INTRODUCTION 7or influencing the economy and labour markets. Using illustrations from
central Europe and China, Palmer notes that whereas there are common and
ingrained social and political values evident in many Western economies they
have not been sufficiently influential to erase substantial differences occurring
across the globe in the normative organization of work.
Chapter 2 by Karen Legge (The ethics of HRM in dealing with individ-
ual employees without collective representation) examines the slow death of
collectivism and the distinctions between the respective ethics of individual-
ism and collectivism. In the context of autonomy at work, the privileges and
benefits pertaining to knowledge workers are contrasted with the much tighter
constraints and more limited benefits faced by routine service sector workers.
Legge asks what would constitute the most ethical employment relations sys-
tem for employees without collective representation. Her conclusion is that
collective representation is essential for establishing and preserving a just and
reasonable level of equality of relationship between employer and employee.
Legge considers what forms such representation might take and proposes
that the most realistic role for trade unions will be to work within the pressures
and restrictions of individualistic, consumer-oriented culture. Essentially this
requires playing the instrumental collectivist role whereby unions are first and
foremost a means of redressing individual employees’ vulnerabilities when
dealing with employers. This position is arrived at through the examination of
recent developments in HRM and employee relations applying Isaiah Berlin’s
‘positive’ and ‘negative’ conceptions of liberty as the means of analysis. The
overall picture presented is one in which groups of employees without collec-
tive representation are not enjoying the good life at work as a result of explicit
or implicit HRM policies. Furthermore, there is little evidence that what is
ethically desirable for employees is emerging out of the contemporary roles
and responsibilities of HRM.
Chapter 3 by David Guest (HRM and performance: can partnership address
the ethical dilemmas?) reflects on the idea that HRM has been built on two
main propositions that: (a) people are a source of competitive advantage,
and (b)effective management of HR should lead to superior performance. In
this context, Guest addresses four issues in HRM which raise potential ethical
questions. The first is that while HRM claims to be primarily concerned with
the management of people, in practice it largely ignores them, and second, that
HRM is a subtle way of exploiting people. The third is the research on HRM
and performance is far more provisional than some of its proponents and
followers claim, and the fourth is the challenges and problems that are created
when attempting to apply an integrated HR system in these circumstances.
Guest draws the reader’s attention to the significance of research work
on HRM and performance conducted during the 1990s which found strong
evidence for a relationship between the two. However, he criticizes the disci-
pline both in terms of research endeavour and as a management practice for