Public Enterprise in Transition: Industrial Relations in State and Privatized Corporations

"Public Enterprise in Transition" offers a thorough survey of the complex changes that have affected public enterprise management and industrial relations over the last decade: it is a survey of what has happened in Britain's public enterprises since the legislation of the first Thatcher government. Leading authorities contribute case studies of major public corporations both state owned and recently privatized: the Post Office, railways, coal, electricity, steel, water and the docks. These public enterprises are examined in terms of their historical context, in the light of the management objectives and strategies of the 1980s. Emphasis is laid on the effect of recent commercialization on industrial relations and the response of the trade unions to the changing character of the public sector and privatization. The editors find there are considerable differences between industries. They conclude that privatization alone is not the main factor in accounting for the extent and direction of change.