Purpose – McJobs in the fast‐food sector are a major area of youth employment. This paper explores young people's perceptions of work in this industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the results of a survey of students' experiences of McJobs in Australia. Findings –...

Iron and steel is an old industry. As a cyclical and a strategically important industry, it has long been subject to extensive government intervention in most countries, including Britain. When Labour won the general election in 1945, it was already pledged to nationalise several industries,...

Purpose – There is a long line of human resource management and employee relations research that points to the important function that line managers play within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the level of line manager closest to the employees, the front-line manager...

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...

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 –...

Total Quality Management (TQM) looks like being one of the management fashions of the 1990s. In this respect the academic and prescriptive literature on TQM is reviewed. The factors which have encouraged organisations to introduce TQM are discussed and some of the implications for the management...

British industrial relations has changed greatly over the past decade. A central development has been management′s sponsorship of new, direct forms of employee involvement (EI) such as team briefing, quality circles and profit sharing. In many larger manufacturing firms new schemes now...

Looks at Quality Management (QM) and its extent of success or failure. Presents survey results, by the Institute of Management, which enables a further discussion. The survey, by postal questionnaire, was sent to 4,000 British Institute of Management members, and 880 usable responses (22 per...

Examines the implications of total quality management for the management of people. The implementation of TQM requires the development of a high commitment employee relations strategy and involves an attempt to build a culture of continuous improvement among employees. Argues that employee...