This paper develops analytical arguments to highlight three distinctive attributes of enterprise partnership. First of all, the literature on the theory of the firm is used to suggest that enterprise partnership represents a credible alternative to the dominant ‘leadership model’ of organizational change. Second, it highlights the organizational features of enterprise partnerships that transcend particular national or economic settings and suggests that these allow partnerships to be interpreted as a procedural consensus between management and employees to develop pathways to advance fairness and performance at work. Third, it suggests that the diffusion of enterprise partnership requires the support of extra-firm institutional frameworks. The paper is both a literature review and theory-building exercise.
Ackers, P. and Payne, J. (1998) ‘British Trade Unions and Social Partnership: Rhetoric, Reality and Strategy’ , International Journal of Human Resource Management9(3): 529-550 .
2.
Alchain, A. and Demsetz, H. (1972) ‘Production, Information Costs and Economic Organisation’ , American Economic Review62(3): 772-795 .
3.
Aoki, M. (1994) ‘The Contingent Governance of Teams: Analysis of Institutional Complementarity’ , International Economic Review35(3): 657-676 .
4.
Appelbaum, E. , Bailey, T. , Berg, P. and Kalleberg, A. (2000) Manufacturing Advantage. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
5.
Bacon, N. and Storey, J. (2000) ‘New Employee Relations Strategies in Britain: Towards Individualism or Partnership’ , British Journal of Industrial Relations38(3): 407-427 .
6.
Barry, B. (1995) Justice as Impartiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
7.
Beaumont, P. and Hunter, L. (2003) ‘Collective Bargaining and Human Resource Management in Britain? Can Collective Bargaining Square the Circle’, in T. Kochan and D. Lipsky (eds), Negotiations and Change: From the Workplace to Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
8.
Brown, W. (2000) ‘Putting Partnership into Practice in Britain’ , British Journal of Industrial Relations38(2): 299-316 .
9.
Charny, D. (1999) ‘Workers and Corporate Governance: The Role of Political Culture’, in M. Blair and M. Roe (eds) Employees and Corporate Governance. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution .
10.
Coriat, B. and Dosi, G. (1998) ‘Learning How to Govern and Learning How to Solve Problems: On the Co-Evolution of Competencies, Conflicts and Organisational Routines’, in A. D. Chandler , P. Hagstrom and O. Solvell (eds) The Dynamic Firm. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
11.
Coupar, W. and Stevens, B. (1998) ‘Towards a New Model of Industrial Partnership: Beyond the “HRM Versus Industrial Relations” Argument’, in P. Sparrow and M. Marchington (eds) Human Resource Management: the New Agenda. London: Financial Times Pitman Publishing .
12.
Cox, A. (2000) ‘The Importance of Employee Participation in Determining Pay Systems’ , International Journal of Management Reviews2(2): 247-282 .
13.
Dewey, J. (1929) The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation Between Knowledge and Action. New York: Minton, Balch &! Co.
14.
Eaton, S. , Rubenstein, S. and McKersie, R. (2000) Building and Sustaining Labor-Management Partnerships. Cambridge, MA: Sloan School of Management .
15.
Eaton, S. , Kochan, T. and McKersie, R. (2003) The Kraiser Permanente Labour Management Partnership: The First Five Years. Cambridge, MA: Sloan School of Management .
16.
Elster, J. , ed. (1998) Deliberative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
17.
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (1997) New Forms of Work Organisation: Can Europe Realise its Potential?Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities .
18.
Favereau, O. (1994) ‘Règles, organisation et apprentissage collectif: un paradigme non standard pour trois théories hétérodoxes’, in A. Orlean (ed.) Analyse économique des Conventions. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
19.
Foss, K. and Foss, N. (2000) ‘The Knowledge-Based Approach and Organisational Economics: How Much Do They Really Differ? And How Much Does it Matter’, in N. Foss and V. Mahnke (eds) Competence, Governance and Entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
20.
