Trade Union Incorporation: Past, Present and Future — a longitudinal case study of GKN

Abstract

In the early 1980's in the context of a deep recession a number of commentators talked of major changes which heralded the demise of trade unionism (Brown, 1984), (Massey and Miles, 1984). Towards the mid‐1980's the debate became polarised between those who argued for change (Basset, 1986) versus those stressing continuity (MacInnes, 1987). Towards the end of the 1980's a more sophisticated analysis suggested that there had been both change and continuity (Kelly, 1991), however, the emphasis was largely upon continuity in view of the surveys at that time (Legge, 1988). The issues from the mid‐1980's have become more complex due to terms such as the “New Industrial Relations” (Dunn, 1990; Keenoy, 1991), “Human Resource Management” (Guest, 1987, 1989, 1991; Storey, 1989; Keenoy, 1991), and “Japanization” (IRJ, 1988; Oliver and Wilkinson, 1988) which suggest a transformation of industrial relations.

Citation

McCabe, D. and Black, J. (1993), "Trade Union Incorporation: Past, Present and Future — a longitudinal case study of GKN", Management Research News, Vol. 16 No. 5/6, pp. 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028279