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Understanding the employment relationship: markets, hierarchies and power
Author(s) -
Nolan Peter
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2338.2012.00688.x
Subject(s) - subordination (linguistics) , dominance (genetics) , coercion (linguistics) , industrial relations , perspective (graphical) , positive economics , power (physics) , wage , sociology , economics , political economy , neoclassical economics , labour economics , management , philosophy , biochemistry , linguistics , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , gene
The employment relationship is fiercely contested both in theory and practice. This article examines recent theoretical initiatives in economics that have sought to illuminate the nature, specificity, and complexities of the employment relationship. It examines claims by proponents of the new institutional economics (NIE) that they can account for the historical emergence of authority relations and the dominance of hierarchical work organisations without reference to the forces of class power, coercion and labour subordination. The NIE is contrasted with the ‘old’ institutional economics (OIE) and the distinctive insights of an industrial relations perspective. The paper considers in conclusion whether a synthesis of NIE and industrial relations research would achieve a deeper understanding of the institutional forms of wage‐labour in contemporary capitalist economies.