Has much changed in the workplace since the first issue of Topics was published some 30 years ago? For the 100th issue Peter Lawson dug out some back issues to find out.

An inevitable ingredient of anniversary celebrations is the look over the shoulder to 'the way we were'. When we care and dare to recall it, the contrast between the old and new, the past and future, can often be but dimly remembered. For this short exercise in nostalgia, I have been looking back through earlier editions of Topics to recall the essence of the work experience and how that has changed over a long working life.

It's not easy to recall the industrial and commercial landscape of a generation or more ago, and remember some of 'the deaths and resurrections' that have transformed our organisations and our work experience since then. On reflection it seems that it is the economic zeitgeist that significantly influences our work experience. In the immediate post war period, as the world economy struggled to recover from the ruin of global conflict, the approach to work was still based on notions of scientific management. These notions imposed strict working methods and regimes which demanded conformity and discipline on people at work, which definitely did not require the creativity and innovation that is so sought after today.

When I try to make sense of my early working life, I now see that the stifling social customs - the modes of address as well as the modes of dress, the hierarchies and other social relations - stemmed from the idea that there was 'one best way' for work to be done.

Since those early days, as the reins of regulation and control of scientific management have gradually loosened, so has the experience of work slowly become less structured and strictured.  In 1981, towards the end of the scientific management era, ER Consultants, in the form of the Industrial Relations Training and Resource Centre (IRTRC), moved from Ashridge Management College to Cambridge. This move provided an opportunity for reflection on this fledgling organisation's origins and also on what it saw as the fundamental issues facing it.

In 1975 the British Institute of Management (BIM) and the National Economic Development Office (NEDO) both published reports calling for better training of managers in the conduct of industrial relations. As a result of these reports, IRTRC was born with a threefold purpose:

• To make the training work of existing practitioners better known and used;
• To take the lead in identifying future training needs and where necessary to develop training programmes to meet those needs;
• To promote a wider understanding of the tangible benefits of training by offering a free source of information and advice to the whole of industry.

These memories remind us that in 1981 our economy was still predominantly based on 'hard industry' and that the momentous changes eventually brought about by the Conservative Government, first elected in 1979, had not yet begun to be felt. Indeed, if the content of Topics is any barometer of those changes it was to be some time before they were to be reflected in the publication. For as late as 1984, Topics was still concerned mainly with industrial relations providing information about training opportunities with enticing titles like 'New Frontiers in Labour Law' and 'Managers and Industrial relations - A Training Audit Workshop'.

Signs of change were beginning to emerge though.  There was a shift in emphasis from manufacturing to other areas such as management development in local government and management in the leisure and security industries. However, whilst many of Topics' concerns were of their time and are of much less relevance today, there were issues which Topics addressed then, which maintain their relevance today.

The context may have changed but the underlying issues remain. For example, then as now the issue of pay and performance remains problematic. The introduction to an article on 'Pay and Productivity' was able say, in November 1984, "when we search for the literature which describes the effectiveness of these (pay) schemes and analyses the circumstances in which particular forms of pay appear to be successful, we are met with a total void." That void is not much smaller today and ER Consultants works today with many organisations that are seeking to fill it.

Another concern equally relevant today, is the issue of communication. Twenty-five years ago this concern manifested itself within the context of negotiation and dealing with conflict more at the collective, bargaining group, level than at the individual level. Today, however, the emphasis has shifted from the group to the individual. ER Consultants' team of business psychologists work with people in leadership and management positions in many organisations, both in the public and private sectors, to improve their levels of self awareness and self understanding in order to enable effective communication and enhance leadership capability and organizational performance.

Recent editions of Topics have reflected these concerns of pay and motivation and also the application of psychological insights to work and organisational behaviour. In some ways, much has changed in the last 25 years, but threads and links to the past remain - not least of which is ER Consultants' telephone number. Then, as now, calls to 01223 315944 gains access to a unique body of knowledge, skill and experience. However, now you can e-mail peter.lawson@erconsultants.co.uk as well.