Management employment relations strategy : the case of retailing

This article examines contemporary management strategy in the area of effective utilisation of human resources in the retail industry. The focus of the industrial relations system has shifted from the national level to the enterprise level, and like many other industries, retail employers are utilising enterprise agreements tailored to achieve workforce flexibility suited to the operating patterns of the individual company. The first two case studies presented in this article examine two organisations, one of which successfully avoided inclusion in the retail industry union membership agreement implemented in most large retail companies under the deregulated system of the 1970s, while the other strategically embraced the terms of the agreement. The second case study examines a contemporary retail organisation which decided to embrace the trade union in its pursuit of a decentralised enterprise agreement. In many ways both case studies provide examples which run contrary to conventional wisdom. The article’s theme is that the determining factor in union-management relations in the case studies examined, is management’s strategic objectives, rather than the structure of the industrial relations system, or changes within it