To address contemporary issues, industrial relations as a field of study will have to take an increasingly international and comparative dimension. Accordingly, Employment Relations in aChanging World Economy looks at the critical role employment relations play in firm performance and industry competitiveness worldwide. The essays employ a common framework to examine changes in the employment practices of eleven OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway,Sweden, Austria, and Japan. They constitute the first phase in a large ongoing project at the Center for Industrial Performance at MIT to update our understanding of comparative industrial relations and human resource policies.The authors, scholars in economics, political science, sociology,industrial relations and law, first identify a representative set of employment practices and then look at the outcomes of those practices and the changes they are undergoing across different national settings. By collaborating, the contributors seek to clarify the dynamics of employment relations across the world today, and to set the terms of reference for a new generation of international-comparative employment research.
| List of Contributors | ||
| Preface | ||
| Introduction: Employment Relations in a Changing World Economy | ||
| 1 | The Limits of Diffusion: Recent Developments in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Practices | 1 |
| 2 | Change and Continuity in British Industrial Relations: "Strategic Choice" or Muddling Through"? | 33 |
| 3 | Managed Decentralization? Recent Trends in Australian Industrial Relations and Human Resource Policies | 59 |
| 4 | Developments in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Practices in Canada: An Update from the 1980s | 91 |
| 5 | Between Voluntarism and Industrialization: Industrial Relations and Human Resource Practices in Italy | 131 |
| 6 | Inertial Choices: An Overview of Spanish Human Resources, Practices and Policies | 165 |
| 7 | Industrial Relations and Human Resources in France | 197 |
| 8 | Continuity and Change in the "German Model" of Industrial Relations | 231 |
| 9 | The Swedish Model: Demise or Reconfiguration? | 263 |
| 10 | A Social Democratic Order under Pressure: Norwegian Employment Relations in the Eighties | 297 |
| 11 | Developments in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Practices in Japan | 325 |
| 12 | Conclusion: The Transformation of Industrial Relations? A Cross-National Review of the Evidence | 359 |
| Index | 385 |
Overview
To address contemporary issues, industrial relations as a field of study will have to take an increasingly international and comparative dimension. Accordingly, Employment Relations in aChanging World Economy looks at the critical role employment relations play in firm performance and industry competitiveness worldwide. The essays employ a common framework to examine changes in the employment practices of eleven OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)countries: the United States, the United ...