Persistence and change in the norms of occupational communities : a study based on the role of the theory and practice of legislation affecting working conditions, 1880-1920

Winchester, Frances June (1981) Persistence and change in the norms of occupational communities : a study based on the role of the theory and practice of legislation affecting working conditions, 1880-1920. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

A central feature of industrial relations in the regulation of behaviour by means of norms. Such regulation is necessary not only to make behaviour predictable, but also to ensure a. rational allocation of resources according to a division of labour appropriate for the pursuit of specific objectives. Legislation provides a means for the setting and implementation of norms for particular industries and enterprises. It can mediate between competing interests and offer compromises between normative and existential beliefs. Legislation both legitimises, and rationalises, existing norms or changes in norms. Since this process is a continuous one of evaluation and re-evaluation, it requires a dynamic form of analysis. This form of analysis is a necessary part of the development of legislative theory. Committees of Inquiry offer an unusual opportunity to examine and monitor the formulation and implementation of legislation as a process. Such committees were particularly important during the period 1880 to 1920, when legislation was increasingly considered an acceptable means of regulating industrial relations. They provided a vital preliminary investigative tool of government, at a time when party policies lacked detailed formulation, and bureaucratic procedures were insufficiently developed to present the 'facts'. Many inquiries were undertaken on such matters as hours of work, safety, employers' liability and workmen's compensation, in coal mining and in the railway industry. These offer alternative perspectives to the large body of research into industrial relations which has tended to concentrate on wage bargaining and industrial disputes. The verbatim reports of the oral evidence, presented before committees of inquiry, facilitate the examination, within a definitive framework, of the publicly expressed opinions of occupational communities; these communities being primarily defined in terms of heir geographical situation. Variations in opinions concerning the statutory regulation of norms, suggest that support was not necessarily based upon class situation. The idea of occupational communities is in certain respects a more flexible concept than class, since it permits an examination of variations in the community of interest within, as well as between classes, in respect of specific issues. An examination of Committees of Inquiry also allows an assessment ofthe manifest and latent effects of the statutory regulation of norms in bringing about changes in the relationship between class and communal action. An emphasis upon Committees of Inquiry as a primary source in research into the norms regulating specific aspects of industrial relations, by means of legislation, allows an analysis which takes into account the interaction between social structure and social consciousness.

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