The challenge for personnel management

The greatest changes in personnel activities since the late 1970s are in industrial relations, High unemployment, low growth and widespread redundancies, for example, are leading trade union negotiators to adopt far more defensive and cautious approaches in pressing for improvements in their members' living standards than they did in the 1970s. There is now considerable concern with protecting jobs, and lower expectations of increases in pay and improved conditions of employment. According to the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), management's reaction in many cases is to look closely at their communications structures to ensure that employees receive as much information as possible concerning the policies and prospects of the enterprise directly from management. While some employers are seeking the active cooperation of employees by extending joint consultation and forming joint working parties to consider particular problems, others are imposing organisational changes on employees unilaterally. This is done through direct approaches to them over the heads of their recognised trade unions.