Political Economy and Management Strategy in the Metal and Engineering Industry

The study of industrial relations management has been a long-neglected aspect of the Australian scene. Recent changes in the balance of power on the shop floor in the aftermath of prolonged recession in the metal and engineering industry, however, make such neglect an expensive luxury. This article looks at four aspects of management t strategy: the labour relations management function, relations with the unions at the workplace, attitudes to employee involvement, and attitudes to the employment relationship. The suggestion, in the light of secondary evidence and a series of fourteen case studies in the Victorian and New South Wales metal industry, is that three variables are important in helping to explain the direction that labour relations management has taken in recent years. These are the 'labour threat: the reorganization of production methods, and changes to the legal and institutional framework. It was found that management in those plants in which exposure to these three environmental pressures was similar responded with fairly similar labour relations management practices, suggesting that there may indeed be a link between the key variables.