The question of management control strategies over workforces is a central problematic not only for the study of organisational behaviour but also for theorists of the labour process and students of industrial relations. Much of this disciplinary discourse, beyond definitional debates, has surrounded the problematic of strategy itself. This has, however, revealed a number of serious differences between conceptual notions of managerial strategies within their various forms and their apparent outcomes, in terms of practices and empirical analysis. A key element identified in this disjuncture has been the role of labour, particularly in its unionised form.