Backwards in Time? Reflections of an Industrial Relations Officer in the Coventry and District Engineering Employers’ Association, 1977-1979

The paper presents an auto-ethnographic account of a personal socio-psychological ‘journey’ from work in a modern ‘progressive’ oil company in south-eastern England to the engineering industry in the Coventry district. The role of the association in industrial relations, in which the author was involved, is described in a series of vignettes. The paper presents detailed observations regarding the extant culture of that area and industrial relations in the companies represented by the Coventry and District Engineering Employers’ Association from the point of view of a quasi-independent but participant observer.