Mark Stuart

Networks and social capital in the UK television industry: The weakness of weak ties

Accounts of the shift to post-industrial modes of employment have tended to present an over-simplified view of networks as an assemblage of contacts used to gain individual advantage in the labour market. Creative industries represent a challenge to this as typically they rely on networks to foster collaboration, trust and co-operation. In this article we explore how a variety of networks are used to promote both individual competition and co-operation in an industry where re-regulation has resulted in the break up of bureaucratic organizations and widespread casualization of the labour market. We argue that there is a need to extend the debate on the role of networks in a casualized labour market to examine how individuals organize themselves via the plethora of networks that result from organizational break up.We use qualitative data from a series of interviews with freelance television production workers in the United Kingdom to suggest that workers use networks as a source of competitive advantage and, at the same time, support and co-operation. Overall our research suggests that network activity is more complex, and networks themselves more dynamic, than existing research and theory implies.

‘Learners of the workplace unite!’ an empirical examination of the UK trade union learning representative initiative

The statutory rights conferred on trade union learning representatives (ULRs) under the 2002 Employment Act represent a significant development for the British trade union movement.This article presents an initial empirical assessment of the ULR initiative, drawing from original quantitative and qualitative data on ULR activity. Our findings suggest that while ULRs have been successful in promoting and facilitating employee-centred learning opportunities, the development of their role is potentially constrained by their evolving relationships with employers and their insertion into broader trade structures. Nonetheless, there are signs that the initiative has the potential to contribute to the recruitment of new trade union members.

Swimming against the tide: social partnership, mutual gains and the revival of ‘tired’ HRM

This paper explores the theoretical antecedents underpinning the social partnership approach and examines the motives behind, and the potential benefits of, the partnership agenda as a model for the future of employment relations. It puts forward an analysis that eschews a simplistic ‘good’ or ‘bad’ interpretation of partnership. Instead, it argues for a framework that is sensitive to its evolution and complex construction. Central to this approach is the recognition that both management and trade unions are faced with a series of complex choices in responding to partnership, and that the evolution and outcomes of partnership are influenced by the prevailing economic environment, regulatory infrastructure and political ideology. The paper suggests that in the context of the UK partnership represents an attempt to renew what we consider to be the ‘tired’ project of HRM, in order to overcome the historic difficulties of constructing the project of the high-performance workplace.

'Partnership' and new industrial relations in a risk society: an age of shotgun weddings and marriages of convenience?

The article argues that the concept of risk should be at the heart of any discussion on partnership-based approaches to employment relations. It draws attention to two sets of organizational-related risk - distributive risks, related to material and environmental factors and exchanges, and political risks, related to organizational practices and legitimacy. These risks are shown to emerge from both exogenous and endogenous forces, and to have become more problematic because of the macro political and socio-economic context of workplace change. Given this changing context of risk, we argue that ‘new’ partnership relations between labour and management are fundamentally unstable. We contend that the concept of risk has to be approached in a much more explicit, focused and subtle manner than is apparent in the current debate on partnership, if we are to understand the challenges and contradictions underpinning the emergence of new industrial relations systems.

Bargaining for Skills: Trade Unions and Training at the Workplace

Training and development have featured as key issues on the ‘new bargaining agenda’ outlined by the TUC. Although evidence suggests that union successes in achieving a role in training decisions at the workplace have thus far been limited, few studies have sought to examine the impact of union involvement on training outcomes. Drawing on a survey of members and representatives from the Manufacturing Science and Finance union, this paper demonstrates that union involvement in training decisions is associated with relatively superior training activities and outcomes at the workplace.

Broadcasting Discontent Freelancers, Trade Unions and the Internet

This paper examines the potential of web-based networks for representing the interests of freelance audio-visual workers. It suggests that while such networks provide for a for the expression and mobilization of interests, their ability to represent workers is limited. Consequently, they provide an opportunity for trade unions to extend organization.

‘All that is Solid?’: Class, Identity and the Maintenance of a Collective Orientation amongst Redundant Steelworkers

This article explores the importance of class and collectivism to personal identity, and the role this played during a period of personal and collective crisis created by mass redundancy in the Welsh steel industry. The research findings demonstrate the importance of occupational identity to individual and collective identity formation. The apparent desire to maintain this collective identity acted as a form of resistance to the increased individualization of the post-redundancy experience, but rather than leading to excessive particularism, it served as a mechanism through which class-based thinking and class identity were articulated. It is argued that the continued concern for class identity reflected efforts to avoid submergence in an existence akin to Beck’s (1992) vision of a class-free ‘individualized society of employees’.These findings therefore challenge the notion of the pervasiveness of individualism and the dismissal of class and collective orientations as important influences on identity formation.

Assessing partnership: the prospects for, and challenges of, modernisation

This paper has a dual role. First, it provides an overview of partnership, with particular reference to the present Labour Government and the shaping of its relations with the institutions of capital and business representation. Second, it provides an introduction to the special issue on “‘Assessing partnership: the prospects for, and challenges of, modernisation” and briefly outlines the papers included in it.

Work–life balance and older workers: employees' perspectives on retirement transitions following redundancy

Work-life balance and older workers : Employees’ perspectives on retirement transitions following redundancy

Assessing the principles of partnership: Workplace trade union representatives' attitudes and experiences

The article examines the attitudes and experiences of senior workplace trade union representatives, from the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union, against the TUC’s six principles of partnership. The findings suggest some acceptance of the ideological aspects of partnership, such as the need to move away from adversarial cultures and understand the impact of market imperatives and pressures on the firm. The results reveal little support, however, for improvements in job security, transparency and involvement and the quality of working life (the TUC’s so‐called “acid test” of partnership). Against a backdrop of job insecurity and widespread work intensification, the article argues that the material and organisational basis to partnership appears to be undermining various attitudinal changes within the thinking of trade union representatives regarding their roles and relations at work.