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PurposeThis paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological writing in the classical pluralist phase.Design/methodology/approachAn intellectual history, including detailed discussion of key Fox texts, supported by interviews with Fox and other Biographical sources.FindingsFox’s radicalisation was incomplete, as he carried over from his industrial relations (IR) pluralist mentors, Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg, a suspicion of political Marxism, a sense of historical contingency and an awareness of the fragmented nature of industrial conflict.Originality/valueRecent academic attention has centred on Fox’s later radical pluralism with its “structural” approach to the employment relationship. This paper revisits his early, neglected classical pluralist writing. It also illuminates his transition from institutional IR to a broader sociology of work, influenced by AH Halsey, John Goldthorpe and others and the complex nature of his radicalisation.

The British educated classes have long worried and fantasized about working-class religious belief and unbelief. Anglican churchmen feared Methodist “enthusiasm” in the eighteenth century, radicalism in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and urban, industrial irreligion after the 1851 Religious Census on churchgoing. In a mirror image of these old anxieties, most labour historians have wished away Christianity in the twentieth century. The long-standing shared socialist teleology of Marxists and Fabians leads to the modern, socialist labour movement. In this Marxian take on secularization theory, a new, more cohesive proletariat or singular “working class” forms, with an anti-capitalist, “socialist” consciousness reflected in the political, trade union, and co-operative institutions of the “labour movement”. Suddenly, economic, social, and political history find a single, unified subject. At the level of belief, socialism displaces those old Victorian pretenders for working-class hearts and minds: conservatism, liberalism, and Christianity. Sometime between 1914 and 1918, the Christian religion disappears from ordinary lives, as in Selina Todd's recent, The People, where popular religious faith is barely worth talking about.

Marcel van der Linden has championed Global Labour History (GLH) as a solution to the decline of Labour History as an academic field. His 2008 Workers of the World (and other writing) strives to transcend methodological nationalism and provides a new global framework to study labour through the ages. This British liberal-pluralist critique argues that Van der Linden’s version of GLH is essentially a re-packaging of Marxism that narrows the conceptual foundations of the field and overlooks both the full political crisis of state-socialism and its limited historical appeal to working people. The article concludes by defending a national approach centred on civil society institutions, as represented in the 2016 collection edited by P. Ackers and A.J. Reid, Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century. TRANSLATED ABSTRACTS FRENCH – GERMAN – SPANISH Peter Ackers. Travailleurs du monde? Une critique libérale et pluraliste au Royaume-Uni de l’histoire globale du travail de Marcel van den Linden. Marcel van der Linden a défendu l’histoire globale du travail (Global Labour History ou GLH) comme solution au déclin de l’histoire globale du travail en tant que champ d’études universitaires. Son Workers of the World de 2008 (et d’autres écrits) tentent de transcender le nationalisme méthodologique et fournit un nouveau cadre global pour étudier le travail à travers les âges. La présente critique libérale et pluraliste au Royaume-Uni soutient que la version de Van der Linden de la GLH est essentiellement une remise en forme du marxisme, restreignant les fondements conceptuels du champ d’études, et négligeant à la fois l’ensemble de la crise politique du socialisme étatique et son attrait historique limité pour les travailleurs. L’article conclut en défendant une approche nationale centrée sur les institutions de la société civile, représentée dans la collection de 2016 révisée par P. Ackers et A.J. Reid, Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century. Traduction: Christine Plard Peter Ackers. Arbeiter der Welt? Eine britische, liberal-pluralistische Kritik der globalen Arbeitsgeschichte Marcel van der Lindens. Marcel van der Linden hat die globale Arbeitsgeschichte als Gegenmittel zum Niedergang des akademischen Forschungsfelds Arbeitsgeschichte propagiert. In seinem 2008 erschienenen Buch Workers of the World ist er (wie auch in anderen Schriften) bestrebt, über den methodologischen Nationalismus hinauszugehen und einen neuen, globalen Rahmen für die Erforschung der Arbeit über verschiedene Zeitalter hinweg zu bieten. In dieser britischen, liberal-pluralistischen Kritik wird die These vertreten, dass es sich bei der globalen Arbeitsgeschichte Van der Lindens im Wesentlichen um einen Marxismus im neuen Gewand handelt, der die begrifflichen Grundlagen des Feldes verengt und sowohl die ausgewachsene politische Krise des Staatssozialismus als auch dessen begrenzte historische Attraktivität für arbeitende Menschen ignoriert. Der Beitrag schließt mit der Verteidigung eines auf die Nation zentrierten Ansatzes, der zivilgesellschaftliche Institutionen in den Mittelpunkt stellt, wie dies in dem 2016 erschienenen, von P. Ackers und A.J. Reid herausgegebenen Sammelband Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century geleistet worden ist. Übersetzung: Max Henninger Peter Ackers. ¿Trabajadores del mundo? Una crítica liberal-pluralista británica a la Historia Global del Trabajo de Marcel van der Linden. Marcel van der Linden ha propuesto la Historia Global del Trabajo (HGT) como una solución al declive de la Historia del trabajo en tanto disciplina académica. Su obra de 2008 Workers of the World (entre otros de sus muchos trabajos) es un esfuerzo por trascender el nacionalismo metodológico y por proveer un nuevo maco global para el estudio del trabajo en el transcurso del tiempo. La crítica liberal-pluralista británica considera que la versión de Van der Linden respecto a la HGT es, esencialmente, un la reelaboración de un marxismo que estrecha los fundamentos conceptuales del campo de estudio y pasa por alto tanto la crisis política total del socialismo de Estado como los limitados atractivos históricos para la clase trabajadora. El artículo concluye con una defensa de una aproximación nacional centrada en las instituciones de la sociedad civil, como la que se propone en la obra colectiva de 2016 coordinada por P. Ackers y A.J. Reid, Alternatives to State-Socialism in Britain: Other Worlds of Labour in the Twentieth Century. Traducción: Vicent Sanz Rozalén