Gambetta, D. (1988) ‘Can We Trust Trust?’, in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations. Oxford: Blackwell .
21.
Gomez-Mejia, L. , Welbourne, T. and Wiseman, R. (2000) ‘The Role of Risk Sharing and Risk Taking Under Gainsharing’ , Academy of Management Review25(3): 492-507 .
22.
Greenlagh, L. (2001) Managing Strategic Relationships. New York: Free Press .
23.
Guest, D. and Peccei, R. (1998) The Partnership Company. London: Involvement and Participation Association .
24.
Guest, D. and Peccei, R. (2001) ‘Partnership at Work: Mutuality and the Balance of Advantage’ , British Journal of Industrial Relations39(2): 207-236 .
25.
Heery, E. (2002) ‘Partnership Versus Organising: Alternative Futures for British Trade Unionism?’ , Industrial Relations Journal33(1): 4-18 .
26.
Huselid, M. (1995) ‘The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance’ , Academy of Management Journal38(3): 635-672 .
27.
Ichniowski, C. and Shaw, K. (1995) ‘Old Dogs and New Tricks: Determinants of the Adoption of Productivity-Enhancing Work Practices’, Brookings Papers: Microeconomics1-65.
28.
Kelly, J. (1996) ‘Union Militancy and Social Partnership’, in P. Ackers , C. Smith and P. Smith (eds) The New Workplace and Trade Unionism. London: Routledge .
29.
Kelly, J. (2001) Social Partnership Agreements in Britain: Labour Cooperation and Compliance, mimeograph. London: Department of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics .
30.
Kern, H. (1998) ‘Lack of Trust, Surfeit of Trust: Some Causes of the Innovation Crisis in German Industry’, in C. Lane and R. Bachmann (eds) Trust Within and Between Organisations. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
31.
Kochan, T. A. and Osterman, P. (1994) The Mutual Gains Enterprise. Harvard, MA: Harvard Business School Press .
32.
Kochan, T. (1999) Rebuilding the Social Contract at Work: Lessons from Leading Cases, The Taskforce on Reconstructing American Labour Market Institutions, Working Paper No 9. Cambridge, MA: Institute of Work and Employment Research, MIT .
33.
Langlois, R. and Foss, N. (1999) ‘Capabilities and Governance: the Rebirth of Production in the Theory of Economic Organisation’ , Kyklos52(2): 201-218 .
34.
Lazear, E. P. , and Freeman, R. B. (1995) ‘An Economic Analysis of Works Councils’, in J. Rogers and W. Streeck (eds) Works Councils: Consultation, Representation, and Cooperation in Industrial Relations. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
35.
Lester, R. (1998) The Productive Edge. New York: WW .
36.
Lovas, B. and Ghostal, S. (2000) ‘Strategy as Guided Evolution’ , Strategic Management Journal21(1): 875-896 .
37.
Lucio-Martinez, M. and Stuart, M., eds (2002) ‘Assessing Partnership: The Prospects for, and Challenges of, Modernisation’ , Employee Relations24(3): 395-573 .
38.
McKersie, R. (1996) ‘Labour-Management Partnerships: US Evidence and Implications for Ireland’ , IBAR17(1): 1-13 .
39.
McKersie, R. (2001) ‘Labor’s Voice at the Strategic Level of the Firm’ , Transfer7(3): 480-492 .
40.
March, J. (1994) ‘The Evolution of Evolution’, in J. Baum and J. Singh (eds) Evolutionary Dynamics of Organisations. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
41.
Marchington, M. and Grugulis, I. (2000) ‘“Best Practice” Human Resource Management: Perfect Opportunity or Dangerous Illusion’ , International Journal of Human Resource Management11(6): 1104-1124 .
42.
Marks, A. , Findlay, J. , Hine, J. , McKinlay, A. and Thompson, P. (1998) ‘The Politics of Partnership? Innovation in Employment Relations in the Scottish Spirits Industry’ , British Journal of Industrial Relations36: 209-226 .
43.
