We live in a 'corporate world' in which powerful business corporations shape and influence the activities of nation states, their national economies and their social relations. But what is it that moulds the activities of the corporations themselves? Do some societies have 'styles' of regulation that enable corporations to operate freely in the pursuit of certain interests, where others are more constrained? And, if so, are Australian companies more inclined to pursue the financial interests of shareholders and owners at the expense of employees and creditors? Corporate governance may be guided in the pursuit of particular interests by many influences, including law, politics, capital and labour and other pressure groups. How these competing pressures balance out varies enormously from state to state. Bringing together the original research by lawyers, political economists and industrial relations scholars, Varieties of Capitalism, Corporate Governance and Employees is a first Australian contribution to these complex issues.

This book examines how businesses manage their labour systems, and particularly how they manage the complex interaction of factors which give rise to instances of 'partnership' style relations between businesses and their employees. The book draws from the literature concerning 'Varieties of Capitalism' (VoC) and the different institutional and regulatory designs inherent in different types of political economy. The book is informed by a new and extensive set of empirical data from Australia that examines the activities of national and multinational business corporations, their outlooks and relationships with stakeholders, and relates these to new and evolving theoretical frameworks based in political economy and law. The book places the Australian regulatory model within this international debate, and assesses the extent to which the system does or does not fit into the general categorisation created in the VoC literature.

'Besides a well-written introduction by the two editors, the book presents seventeen other chapters, some by well-known writers on the subject or related social sciences. . . This is a substantial resource book for scholars and students of comparative ER, especially for those who look towards the evolution of ER in the new economic world that is in formation, and in a comparative perspective. . . the book contains intellectually stimulating analyses of employee relations realities across the globe. . . Scholars belonging to different disciplinary perspectives, from which ER has been studied in the past, will also find in it a good reference material of comparative analyses. . . The publishers too deserve accolades for their professionalism and first rate copy-editing and production.' – Debi S. Saini, Vision – the Journal of Business Perspectives 'The book is a comprehensive volume of studies on employment relations in a wide variety of settings. . .an enriching compendium.' – Silvia Florea, Management of Sustainable Development The Research Handbook of Comparative Employment Relations is an essential resource for those seeking to understand contemporary developments in the world of work, and the way in which employment relations systems are evolving around the world. Special consideration is given to the impact of globalisation and the role of multinational corporations, including their consequences for the fate of workers' rights under existing national systems of employment relations (ER) regulation. This Handbook is unique in taking an explicitly comparative approach by discussing ER developments through a series of paired country comparisons. These chapters include a wide selection of countries from all regions, looking beyond those that are frequently discussed. The expert contributors also examine comparative issues from a range of perspectives, including industrial and employment relations, political economy, comparative politics, and cross-cultural studies. These impressive features make this important reference tool the most comprehensive of its kind. Academics and students in final-year undergraduate and postgraduate courses interested in employment relations will find this compendium enriching and insightful.

Corporate Governance, Employee Voice, and Work Organization explores the dynamic relations between corporate governance, employee voice, and the organization of work in the automotive supply industry. It reports on research undertaken in three countries--Germany, Sweden, and the United States--that has sought to explore and compare historical patterns of the relationships between changing governance regimes, voice, and work at plant level in an era of financialization. It also explores the prospects for high-road, sustainable jobs in the sector. Three detailed case histories from each of the countries are presented which contrast companies facing three different levels of exposure to capital markets: companies relatively sheltered from stock markets; companies that are highly exposed to them; and thirdly companies owned by private equity firms. This design allows for analysis not just across different national contexts but also within them, and questions the usefulness of the 'varieties of capitalism' appraoch in understanding these differences. The cases show that governance compromises matter, that is, that recognising the role of employee voice in corporate governance regimes is essential in any comparative analysis and understanding of corporate governance.

Labour law is widely considered to be in crisis by scholars of the field. This crisis has an obvious external dimension - labour law is attacked for impeding efficiency, flexibility, and development; vilified for reducing employment and for favouring already well placed employees over less fortunate ones; and discredited for failing to cover the most vulnerable workers and workers in the "informal sector". These are just some of the external challenges to labour law. There is also an internal challenge, as labour lawyers themselves increasingly question whether their discipline is conceptually coherent, relevant to the new empirical realities of the world of work, and normatively salient in the world as we now know it. This book responds to such fundamental challenges by asking the most fundamental questions: What is labour law for? How can it be justified? And what are the normative premises on which reforms should be based? There has been growing interest in such questions in recent years. In this volume the contributors seek to take this body of scholarship seriously and also to move it forward. Its aim is to provide, if not answers which satisfy everyone, intellectually nourishing food for thought for those interested in understanding, explaining and interpreting labour laws - whether they are scholars, practitioners, judges, policy-makers, or workers and employers.

