‘The most comprehensive and authoritative comparative analysis of employment relations …’ Thomas Kochan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

‘… breaks new ground as an integrated account of the forces shaping employment relations.’ William Brown, University of Cambridge. United Kingdom

Established as the standard reference for a worldwide readership of students, scholars and practitioners in international agencies, governments, companies and unions, this text offers a systematic overview of international employment relations.

Chapters cover the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, China and India. Experts examine the context of employment relations in each country: economic, historical, legal, social and political. They consider the roles of the major players: employers, unions and governments. They outline the processes of employment relations: collective bargaining and arbitration, consultation and employee involvement. Topical issues are discussed: non-unionised workplaces, novel forms of human resource management, labour law reform, multinational enterprises, networked organisations, differences between Asian and Western companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, migrant workers, technological change, labour market flexibility and pay determination.

This sixth edition is fully revised with an emphasis on globalisation and comparative theories, including concepts of convergence. It offers a new framework for varieties of capitalism in the Introduction, and concludes with an insightful account of the forces shaping employment relations in the world economy.