In this article an account is given of work undertaken by an internal organization development (OD) unit within the United Kingdom's National Health Service, in the area of joint consultation within a health authority. Some thoughts are also presented on the relationship between OD practice and the field of industrial relations. (SSH)

The author suggests that the quality of working life may have more than a practical and symbolic impact on the American workplace; it is also likely to have an impact on the academic world. (CT)

Examines examples of pure cases of self-management, considers recent experiments by large capitalist firms in which management has delegated a share of authority to workers, and looks at the question of whether such experiments may move the country slowly toward more fully self-managed institutions in the future. (Author)

Based on data drawn from a participant observation of a specific chain-owned newspaper, this paper examines ways in which the relationship between newspaper groups or chains and their member papers affects the newsroom and the news. Specifically, the paper reviews three aspects of chain influence: how the introduction of a chain-owned wire service…

In the context of an industrial organization, the term "suggestion system" means an administrative procedure for collecting, judging, and compensating ideas for improvements conceived by the employees. Four different problem areas of the suggestion system are examined to determine whether the psychological advantages claimed for the suggestion…

Opinions about industrial relations (IR) in Japan are extremely diversified. The main concern regarding IR appears to be whether Japan can maintain the vitality and flexibility to cope with the changes in the industrial structure and technology in a stagnant world economy. The lack of opposition and dispute between labor and management may be the…

This study investigated the possible implications of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for employee expectations and satisfactions. Specifically, interest centered on the question of how perceptions of an organization's involvement in the resolution of current societal problems might relate to members' expectations of equitable job rewards and…

The idea of using groups, rather than individuals, as the basic building blocks for an organization is suggested in this paper. Although this idea is not new in theory, it is new in practice. To design an organization from scratch around groups appears to violate the American value of individualism. Groups, however, have advantages over…

This two-phase study examined communication style and practice in a major aerospace firm. First, sixty-five high-level company managers were interviewed to ascertain their views on communication problems and practices within the firm. Second, a questionnaire survey was distributed to 700 supervisors and non-supervisory personnel, soliciting…

Written in Spanish and English (on facing pages), this manual is a practical guide for those interested in forming a worker-owned cooperative. It includes examples based on the personal experience of teaching about cooperativism and worker-owned cooperatives to a group of construction workers with diverse levels of education; vocabulary and…

Unions and employers currently operate in an environment that does not support investment in skill development. However, competitiveness demands that both work and the way workers are educated and trained be radically restructured. In high-performance workplaces, participatory labor-management approaches to job-linked basic skills development are…

A significant change is under way in the organization and management of work. The work force can be managed in two ways, one based on control and the other based on commitment. The traditional--or control-oriented--approach took shape in the early 1900s in response to the division of work into small, fixed jobs for which individuals were held…

Between 1992 and 1995, 2,117 nonmanagerial employers in 31 public and private sector organizations throughout the United Kingdom were interviewed for the following purposes: analyzing the need for training and development (T&D); obtaining feedback on existing training provision; identifying barriers to T&D that might affect individuals'…

Work-Family Programs (WFPs) are among the most popular and publicized workplace innovations of the 1990s. These programs are intended to alleviate employees' work-personal conflicts by addressing issues such as child care assistance, parental leave, elder care, flexible working arrangements, wellness and fitness, and stress management. The problem…