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An Attitudinal Revolution in Irish Industrial Relations: The End of ‘Them and Us’?
Author(s) -
D’Art Daryl,
Turner Thomas
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8543.00120
Subject(s) - irish , industrial relations , competition (biology) , adversarial system , unemployment , work (physics) , survey data collection , labour economics , business , political science , economics , management , engineering , economic growth , law , mechanical engineering , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , statistics , mathematics , biology
Intensified international competition and high unemployment have characterized many Western economies since 1980. A firm’s survival in such an environment demands a flexible and co‐operative work‐force, a requirement incompatible with traditional adversarial industrial relations. Drawing on a survey of employees in nine unionized companies in the Irish manufacturing sector, this paper examines the effect of these changes in the economy and workplace in facilitating a significant reduction in ‘them and us’ attitudes and an associated weakening of union structure and influence in the workplace. We found no evidence of a reduction in ‘them and us’ attitudes, but a cohesive and influential union was associated with less intense ‘them and us’.