Journal of Management Studies 1987
BARGAINING WITHIN THE ENTERPRISE: CENTRALIZED OR DECENTRALIZED?
Abstract
Decisions on bargaining structure are at the heart of the management of industrial relations. Within the multi‐plant company these decisions are influenced by competing centrifugal and centrepetal pressures. Bargaining structure, alongside a series of other techniques, is used by managers at the head office and the plant to achieve a balance between centralization and decentralization. Head office managers exercise central control over some major industrial relations issues, while the extent of their influence is masked by decentralized bargaining structure and other techniques which create an illusion of plant autonomy. These centrifugal and centrepetal pressures emerge not just from industrial relations considerations but are also part and parcel of wider business strategy concerns. Empirical evidence suggests that these countervailing pressures have intensified in recent years.
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1987.tb00458.x
- Sources
- openalex