‘New Look’ Employee Relations: The View from the Inside

Recent years have seen traditional management practice questionned in many areas — in terms of personnel, manufacturing, buyer‐supplier relations and even accounting practice. In the sphere of manufacturing we have seen the emergence of practices such as just‐in‐time production, total quality control and now the generic title ‘World Class Manufacturing’. In buyer‐supplier relations there has been a swing away from short‐term competitive contracting to longer term obligation arrangements based on the Japanese model. Traditional management accounting methods have been labelled The number one enemy of productivity' (Goldratt, 1983).