Publication Type

Book Chapter

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

Employment relations—which form most of the 20th century was called industrial relations, and what some now call human resources and industrial relations—is a multidisciplinary field studying all aspects of work and the employment relationship (Ackers and Wilkinson, 2003; Budd, 2004; Kaufm an, 2004). A multidisciplinary approach means that competing values and assumptions underlie the analyses, policies, and practices of employment relations scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. Unfortunately, these underlying beliefs are often implicit rather than explicit, or, with the longstanding focus on how industrial relations processes work, sometimes ignored altogether. But understanding the employment relationship, corporate human resource management practices, labor union strategies, and work-related public policies and laws requires understanding how values and assumptions form the ideologies and frames of reference used by scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

Keywords

Industrial relations, employee relations, values

Discipline

Labor Relations | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

SAGE Handbook of Industrial Relations

Editor

Nick Bacon, P. Blyton, J. Fiorito & E. Heery

First Page

92

Last Page

113

ISBN

9781412911542

Identifier

10.4135/9781849200431

Publisher

SAGE

City or Country

London

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200431.n5

Share

COinS