The Employment Relationship presents a controversial perspective on an area hitherto dominated by industrial relation experts and radical sociological theorists. Exploring some of the metaphors commonly used to describe the employment relationship, Peter Herriot argues that it is often their dark rather than their bright side which best expresses how employees really feel. Human resources sometimes feel like human discards! The main culprits in this situation, he suggests, are the top managers who fail to treat employment as a relationship and employees as individuals. He concludes that management rhetoric must be replaced by real dialogue and points to three issues where this is most crucial: employee compliance, contractual inequalities and the need for organisational change. The Employment Relationship will make essential reading for all managers and occupational psychologists. It will also be of interest to students of work psychology, human resource management or organisational behaviour.

Introduction; Part 1 Mixed metaphors; Chapter 1 Family and Feud; Chapter 2 Crusade and Play; Chapter 3 Contract and Jungle; Chapter 4 Club and Outsider; Chapter 5 Resource and Discard; Chapter 6 Democracy and Dictatorship; Chapter 7 Part nership and Conflict; Chapter 8 Customer and Rip-off; Introduction to Part s 2 and 3; Part 2 Relationship psychology; Chapter 9 Relationships and the self; Chapter 10 Cultures, relationships and selves; Chapter 11 Individual differences and employment; Chapter 12 Organisations and employment; Part 3 Employment dialogues; Chapter 13 The compliance dialogue; Chapter 14 The difference dialogue; Chapter 15 The change dialogue; Chapter 16 The dialogue dialogue;