Patterns and Prospects for Partnership at Work in the United Kingdom, 2001-2003

This project aimed to examine partnership at work as a social process in which the forms and outputs of partnership and non-partnership arrangements are shaped by the interplay of relations between management, trade unions and employees. <br> <br> The aims of the research were to define the content of 'partnership at work' within the framework of the contemporary UK context; develop and typify alternative models of management-union relations within the terms of the partnership discourse; and determine the range of trade union and employee responses to partnership at the workplace level.<br> <br> The research design adopted a triangulation methodology involving intensive workplace case studies, employee surveys, documentary analysis and sectoral analysis. This mixed methods data collection includes transcripts of 221 interviews conducted with employees and managers at various skill levels, at five organisations selected from the engineering, financial services, local government and insurance sectors, and quantitative data files containing the responses from questionnaires distributed to employees at the same organisations. Research was also conducted at a sixth organisation, based in the National Health Service, but the results are not included in this collection for secondary use.<br> <br>

本研究旨在将工作场所合伙制（partnership at work）作为一种社会过程展开考察，该过程中合伙制与非合伙制安排的形式及产出，由管理层、工会与雇员之间的关系互动所塑造。

本研究的核心目标包括：一是在当代英国语境框架下明确“工作场所合伙制”的内涵；二是基于合伙制话语体系，构建并分类梳理劳资关系的多元备选模型；三是厘清工会与雇员在工作场所层面针对合伙制的各类回应范畴。

本研究设计采用三角验证法（triangulation methodology），涵盖深入工作场所案例研究、员工问卷调查、文献分析与行业分析四类研究方法。本次混合研究的数据采集工作包含两部分：一是从工程、金融服务、地方政府及保险行业选取的5家机构中，针对不同技能层级的雇员与管理层开展的221次访谈转录文本；二是向上述机构员工发放问卷所得的定量数据集。此外，本研究还在第6家隶属于英国国家医疗服务体系（National Health Service, NHS）的机构开展了调研，但该机构的调研结果未纳入本数据集以供二次使用。