John W. BuddÆs book, Employment with a Human Face, deals with the competing values and demands of the U.S. labor relations system. Budd is primarily concerned with the issues of efficiency, equity, and voice, and the dilemma of how to balance them so that each is accomplished without downgrading the others. When they conflictùas they often doùhe examines that conflict and analyzes its ramifications and the potential avenues for resolution. Budd defines ôemployment with a human faceö as ôa productive and efficient employment relationship that also fulfills the standards of human rightsö (2). This employment relationship sounds relatively simple, but it is amazingly complex, comprising such issues as competitive markets that guarantee efficiency but not equity, policies that favor employers but not employees, the balance between property rights and human rights, ethics, workplace governance, and a multitude of other issues that must all be weighed into the balance between BuddÆs three primary issues of efficiency, equity, and voice.
BuddÆs identification of efficiency, equity, and voice as the underlying issues in the employment relationship is perceptive. Efficiency represents the employerÆs perspectiveùwhat he wants accomplished. Equity should be balanced between employer and employee. Voice is the ability of the employee to make his concerns known and heard. As Budd points out, the attempt to balance these concerns is an attempt to balance ôhuman rights in conflictö (32). Budd brings in a discussion of various aspects of employment that impinge on the balancing act, such as environment, the ethics of the employment relationship, workplace governance, industrial relations, job control unionism, and globalization. In each of these issues, he brings the reader back to his basic three issuesùefficiency, equity, and voice, demonstrating how these are impacted and how they impact each other as balance is sought.