A study of industrial relations on a large industrial construction site

This thesis uses a case study on a single site to make contributions in three areas. The first contribution is to defining the scope of workplace industrial relations. Application of a modified rules approach to industrial relations to the fieldwork setting leads to interpretations and clarifications giving the subject a distinct focus while avoiding excessive overlap with other social science fields of study. Four points may be noted. The content of substantive and non-creative procedural rules regulating jobs is of interest only to the extnet that it illuminates the goals, values and powers of the actors. The processes of rule making and interpretation should be studied only where there is actual, attempted or desired union involvement. The attitudes of actors related to job regulation should be explained primarily in terms of the influences of the workplace environment. Only behaviour which is consciously directed towards rule making should be explained. The second contribution is to an understanding of industrial relations on a large industrial construction site and to wider workplace industrial relations. Higher levels of industrial conflict are associated with an insecure employment situation, distrust among the parties, inexperience on the part of managers and supervisors, a rigid approach to industrial relations by management and external union pressure. Higher levels of union involvement in rule making are found in firms in which a wish bymanual employees for such involvement is combined with a stimulus for it and an ability to achieve it through organized conflict. Selfselection and role adaptation explain the attitudes of individuals mobile between roles. The third contribution is in the area of client-researcher relationships Too great an independence from the client leads to lack of commitment to research findings on his part.