Work Control and Managerial Prerogatives in Industrial Relations

Abstract

This paper outlines the challenge to traditional conceptions of the managerial prerogative from organisation growth and the rise of influence of the trade unions. It argues that the central objective of the parties in industrial relations is increased control over work. It examines the reactions of line managers and personnel specialists in four companies both to pressures from trade unions and to companies' attempts to re‐design their management control systems. It concludes that there is a process of accommodation which absorbs union pressure, and that by sharing control with trade unions, management reasserts its own control. But there are problems of indentification by some line managers with this new strategy.

Citation

Smith, R. (1979), "Work Control and Managerial Prerogatives in Industrial Relations", Management Research News, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 6-7. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027730