Managing under Pressure: Industrial Relations in Local Government [Paperback]

An introduction to the main issues in and theoretical perspectives of industrial relations in local government and the public services. The problems of industrial relations are illustrated by case studies of a Thatcherite Conservative and a left-wing Labour Council in Britain.Industrial relations in local government - pluralism, social action and the Marxist approaches, corporatism, fiscal crisis; management under pressure - the structure of local authority industrial relations, the central-local government relationship, the negotiability of change under the fiscal crisis; unions under pressure; radical Conservatism and the unions - the departure of the Chief Executive, the redundancy dispute, the first administration and privatization, housing, the building society dispute; radical Labourism and the unions - the low pay issue, decentralization, the strike, the rate-capping crisis; crises of managerial authority - coping with environmental pressures, sustaining the negotiability of change, differentiating management roles and responsibilities; the unions and the management of discontent - responding to change, relating to management, managing discontent; managing under pressure - the negotiation of change - policy versus trust, from fragmented management to differentiated management, reclaiming the rights of management?