Problems of perception apply to social as well as environmental issues. Ben-Shlomo et al.(1991) examined issues and perceptions surrounding smoking and health. More broadly, Bryson (1999), for example, examined the perceptions held across society on whether trade unions were good for
industrial relations after two decades of union decline. He found that, in general, perceptions of the industrial relations climate are poorer among employees in unionised workplaces than they are among employees in non- unionised workplaces but there were conditions where this did not hold. In a related study Bryson and McKay (1997) found that the working environment is perceived to have deteriorated over the period 1983-1996. Spencer (1996)