Requisite organization theory and employment relations

The ramifications for employment relations from the Elliott Jaques' organizational theories requires understanding the ideas as well as the way they have been implemented. Australian experience has been profound due to Jaques' direct collaboration with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of one of Australia's most important companies. The apparent success of the application of his models led other companies to implement similar organizational systems. Several of them are linked to management efforts to deunionize and decollectivize their employment relations. Such outcomes are not in keeping with Jaques' theory since his whole work reveals a wider concern with equity. His broader macro‐economic concerns are essential to the proper operation of requisite organizations. Notions of workplace democracy – essential ingredients in the Jaques' early framework – need to be resurrected as requirements for requisite organizations. “Cherry picking” of Jaques' ideas by company executives has led to an unfair diminution of his importance as an innovative and challenging theorist. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.