Changing Employment Relations

Shifts in economic, political and social structures are occurring on an international scale and resulting in unprecedented changes in employment relations. These changes include the trend toward more part-time, contingent, and female workers in the workforce and a decrease in the number of unionised employees. This edited volume provides a broad, up-to-date review of related critical issues joined with current representative research in the field of industrial and organisational psychology. The book is divided into two parts. The first part identifies relevant changes and discusses their effects on populations as diverse as adjunct professors and blue collar workers. The second part focuses on adaptation to change through discussion of union relations and union member participation and commitment in the face of these changes. Highlights include discussions of organisational justice, psychological contracts, and occupational health and safety. Chapters also cover the unique, yet universal, problems experienced in Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, and Canada, in addition to the United States.
Finally, this volume asserts that unions must find ways to expand and retain their membership, whereas corporations need to learn how to restructure workplace systems and functions to accommodate the new demands of the changing workforce and at the same time remain profitable. The studies collected here should serve as a useful guide for industrial psychologists and provide a good foundation for helping unions and corporations manage change.