With a diverse group of contributors from law, business and the social sciences, this book explores the line not only between order and disorder in global affairs, but also chaos and control, continuity and change, the core and the margins. The key themes include: global crises and the role of international law, norms and institutions; the challenge of pluralism to regulatory clarity; and critical assessments of taken-for-granted systems and values such as capitalism, centralised government, de-militarisation and the separation of powers. The book divides into two key parts. The first part, `Conceptions’, considers the diverse way in which order/disorder can be conceived in global governance and regulation. The second part, `Case Studies’, groups chapters around five topic areas: citizens, capitalism, conflict, crime and courts. The authors here build on the themes presented in the first part by embedding them within specific areas of international regulation, such as international criminal law, maritime law or finance regulation; jurisdictions and regions, such as Australia, Canada, China, Japan and South Asia; and subject-matter, such as water resources, citizenship, statelessness and public interest litigation. This blend of contemporary subject-matter, empirical studies, multi-disciplinary perspectives and academic theories provides a comprehensive analysis to current and emerging debates in the broader global community. In utilizing interdisciplinary studies to draw out common issues and alternative solutions, the book will appeal to a wide readership among academics and policy-makers.

This book presents a new comparative theory to explain the divergence between governance systems of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States and explores the theory's ramifications for law and public policy. Bruner argues that regulatory structures affecting other stakeholders' interests - notably differing degrees of social welfare protection for employees - have decisively impacted the degree of political opposition to shareholder-centric policies across the common-law world.

ÔThis is an enlightening text on the subject of employment and work relations that will be useful for students in economics, specifically those studying labor relations.Õ Ð Lucy Heckman, American Reference Books Annual 2012 The broad field of employment relations is diverse and complex and is under constant development and reinvention. This Research Handbook discusses fundamental theories and approaches to work and employment relations, and their connection to broader political and societal changes occurring throughout the world. It provides comprehensive coverage of work and employment relations theory and practice. This up-to-date research compendium has drawn together a range of international authors from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. There are chapters from labour historians, theoreticians, more mainstream industrial relations scholars, sociologists, organizational psychologists, geographers, policy advisors, economists and lawyers. At the heart of each chapter is the notion that the world of work and employment relations has changed substantially since the halcyon days of IR, throughout the Dunlop Era of the 1950s. However, many areas of enquiry remain, and more questions have developed with society and technology. This Handbook reflects this view. As the field of study and practice continues to evolve throughout the twenty-first century, what lessons have we learnt from the past and what can we expect in the future? Academics and postgraduate students researching industrial relations, human resource management, employment relations, industrial sociology and sociology of work will find this important resource invaluable.

Amid the trend towards decentralized industrial relations, various new and modified systems of employee representation are taking hold in many countries worldwide. In this highly informative examination of this field of international labour law – originally presented as a series of papers for the 11th JILPT Comparative Labor Law Seminar held in Tokyo in February 2012 – twelve distinguished scholars from Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States describe their countries’ current perspectives on this issue, along with their own analysis and commentary. Among the specific questions addressed for each jurisdiction are the following: What is the legal framework for an employee representation system? How is the representative body formed and what are its declared powers? Are there legal mechanisms preventing intervention by the employer? Are non-standard employees involved? What methods of deliberation and decision-making are used? How are the activities of representatives protected? Who bears the costs? What is the relationship with collective bargaining? With labour unions? Each contributor also describes typical ways in which the employee representative system works, offering concrete examples such as dismissal, wage determination, and equal treatment. Some deal with situations in which employee representation is in fact nonexistent or malfunctioning in real workplaces. There is also pervasive attention paid to the fundamental matter of what ‘representation’ is for, and the probable future direction of employee representation. Given the need to secure representation for non-union and non-standard employees at the workplace, these reports on the conditions and new developments in this important field provide ample basis on which to build a better system of employee representation in this era of diversified workforces in the globalized market. Accordingly, this book will prove of inestimable value to practitioners and policymakers in labour and employment law anywhere in the world.

In light of the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s, this intelligent look at European corporate governance brings out the richness of European corporate governance systems and highlights historical weaknesses that will require further work for a sustainable corporate governance environment in the future.