This text begins with an examination of the corporate environment and its institutions. Then, reflecting the requirement in the new IPD Standards for students to develop the skills to manage employee relations effectively, it takes a pragmatic approach in demonstrating how HR and IR professionals manage key ER issues, including negotiating, handling grievance, defining relationships with unions, and implementing and monitoring ER procedures. Whether or not they deal with unions, all employers have collective relationships with their employees and need to find ways reconcile the interests of buyers and sellers of labour. The book demonstrates to students how HR and ER practitioners: negotiate and communicate to gain the support of management colleagues; handle and resolve employee grievances; set standards of behaviour and process disciplinary issues; define their relationships with trade unions and bargain to secure agreements; devise, implement and monitor employee relations procedures; and evaluate the relevance of the management trends. Effective employee relations take full account of commercial realities and balances of power, yet only pragmatic managerial judgement can determine whether organizations should recognize a union (or unions), when they should promote participation, take unilateral action or seek arbitration. This book should enable them to think through the issues and develop key skills. The "People and Organizations" series provides texts for two stages in the standards: Core Personnel and Development; and the four generalist modules in Employee Resourcing, Reward, Relations and Development. It should be of interest to students taking the Core Personnel and Development - a new compulsory module for the IPD Standards, as well as any students on a wide range of other degree- and diploma-level business courses which require a solid understanding of people management and development.