Milgrom, P. and Roberts, J. (1992) An Economic Approach to Influence Activity in Organisations, 2nd edn.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
44.
Mohrman, S. , Galbraith, J. and Lawler III, E. (1998) Tomorrow’s Organisation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers .
45.
Muller-Jentsch, W. , (1995) ‘Germany: From Collective Voice to Co-Management’, in J. Rogers and W. Streeck (eds) Works Councils: Consultation, Representation and Cooperation in Industrial Relations. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press .
46.
NESF (1997) A Framework for Partnership: Enriching Strategic Consensus Through Participation. Dublin: National Economic and Social Forum .
47.
Nelson, R. and Winter, S. (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press .
48.
O’Donnell, R. and Teague, P. (2000) Partnership at Work in Ireland: An Evaluation of Progress under Partnership 2000. Dublin: Department of An Taoiseach .
49.
O’Donnell, R. and Thomas, D. (1998) ‘Partnership and Policy Making’, in S. Healy and B. Reynolds (eds) Social Policy in Ireland. Dublin: Oak Tree Press .
50.
Ogus, A. (2000) ‘New Techniques for Social Regulation: Decentralisation and Diversity’, in H. Collins , P. Davies and R. Rideout (eds) Legal Regulation of the Employment Relation. London: Kluwer Law International .
51.
Osterman, P. , Kochan, T. , Locke, R. and Piore, M. (2001) Working in America: A Blueprint for the New Labour Market. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
52.
Pfeffer, J. (1998) ‘Six Dangerous Myths About Pay’ , Harvard Business Review76: 109-119 .
53.
Penrose, E. (1959) The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
54.
Rabkin, M. and Avakian, L. (2002) Enhancing Patient Care Through Enhancing Employee: Reflections on the Scanlon Plan and Boston’s Beth Israel Medical Centre, Working Paper, No WPC 002. Cambridge: MIT Workplace Centre .
55.
Roche, W. and Geary, J. (2000) ‘“Collaborative Production” and the Irish Boom: Work Organisation, Partnership and Direct involvement in Irish Workplaces’ , Economic and Social Review31(1): 1-36 .
56.
Roche, W. K. and Geary, J. (2002) ‘Adocates, Critics and Union Involvement in Workplace Partnership: Irish Airports’ , British Journal of Industrial Relations40(4): 659-688 .
57.
Rubenstein, S. and Kochan, T. (2000) ‘Towards a Stakeholder Theory of the Firm: The Saturn Partnership’ , Organization Science11(4): 367-386 .
58.
Sabel, C. (1994) ‘Learning by Monitoring: The Institutions of Economic Development’, in N. Smesler and R. Swedberg (eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology. New York: Princeton University Press .
59.
Soskice, D. (1999) ‘Divergent Production Regimes. Co-ordinated and Uncoordinated Market Economies in the 1980s and 1990s’, in H. Kitschelt , P. Lange , G. Marks and J. D. Stephens (eds) Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism, pp. 101-134. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
60.
Teague, P. (2001) ‘Converging Divergences and European Industrial Relations’ , Industrial and Labor Relations Review54(3): 688-694 .
61.
Teece, D. , Piscano, O. and Shuen, A. (1997) ‘Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management’ , Strategic Management Journal18(4): 509-533 .
62.
Wachter, M. and Whyte, R. (1990) ‘The Economics of Internal Labor Markets’, in D. Mitchell and D. Zaidi (eds) The Economics of Human Resource Management. Oxford: Basil Blackwell .
63.
Walton, R. and McKersie, R. (1965) A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations: An Analysis of a Social Interaction. New York and London: McGraw-Hill .
64.
Walton, R. , Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J. and McKersie, R. (2000) Strategic Negotiations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
65.
Williamson, O. (1985) The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press .
66.
Winter, S. (1991) ‘On Coase, Competence, and the Corporation’, in O. Williamson and S. Winter (eds) The Nature of the Firm. Oxford: Blackwell .
