Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to look ahead and to consider, for the next decade, what are the prospects for productivity bargaining as weighed against those for other approaches that might be addressed to the same set of problems. The main burden of the chapter is, therefore, to assess the present standing of productivity bargaining, and to observe the emergence of other possible approaches. The chapter closes with a view on the role of productivity bargaining in the United States and in Britain in the foreseeable future.
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Notes
George Cattell, The Times (3 July 1969)
K. Jones and J. Golding, Productivity Bargaining, Fabian Research Series, 257 (London: Fabian Society, 1966) 49–50, also observe this tendency.
Hawkins also presents an example of the same calculating orientation in his Case Z. See K. Hawkins, ‘Productivity Bargaining; A Reassessment’, Industrial Relations Journal, Spring 1971, pp. 10–34.
One of the clearest statements of this is quoted by E. O. Smith, in Productivity Bargaining (London: Pan, 1971). In the view of one junior manager at the Steel Company of Wales, the Green Book productivity proposals were superfluous: ‘The existing labour force could have remained if only management could have organised itself in a more efficient manner. Involving junior management, but at the same time maintaining the necessary amount of authority, seems to be a growing problem in industry’ (p. 414).
A. Fox, ‘Managerial Ideology and Labour Relations’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. IV (November 1966) 366–78; and Industrial Sociology and Industrial Relations, Royal Commission Research Paper No. 3 (London: H.M.S.O., 1966).
Sumner H. Slichter, James J. Healy and E. Robert Livernash, The Impact of Collective Bargaining on Management (Washington: The Brookings Institution. 1960) 333.
Such careful and comprehensive manpower planning can be seen in the experience of the chemical industry. Using a combination of transfer, retraining, resettlement, early retirement, and redundancy pay, management and unions were able successfully to handle major revisions in manning requirements. See L. C. Hunter, G. L. Reid and D. Boddy, Labour Problems of Technological Change (London: Allen & Unwin, 1970) 252–71.
For a detailed description of the Kaiser Plan, see Harold Stieglitz, The Kaiser-Steel Union Sharing Plan, Studies in Personnel Policy, No. 187 (New York: National Industrial Conference Board, 1963).
For information about the Scanlon Plan, see Fred G. Lesieur, The Scanlon Plan (Cambridge: The Technology Press, 1958). Also, for an analysis of the philosophical perspective and managerial style inherent in the Scanlon Plan, see
D. M. McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960).
Some of the material in this section has been taken from previously published work. See R. B. McKersie, ‘Wage Payment Methods of the Future’, British Journal of Industrial Relations (June 1963) Vol. I, 191–212
G. P. Shultz and R. B. McKersie, ‘Stimulating Productivity: Choices, Problems and Shares’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. V (March 1967) 1–18.
Anne Shaw, ‘Participation in a Paper Mill’, Personnel Management (July 1970), Vol. 2, No. 7, 20.
It is, of course, difficult to develop a precise estimate of the portion of the labour force covered by the craft system. As one approximation of the craft complement in an industry, one might take the percentage of apprentices. If one considers 2.5 or more per cent apprentices employed in an industry as an indication of a substantial craft element, then the following industries in Britain would qualify: metal manufacture, metal goods, engineering and electrical goods, vehicles, shipbuilding and marine engineering, instruments, printing, timber and furniture, and construction. These industries together constitute about 25 per cent of total employment in Britain. In the U.S.A., only construction and shipbuilding meet the criterion of minimally 2.5 per cent apprentices, which makes the total employment organised by the craft system somewhat less than 10 per cent, an estimate that was also obtained by Stinchcombe, by using a different estimating procedure. See A. L. Stinchcombe, ‘Social Structure and Organizations’, in Handbook of Organizations, ed. J. G. March (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965), p. 166.
For a valuable analysis of the industrial relations systems of Britain and the U.S.A., see J. W. Garbarino, ‘British and American Labour Market Trends’. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XVII (June 1970) 319–36.
See P. B. Doeringer and M. J. Piore, Internal Labor Markets and Man-power Analysis (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1971) Chapter 3.
G. Wood, ‘Productivity Bargaining Encore’, Personnel Management (November 1970) Vol. 2, No. 10, 48–52.
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© 1973 R. B. McKersie and L. C. Hunter
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McKersie, R.B., Hunter, L.C. (1973). Implications for the Future. In: Pay, Productivity and Collective Bargaining. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00372-3_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00372-3_11
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