Search

Article Information


Labor Relations in Britain
Meyers, Frederic
3/3  (Spring 1961): 16-27

A vast number of strange and different way of doing the same things he has been doing all his business life face the American businessman when he considers placing productive facilities in a foreign country. Impatience with these can often lead either to the abandonment of a possibly profitable venture or to failure to do as well as anticipated. This paper describes briefly one set of institutions in one country, labor relations in Great Britain. The experience of many United States firms long established there indicates that effective techniques of labor relations can be learned. On the other hand, some new firms have experienced unnecessary difficulties in trying to transpose policies workable in the United States into an environment in which they are nearly incomprehensible. The temperate acceptance of trade unionism among British employers is perhaps brought home by the role usually played by the personnel manager. Personnel management is becoming, in Britain, a highly developed profession with growing insistence on the maintenance of professional standards and codes. Among these is the basic concept that a major function of the personnel department is primarily to serve as a mediating influence between unions and executives.

 

California Management Review

Berkeley-Haas's Premier Management Journal

Published at the University of California for more than sixty years, California Management Review seeks to share knowledge that challenges convention and shows a better way of doing business.

Learn more
Follow Us