Factors affecting perceptions of a workplace industrial relations climate

The current 'productivity imperative' has seen Australian organisations searching for new ways to achieve a competitive advantage. The creation of an industrial relations climate based on cooperative union-management workplace relations is crucial if management is to obtain the necessary commitment from their work force to achieve desired productivity and performance goals. Factors influential to the development of perceptions of such an industrial relations climate are explored in this article through a case study of a Victorian automotive component manufacturing company. A model developed by Dastmalchian, Blyton and Adamson (1991), which shows the industrial relations climate to be mediating organisational and industrial relations inputs and industrial relations outputs, is used as a schema to analyse the union-management relationship at Brakeco.