Workplace Partnership: A Question of Interests

Abstract

It has been our argument throughout this book that, in the final analysis, the conflict of class interests that is inherent to capitalist dynamics at work will inevitably frustrate and, in time, invalidate attempts to create partnerships between employers and labour. In reading the different analyses of the proponents of partnership and high performance work systems one could be forgiven for losing sight of the fact that these new developments in work organization and employment relations are components of a capitalist labour process. The seductive rhetoric of ‘high commitment’ and ‘mutual gain’ too easily glosses over the role and condition of those who labour under high performance regimes, workers whose labour power, like any other in capitalist society, is subject to the command of capital.