Industrial Relations

This revised edition of Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice follows the approach established successfully in preceding volumes edited by Paul Edwards. The focus is on Britain after a decade of public policy which has once again altered the terrain on which employment relations develop. Government has attempted to balance flexibility with fairness, preserving light-touch regulation whilst introducing rights to minimum wages and to employee representation in the workplace. Yet this is an open economy, conditioned significantly by developing patterns of international trade and by European Union policy initiatives. This interaction of domestic and cross-national influences in analysis of changes in employment relations runs throughout the volume.

The structure has been amended slightly. Britain is placed straight away in comparative perspective before attention focuses explicitly on employment relations actors, contexts, processes, and outcomes. Each of the chapters is written by authorities in the field and provides up to date analysis and commentary. A spine of chapters from the preceding volume have been revised and extensively updated and new chapters have been added to refine coverage of issues such as the private sector and developing legal institutions.

Overall, a picture emerges of an economy that is in incremental and contested transition. The imperatives of 'globalization' now infuse governance mechanisms that were once responsive principally to domestic agenda and employment standards are set now by the state that once were established through collective bargaining. It is this fragile and emerging model that will be tested significantly through sustained political and economic change.

"Completely revised, the latest edition of Industrial Relations provides an invaluable guide to the actors, contexts, processes and significant outcomes within British employment relations. Based on a thorough review of the latest research, it is essential reading for students, academics and those professionally involved in employment relations and human resource management."
—Edmund Heery, Cardiff Business School

"This is a terrific collection of insightful analyses of British workplace relations in a global context provided by leading scholars. The chapters creatively utilize a multidisciplinary and critical approach that reveals the continuing and unique value of an industrial relations perspective. The volume cleverly assesses how factors including increased demographic diversity, organizational restructuring, globalization, and the reduced coverage of collective bargaining are affecting the nature and evolution of work...