Purpose - Given the emergence of new legal initiatives for union recognition, declining levels of union membership and the growth of alternative forms of employee representation, this paper aims to examine the management of employee voice in non-union firms.Design methodology approach - The research adopts a case study approach in seven non-union organisations from different sectors of economic activity in the UK. Several themes guided the design of the research instruments. Interviews were conducted with managerial respondents responsible for the design and implementation of employee voice at each case study, including non-personnel practitioners.Findings - Provides information on: the meaning of non-union voice; the range of practices adopted; the potential outcomes; and apparent barriers to the implementation of non-union voice arrangements.Research limitations implications - The research collected data from managerial respondents only, and this limitation is noted. Further research in this area is suggested, particularly from employee stakeholders involved in the processes of employee involvement.Originality value - The paper addresses a gap on employee voice in non-union settings. It suggests that it is too simple to dismiss voice in non-union organisations as ineffective and inconsequential.

This article explores the changes in worker identity that can occur during manufacturing restructuring — specifically those linked to the declining status of craft work — through an in-depth case study of Weaveco, a UK carpet manufacturer. An analysis of changes in the labour process is followed by employee reactions centred on the demise of the traditional craft identity of male carpet weavers. The voices of the weavers dramatize the tensions involved in reconstructing their masculine identity, and we consider the implications this has for understanding gendered work relations.

This article reviews the burgeoning literature on work–life balance and family-friendly policies in European countries, noting the new interdisciplinary dialogue between traditional ‘work’ and ‘family’ disciplines. It examines the findings from interviews with economic actors, suggesting that, while work–life balance and family-friendly policies are an issue everywhere, progress is very uneven. Overall, strong traditional family policies have not contributed to work–life balance, since they are predicated on a traditional male breadwinner model. A combination of strong demand for female labour in the service sector and equal opportunities policies is, however, causing employers and government to address the issue.

This paper presents the findings of a case study undertaken in a UK utility company, referred to as Energy Co. The main aim of the study was to assess how the agreement of a partnership arrangement in 1995 had affected the conduct of employment relations. The study found that partnership was born out of a poor industrial relations climate, and driven primarily by management. They hoped that it might improve industrial relations, raise employee commitment, inform and educate the workforce, and increase employee contribution. Partnership was not intended to encourage joint governance or power sharing. In practice, partnership combined direct employment involvement (EI) such as team briefing and problem solving groups, with representative participation through a formal partnership council system. Management suggested that, on balance, partnership had been successful, with benefits including improved industrial relations, quicker pay negotiations and increased legitimacy of decision making. It was also suggested that there was a positive link - albeit indirect and intangible - with organisational performance. Union representatives also proposed that partnership was a success, citing benefits including greater access to information, greater influence, inter-union co-operation, and more local decision making. Employee views were more mixed. There was also clear evidence of several tensions. Four were particularly noteworthy: employee apathy, management-representative relations, employee-representative relations, and the role of full-time union officials (FTOs). Despite espoused partnership, management hostility to unions was evident, and a preference for non-union employment relations clear. Consequently, the future of the partnership in its current form is uncertain.

It is now generally agreed that there has been a growth in the extensiveness of employee involvement (El) in Britain in recent years. However, the value of this information is limited because many of the studies rely heavily on management viewpoints about the impact of El. Even when surveys of employee opinion are undertaken, however, the results are typically abstracted from the organizational context in which they are located. In this article, we present information from six organizations collected as part of a larger study on El in Britain. This illustrates that employee attitudes to El are dependent, inter alia, upon the prior experiences which employees have of El and work in general, management's approaches to employee relations, and the recent and projected corporate performance of the organization. This leads us to suggest that El is as much affected by the prevailing organizational culture and environment as it is a source of change. The authors call for more research studies of this kind to be undertaken.