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This thesis is an examination of the influence of gender, department and occupation on union activism among shop stewards in local government, based on research in the Sheffield Local Government branch of NALGO. This research was undertaken to identify factors encouraging and discouraging union office-holding, including those related to shop steward turnover. The research, based on questionnaire and semi-structured interview studies and literature searches, indicates that occupational position and job content, including departmental culture, are the most significant determinants of levels of union activism. This occurs through autonomy at work and the development of skills and self-confidence in higher occupational positions, which facilitate union activism, and through the growth of awareness of social issues, which provides a motivation for union involvement. This latter process occurs especially in departments such as Family and Community Services and Housing. The influence of department is significant in relation to job content and attitudes towards the union. The influence of gender often cannot be separated from the influence of occupation, given the extent to which occupational segregation occurs along gender lines. Nonetheless the findings suggest that gender roles more often influence union activism indirectly via occupational position, where women's lower occupational position presents obstacles to the holding of union office because of practical difficulties in taking time off for union work, than they do directly via socialization or domestic responsibilities. Women's position in many unions, including NALGO, underwent substantial changes in the 1980s, partly as a result of feminism. Nonetheless obstacles to union office-holding remained for women, largely because of occupational position, which led to under-representation of women as shop stewards. This research concludes that women's underrepresentation in union office-holding has its root causes in occupational segregation.

The period from 1921 to 1930 saw the Daily Herald come under the direct control of the organised Labour movement - jointly owned by the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress. It seperates an earlier incarnation of independent left radicalism from a subsequent identity as a commercial daily tied to an official political line. It is a period of commercial and competitive failure - the 500,000 circulation constantly evoked as a target was only attained in times of exceptional political or industrial excitement. Reliant on movement subsidies for capital finance it was unable to match the new features and inducements - notably insurance schemes - that competitors provided in a period of rapid expansion and intense circulation battles. Editorially it was torn between the radicalism of its staff, the journalistic instinct to avoid predictability and the desire of Labour's moderate leaders for an automatically reliable supporter in the national press. As leadership pressures mounted it increasingly became the voice of the centre lecturing followers, with debate restricted - but independent instincts were never totally curbed. Failure to attract the desired mass readership cannot be wholly attributed to poverty. Initially developed as the voice of a committed, informed radical political elite it continued to reflect their interests - and would always choose to educate rather than entertain. In the absence of a mass counterculture this left it seeking a popular readership with a serious approach. Realisation that a different approach was needed to win such a readership combined with recognition that this would need capital investment beyond the means of the movement to force the partnership formed with Odhams Press in 1929, ending exclusive movement control.

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The present research was designed to investigate the relationships among perceived work stressors, coping strategies and psychological strain. To further the analysis of the stressor-coping-strain relationships, the hypothesized main effects, mediating and moderating roles of personality dimensions (i.e. Type A behaviour pattern, locus of control and self-esteem), socio-demographic characteristics (i.e. age, marital status, education, tenure, and income), and contextual variables (i.e. participation, supportive relationships and family-work interface) were examined. Literature review highlighted the paucity of researchers' concern with the production workers' stress and coping; the almost absence of stress and coping studies in the developing societies in general and Algeria in particular; and the lack of multivariate approach to the stressor-coping-strain relationships. Following the performance of a pilot study on a sample of 40 workers, the main study was designed and carried out in a glass-works in Algeria. The sample interviewed (using structured interviews) consisted of 110 full-time male production workers. Multivariate analysis of the data generally showed that: - Experience of work stressors originating from role conflict, task, pay, communications, career, and role overload was related to increased anxiety, depression, dissatisfaction and psychosomatic complaints (strain indices). - What makes most difference in the prediction of strain indices is not what people are (i.e. personality and socio-demographic characteristics), but rather, what they experience (i.e. perceived work stressors and contextual variables) and what they do (i.e. coping strategies). - Coping strategies (particularly "Withdrawal" and "Evaluation"), contextual variables, and personality variables (particularly. Type A behaviour and self-esteem) exert a mediating effect upon the work stressor-strain relationships, so that the aversive effect of experienced work stressors on strain is attenuated (e.g., by self-esteem and supportive relationships) or exacerbated (e.g., by withdrawal, Type A behaviour, and lack of participation). - The moderating role of coping strategies, contextual variables and personality was not supported. Socio-demographic variables were neither significant moderators nor mediators of the stressor-strain relationships. Results were discussed and implications examined.

