substitution
6(1)
Consultation in times of war: expansion and controversy
7(6)
The post-war retreat and possible resurgence of consultation
13(4)
Consultation in a period of union decline
17(3)
Conclusion
20(3)
2 Justifications for Consultation
23(20)
The language of consultation, participation, and involvement
24(2)
The pursuit of efficiency through consultation
26(1)
Access to top management
27(1)
Improving the quality of decisions
28(1)
Contribution to the management of change
29(1)
Inculcation of participative management style
30(1)
Providing an effective means for handling grievances and complaints
31(1)
Improving employee engagement and commitment
32(4)
Consultation as power-sharing
36(3)
Consultation as an employee right
39(2)
Conclusion
41(2)
3 Legislating for Employee Consultation: The Significance of EU-Level Regulation
43(24)
The evolution of EU intervention
44(1)
Rationales for regulation
44(3)
Different sources of regulation, different outcomes
47(2)
New approaches to EU regulation
49(2)
Revised collective redundancies directive
51(1)
European Works Councils directive
51(3)
European Company Statute and linked employee involvement directive
54(1)
The road to the information and consultation directive
55(1)
Regulation by the social partners?
55(2)
Commission proposal
57(1)
Views of the social partners
58(1)
Position of the UK government
58(1)
Legislative process
58(5)
Subsequent EU measures
63(1)
Conclusion
64(3)
4 Half-Hearted Regulation in the United Kingdom
67(21)
The legacy of the Bullock debate
68(2)
Key stages in the evolution of UK consultation legislation
70(1)
Issue-specific consultation
71(1)
Workforce-wide consultation rights versus single channel
72(5)
UK implementation of the information and consultation directive
77(6)
Assessment of the ICE regulations
83(2)
Conclusion
85(3)
5 The Take-up and Impact of Statutory Consultation
88(26)
The WERS 2004 benchmark
89(3)
Implications of legislative design
92(1)
Reflexive implementation
92(3)
Experience and lessons of directly applicable consultation rights
95(1)
Impact of the ICE regulations---legislatively prompted voluntarism?
96(1)
Quantitative impact
97(2)
Patterns of employer, employee, and union engagement with the regulations
99(4)
Enforcement and case law
103(7)
Case study evidence
110(2)
Conclusion
112(2)
6 The Practice of Consultation
114(22)
The component characteristics of effective consultation
115(2)
Degree of involvement
117(4)
Scope of decisions
121(3)
Level of consultation
124(2)
The form of consultation and involvement
126(3)
The organizing capacity of employee representatives
129(4)
A culture of cooperation
133(1)
Conclusion
134(2)
7 The Dynamics of Consultation
136(24)
Case histories in active consultation
137(2)
Case history---From union avoidance to highly developed consultation with agreed outcomes: mobile phone company
139(3)
Case history---Active consultation over redundancies and restructuring: diversified technology
142(2)
Case history---Active consultation prompted by representatives' growing assertiveness: regional charity
144(3)
Case history---Building an effective consultative body via a negotiated agreement: IT services
147(2)
Consultation limited to communication
149(1)
Case history---Consultation as a communication bridge with staff: urban housing
150(2)
Case history---Failing to find a distinctive voice: regional airport
152(2)
Case history---Crowded out and largely irrelevant: the staff council at hospice
154(1)
Failed consultation: a staff council that became defunct
155(1)
Case history---A short-lived experiment in collective consultation: electronics company
156(1)
Conclusion
157(3)
8 The Future of Consultation
160(20)
Why consultation is important
161(2)
Regulating consultation---a story of missed opportunities
163(2)
What lessons can be learnt from consultation practices in other countries?
165(1)
Countries with long-established consultation arrangements: the example of Germany
166(3)
Responses to the directive elsewhere in the EU
169(2)
Lessons from European experience
171(1)
Reforming the regulations: an agenda for promoting active consultation
172(6)
The future of consultation
178(2)
Appendix: IRRU-Led Research Project on the Impact of the ICE Regulations 180(6)
References 186(15)
Author Index 201(3)
Subject Index 204
Mark Hall is Professorial Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. He previously worked on the TUC's head office staff throughout the 1980s. He has written extensively on the legal regulation of employee representation. He acted as a consultant to the European Commission, 1990-1, working on the European Works Councils Directive and revision of collective redundancies Directive, and to the Department of Trade and Industry, 1997-2001, advising on the UK implementation of the EWCs and information and consultation Directives. He co-edited European Works Councils Bulletin, 1995-2006. and is co-ordinator of UK input to the European Industrial Relations Observatory. His research interests include the legal regulation of employment relations, EU and British employment law policy, European Works Councils, and employee information and consultation.



John Purcell is a specialist in the management of employment relations and HRM with a particular interest in business strategies and the way they impact on employees' attitudes and behaviour and affect performance. He is an active researcher and has led research teams looking at HRM and performance, performance related pay, mergers and acquisitions, the role of line managers, the use of agency workers and the management of change. His latest research with Mark Hall focussed on the practice of collective consultation and the impact of the law in this area. Following 14 years as a University Lecturer at Oxford University, he worked for 12 years as Professor of Human Resource Management at Bath University before moving to the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick Business School where he is now an Associate Fellow. He has written or co-authored 7 books and over 50 academic papers. He is an Acas arbitrator and a Deputy Chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee.