This insightful Handbook examines how labour unions across the world have experienced and responded to the growth of neo-liberalism. Since the 1970s, the spread of neo-liberalism across the world has radically reconfigured the relationship between unions, employers and the state. The contributors highlight that this is the major cause and effect of union decline and argue that if there is to be any union revitalisation and return to former levels of influence, then unions need to respond in appropriate political and practical ways. Written in a clear and accessible style, the Handbook examines unions' efforts to date in many of the major economies of the world, providing foundations for understanding each country. Policymakers, analysts, academics, researchers and advanced students in employment, industrial and labour relations as well as political economy will find this unique Handbook an important resource to understanding the contemporary plight and activity of labour unions.

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This handbook is an indispensable teaching, research and reference guide for anyone interested in issues of labour and employment. The editors have assembled a top-flight group of authors and the end-product is an encompassing state-of-the-art review of the industrial relations field′ - Professor Bruce E Kaufman, AYSPS, Georgia State University ′This Handbook will quickly become the standard reference in industrial relations research. It provides the most comprehensive and challenging presentation of the key theoretical debates and topics of research that will shape our field well into the 21st century. All who wish to contribute to this field will need to read this volume and then build on what these authors have to say′ - Professor Thomas A. Kochan, MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research ′This authoritative panorama of the field demonstrates the contemporary vitality, breadth and critical depth of industrial relations scholarship and research. Thirty-four stimulating essays, by an international blend of leading academics, expertly review the analytical and empirical state of play across all aspects of industrial relations enquiry. In doing so, a rich agenda for further scholarly endeavour emerges′ - Paul Marginson, University of Warwick Over the last two decades, a number of factors have converged to produce a major rethink about the field of Industrial Relations. Globalization, the decline of trade unions, the spread of high performance work systems and the emergence of a more feminized, flexible work-force have opened new avenues of inquiry. The SAGE Handbook of Industrial Relations charts these changes and analyzes them. It provides a systematic, comprehensive survey of the field. The book is organized into four interrelated sections: " Theorizing Industrial Relations " The changing institutions that shape employment practice " The processes used by governments, employers and unions " Income inequality, employee wellbeing, business performance and national comparative advantages The result is a work of unprecedented scope and unparalleled ambition. It offers a compete guide to the central debates, new developments and emerging themes in the field. It will quickly be recognized as the indispensable reference for Teachers, Students and Researchers. It is relevant to economists, lawyers, sociologists, business and management researchers and Industrial Relations specialists.

This comparative study of industrial relations provides an analysis of a wide range of phenomena, with a view to uncovering the origins of national diversity. It takes into account the notion of strategic choice, set within a series of constraints of environment, organizational and institutional conditions and power relationships. The book: * Covers a wide range of examples from the UK, USA, France, Germany Italy, Sweden, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and Japan * Includes a comprehensive analysis of management and employers' associations, labour and trades unions * Examines the role of the state in comparative perspective

International and Comparative Industrial Relations (1987) analyses the factors which have shaped industrial relations in a range of different countries, including the characteristics of the major groups and parties concerned, and the nature and types of bargaining relationships which have evolved. A substantial comparative chapter examines trends within market economies as a whole, and a statistical appendix provides some valuable comparative labour market data. Each chapter follows a similar format, with an examination of the environment of industrial relations – economic, legal, social and political – and the major players – unions, employers and governments. Then follow descriptions of the main processes of industrial relations, such as local and centralised collective bargaining, arbitration and mediation, joint consultation and employee participation. Important topics are picked out, such as labour law reform, industrial democracy, technological change and incomes policy.

'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.

Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management provides a sophisticated, in-depth examination of research in international human resource management.

'This highly original book focuses on human resource management issues in the context of entrepreneurial and small firms, including original theoretical and empirical chapters. . . the book offers a unique insight into understanding the role of HRM in developing sustainable entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ventures as well as how HRM practices and procedures can be used to help navigate, or indeed drive, the changing landscape in smaller and entrepreneurial firms. It is a useful resource for many small firms, entrepreneurship and economic development researchers, and also for policy-makers and post-graduate students interested in these areas. It provides a starting point to consider a variety of issues with regard to HRM and, in this regard it is an interesting and useful Handbook.' – Qihai Huang, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research This invaluable reference tool has been designed in response to the growing recognition that too little is known about the intersection between entrepreneurship and human resource management. Paying particular attention to the 'people' side of venture emergence and development, it offers unique insights into the role that human resource management (HRM) plays in small and entrepreneurial firms. A group of international scholars contribute theoretical and empirical chapters on specific HRM issues in the context of entrepreneurial and smaller firms. The Handbook offers a new understanding of the role of HRM in developing sustainable entrepreneurship and describes how HRM practices and procedures can be used to help navigate and, indeed, drive the changing landscape in these firms. Exploring the functional aspects and nature of managing HRM in new, small, growing, emerging and entrepreneurial firms, this fascinating Handbook will not only be warmly welcomed by HRM students, researchers and academics, but also by HR practitioners and managers.

The old certainties and structures of employment relations no longer exist. Compared with the 'golden age' of labour in the mid-twentieth century, work and employment are more precarious, employers are increasingly hostile to trade union negotiations, and the share of wages in national income is falling. Large-scale employers, in turn, are using sophisticated people-management techniques to motivate workers with person-centred, performance-driven and reward-based processes. Drawing on a range of international data, this comparative text demonstrates that whilst employment relations phenomena are nationally embedded, international market forces are compelling employers to compete in product markets by reducing labour costs, terms and conditions of employment, and job security for their workforces. In an age of transnational globalisation and free-market national economic policies, this textbook provides penetrating cross-national, cross-disciplinary and theoretical analyses of the changing structures of employment relations around the world. Key benefits: - Provides critical analyses of changing patterns of employment relations in the early twenty-first century, drawing upon global, comparative and theoretical perspectives. - Examines the changing faces of the subject in terms of academic disciplines, methodological underpinnings, and institutional, cultural and historic settings. - Integrates industrial relations literature with recent studies of the HRM paradigm.