Bargaining Power

Bargaining Power examines the balance of power between management and unions, showing why some managementsDSand some trade unionsDSare more powerful than others. Bargaining power has long been recognized as central to industrial relations, but no previous work has taken the issue as its central focus. Using both sociological and economic evidence, the author shows how managements and unions approach negotiations and how they use power to achieve their bargaining objectives. In turn he analyses different perspectives on power, negotiations, the industrial relations context, and human resources management. The book concludes with an examination of the changing position of trade unions in Britain in the 1980s, arguing that union bargaining power remains more significant than suggested by the decline in union membership.

Author Biography

Roderick Martin was formerly Professor of Management at the Business School and Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. Previously, at the University of Oxford, he served as a Fellow (Politics and Sociology) at Trinity College, a Senior Proctor, and a Fellow (Information Management) at Templeton College. He has also been Professor and Director at the Glasgow Business School, University of Glasgow, and at the School of Management, University of Southampton, and a Professor of Industrial Sociology at Imperial College, London. He has authored over 10 books in business management, organizational behaviour, industrial relations, and industrial sociology, and has published over 60 research papers in international journals. He has undertaken extensive consultancy work for private and public sector organizations, including, in the UK, the National Health Service, the Scottish Police College, and the Atomic Energy Authority.