‘Partnership’ and new industrial relations in a risk society

Abstract

The article argues that the concept of risk should be at the heart of any discussion on partnership-based approaches to employment relations. It draws attention to two sets of organizational-related risk - distributive risks, related to material and environmental factors and exchanges, and political risks, related to organizational practices and legitimacy. These risks are shown to emerge from both exogenous and endogenous forces, and to have become more problematic because of the macro political and socio-economic context of workplace change. Given this changing context of risk, we argue that ‘new’ partnership relations between labour and management are fundamentally unstable. We contend that the concept of risk has to be approached in a much more explicit, focused and subtle manner than is apparent in the current debate on partnership, if we are to understand the challenges and contradictions underpinning the emergence of new industrial relations systems.