This thesis examines the current practice of industrial relations, in relation to workers' welfare, with particular reference to three kecamatan (sub-district) of Tangerang, West Java. This study begins by looking at Dunlop's systems theory of industrial relations, which defines industrial relations as a sub-system of the socio-political system in a specific environment. In Indonesia, this sub-system is called the Pancasila industrial relations (PIR). After presenting an overview of industrial relations and practices in economically advanced countries and those prevailing in the developing world, especially in the ASEAN, the thesis goes on to examine the current industrial relations system in Indonesia, drawing attention to internal and external criticisms led by the ILO and European based sectoral trade union organisations. This study confirms the allegations, the most significant of which is the right to organise in Indonesia is limited. It is, however, suggested that the Western nlodel of unionism is not appropriate for adoption, given the fact that workers tend to organise within their own traditional institutions and they can effectively utilise the existing mechanisms to achieve bipartite communications. The specific roles of the tripartite constituents, in terms of providing welfare services in Indonesia are then discussed, in relation to the existing laws and regulations, which suggest that the existing regulations could be strengthened, if integral welfare services are to become more applicable in the Indonesian environment. The study suggests that, there is a solid basis, on which a more relevant indigenous industrial relations structure could be built. While the PIR concept encompasses and enshrines the cultural concepts of the people of Indonesia, the traditional institutions of Paguyuban and/or Arisan can be utilised to create an appropriate means of communication between workers and management. Paguyuban can become a facilitating role for building strong, independent, factory-based trade unions (SPTPs). Together, Paguyuban and the PIR framework can provide a relevant industrial relations system for the renaissance of industrial relations in Indonesia. Chapters six to nine analyse findings based on survey responses from 600 workers, and ten personnel managers, together with interviews with a further twenty personnel managers and factory owners. These analyses suggest that both workers and managers appreciate the importance of welfare programmes in improving workers' welfare. A lack of commitment from factory owners may, however, hinder the implementation of such programmes, although, in principle, they also appreciate the concept.

This thesis describes a three stage research project that explored flexibility in the career development of British graduates. Particular attention was paid to people's subjective perceptions of their own flexibility. First, the rationale for the study is described, i.e. that the area was under researched yet new technology has created an urgent need for people to become more flexible in their careers. Then the Literature of occupational choice, career change and career development is reviewed and used to derive a typology of occupational change. The decision to use a mixture of research methods is defended. Next Stages One and Two, the Contact Survey and the Interviews, are described. 148 1970 graduates in science, techno Logy and engineering who had made voluntary occupational changes (a sub-sample from a national survey) were sent postal questionnaires, and 38 of these were subsequently I interviewed in depth about their work histories. A model was derived from the interview data of how flexibility in career development depends on a career anchor, or a set of values that a person gradually discovers that they will not give up when changing jobs. An anchor is idiosyncratic to the individual and cannot necessarily be predicted by an outsider examining work histories. It depends on experience and increasing self awareness. Stage Three involved testing some of the ideas arising from this model of a career anchor on a second sample of 1970 graduates. These respondents had recalled two of their earlier career decisions using computer programmes that elicited their values at those times. Comparisons between their earlier (pre-anchored) decisions and their Later (anchored) decisions showed support for the career anchors model. The findings and conclusions of the project are discussed in terms of five research questions: (1) How much change did they think their careers had undergone? (2) What form did any changes take? (3) Were these changes perceived as unusual in any way? (4) How far could people's views and experiences of flexibility be explained by existing psycho Logical theories about careers? (5) Any explanations of the ability to show flexibility in career development have implications for the careers counselling of adults; what would these implications be? It is concluded that the career anchors model shows promise as a supplement to existing theories of careers, and may be useful to careers counselors who deal with adults contemplating or undergoing career transitions.