Finding a Voice at Work?: New Perspectives on Employment Relations - Hardcover

Stewart Johnstone, Senior Lecturer in HRM, Newcastle University Business School,Peter Ackers, Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour History, Loughborough University

Stewart Johnstone is Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Newcastle University Business School and has previously been Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Loughborough University. His doctoral research investigated labour management partnership as form of employee voice in the British financial service sector. This has formed a major strand of his research for the last ten years, and he has published several journal articles and book chapters on this theme.He has also published on human resource strategy and human resource management in SMEs. He is currently Principal Investigator of a British Academy/Leverhulme funded project on the Dynamics of Employment Relations in the Recession (2013-2015), and Co-Investigator of an ERSC Seminar Series The Regulation of Work and Employment: Towards a multi-disciplinary framework (2014-2015). His teaching includes undergraduate human resource management and specialist postgraduate employment relations modules.

Peter Ackers is Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour History in the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University, UK. He studied Politics and Philosophy (PPE, including Sociology) at Lincoln College, Oxford University, followed by an MA in Industrial Relations from Warwick University. His specialist teaching is in International Employment Relations, British Social History and Business Ethics. Peter's intellectual interests centre on the sociological and historical aspects of the employment relationship and how this affects ordinary people and society at large. His work stresses the moderate, constructive character of organized labour, with themes of partnership and pluralism, and challenges Radical and Marxist theories of Industrial Relations.

Finding a Voice at Work? will no doubt become a benchmark text for all those researching and teaching the changing nature of employment relations. With an impressive list of leading contributors, the book examines the key question of why voice still matters for employment relations and society from a conceptual, empirical and comparative standpoint. It offers a sharp and compelling analysis for why employee voice should be at the centre of public policy debate. * Professor Mark Stuart, Director of CERIC and Montague Burton Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, University of Leeds * This book offers important and novel insights into work and employment relations. It is essential reading for those interested in such vital workplace issues as: unions, voice, communications, performance, consultation, participation, employee involvement, and engagement. * Professor Greg Bamber, Monash University, co-editor of International & Comparative Employment Relations * There are now a lot of voices in the employee voice field. Finding a Voice at Work? stands out by bringing together an accomplished set of authors to provide diverse perspectives in a single book. From conceptual foundations to debates over British trade union strategies to perspectives from Europe and beyond, the stimulating chapters deepen the readers understanding of the fundamental question, why does workplace voice matter and which versions work best? I highly recommend this insightful collection. * Professor John W. Budd, University of Minnesota * The analysis is detailed and clear, and there are nice thematic links and relationships between the chapters. The competing unitary/pluralist, organizing/partnership analytic perspectives are developed to good effect through the chapters, as is the discussion about voice in relation to Hall and Soskices varieties of capitalism. This overlap across the chapters, and the different viewpoints expressed in them, is useful for stimulating thought. The writing style should be relatively easy for students to digest, and certainly some of the chapters would be ideal for undergraduate teaching material. On this basis, the book would be an excellent library resource for those researching, teaching or learning about employment relations and voice. * Clare Mumford, Personnel Review *