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Employment Relations Ed Rose Prentice-Hall Harlow 2001 702 pp. ISBN 0201 34299 5 L27.99 (pbk)
Keywords Industrial relations, Employee relations, Human resource management, United Kingdom
Ed Rose's book Employment Relations claims to be an essential text for undergraduate, CEPD, postgraduate students and Independent Learners. The aim of the book appears to be to provide students with a theoretical underpinning to the study of employment relations, while also aiding them in developing skills needed by practitioners. The book is divided into 13 chapters that cover much of the standard themes for teaching purposes. There are dedicated chapters to employers and trade unions, the role of the state, collective bargaining, negotiation, industrial action, and the non-union environment.
Each chapter is generally comprehensive in its coverage. For example, in chapter 2 "Employers and the management of industrial relations", Rose covers managerial control and the labour process, Taylorism, Braverman, typologies of personnel management and an introduction to human resource management. In chapter 4, the coverage of the state examines theoretical perspectives on the role of government, includes a large section on government economic policy 1945-1999, and an evaluation of New Labour's Employment Relations Act 1999.
These early chapters of the book present the reader with quite a daunting challenge. For example, chapter 1 introduces the parties to employment relations, proceeds to take a historical summary of the development of British industrial relations, followed by an overview of the theoretical approaches to employment relations and...