The Climate of Workplace Relations

Trends in the political and economic situation influence all sections of the business environment. The changes and continuities these create in workplace relations have an impact on the whole organization. While the formal, structural aspects of workplace relations are more often studied, the atmosphere in which those relations take place is central to understanding the ways they function in an organization. This book investigates not only the processes of industrial relations themselves but also the climate in which they work. As well as studying union behaviour, it views the topic from the wider perspective of human resource management and integrates theories of industrial relations and organizational analysis. The empirical evidence presented in the book, which draws on manufacturing and service industries in Canada, tests a model for analyzing the causes and consequences of this climate. By examining the possiblities for organizational design, it discusses the way improvements in the climate of workplace relations can benefit the overall effectivenesss of the organization. This book should be of interest to lecturers and students of industrial relations, human resource management and organization studies.