Describes work organization, skill formation, remuneration systems, staffing arrangements and employment security, and enterprise governance and employee-management relations in seven countries: the United States, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, and China.

This important study—based on a three-year empirical research project in seven countries—focuses on employment relations in the auto assembly industry and shows that the influence of globalisation is tempered to varying degrees by institutional employment patterns at the local level. Twenty-one scholars and researchers representing all seven countries analyse the data, clearly describe the differences across both countries and firms, and offer conclusions and recommendations that greatly facilitate our understanding of the globalisation process at the level of human resources in industrial production. For each of the seven countries—two liberal market economies (the United States and Australia), two coordinated market economies (Germany and Sweden), and three Asian market economies (Japan, South Korea, and China)—the book describes five key issues in detail: work organisation; skill formation; remuneration systems; staffing arrangements and employment security; and enterprise governance and employee–management relations. The authors offer in-depth comparative analysis of these central issues in the context of such overriding factors as corporate strategy, local institutional constraints and advantages, competitive pressures among automakers to capture emerging markets, power relations within firms, and the role that agency and interests play in shaping social action.

The automotive industry is still one of the world's largest manufacturing sectors, but it suffers from being very technology-focused as well as being relatively short-term focused. There is little emphasis within the industry and its consultancy and analyst supply network on the broader social and economic impacts of automobility and of the sector that provides it. The Global Automotive Industry addresses this need and is a first port of call for any academic, official or consultant wanting an overview of the state of the industry. An international team of specialist researchers, both from academia and business, review and analyse the key issues that make vehicle manufacturing still the world’s premier manufacturing sector, closely tied in with the fortunes of both established and newly emerging economies. In doing so, it covers issues related to manufacturing, both established practices as well as new developments; issues relating to distribution, marketing and retail, vehicle technologies and regulatory trends; and, crucially, labour practices and the people who build cars. In all this it explains both how the current situation arose and also likely future trajectories both in terms of social and regulatory trends, as the technological, marketing and labour practice responses to those, leading in many cases to the development of new business models. Key features Provides a global overview of the automotive industry, covering its current state and considering future challenges Contains contributions from international specialists in the automotive sector Presents current research and sets this in an historical and broader industry context Covers threats to the industry, including globalization, economic and environmental sustainability The Global Automotive Industry is a must-have reference for researchers and practitioners in the automotive industry and is an excellent source of information for business schools, governments, and graduate and undergraduate students in automotive engineering.

The complexity of employment arrangements in various countries tends to make it difficult to understand them. Nevertheless, it is important to 'take stock' periodically, particularly from an internationally comparative perspective. This remarkable book is a giant step in that direction. It is especially valuable in the context of increasing globalisation. For each of nine key jurisdictions - the European Union, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan - experts present detailed information and analysis on key issues, shedding valuable light on trends in such specific areas of employment relations as the following: * atypical work and flexible work arrangements; * dispute settlement procedures such as negotiation, conciliation, mediation, arbitration and other forms of governmental or judicial intervention; * job security, anti-discrimination and gender equality; * recognition of unions and employers' associations and forms of employee representation; * how collective bargaining is regulated, whom the collective agreements cover and what they contain; * parental leave and childcare policy; * the capacity of individual agreements to override or not override collective agreements; * minimum wage levels; * overtime and shift work; and * paid leave entitlements. As a general framework, Part 1 offers an insightful summary of the underpinnings of current analysis of globalization, including discussion of the varieties of capitalism thesis, the divergence/convergence debate (with its models of bipolarization, clustering and hybridization), and elements of historical and political-economic path dependency in various cultures. The information gathered here furthers understanding of the increasing 'disconnect' between the prevailing institutional framework for employment relations and the sweeping changes that are taking place in the world of work. With this book's analysis, practitioners and policymakers will be able to overcome their dated assumptions and more effectively accommodate each others' interests in the face of the complex mix of continuity and change that they are confronting. The team of authors are experts in these countries. They are active in policy or legal analysis, business and/or scholarship.

There have been numerous accounts exploring the relationship between institutions and firm practices. However, much of this literature tends to be located into distinct theoretical-traditional 'silos', such as national business systems, social systems of production, regulation theory, or varieties of capitalism, with limited dialogue between different approaches to enhance understanding of institutional effects. Again, evaluations of the relationship between institutions and employment relations have tended to be of the broad-brushstroke nature, often founded on macro-data, and with only limited attention being accorded to internal diversity and details of actual practice. The Handbook aims to fill this gap by bringing together an assembly of comprehensive and high quality chapters to enable understanding of changes in employment relations since the early 1970s. Theoretically-based chapters attempt to link varieties of capitalism, business systems, and different modes of regulation to the specific practice of employment relations, and offer a truly comparative treatment of the subject, providing frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding trends in employment relations in different parts of the world. Most notably, the Handbook seeks to incorporate at a theoretical level regulationist accounts and recent work that link bounded internal systemic diversity with change, and, at an applied level, a greater emphasis on recent applied evidence, specifically dealing with the employment contract, its implementation, and related questions of work organization. It will be useful to academics and students of industrial relations, political economy, and management.

Not all labour law and industrial relations scholars agree on the efficacy of the comparative approach - that the analysis of measures adopted in other countries can play a constructive role in national and local policy-making. However, the case deserves to be heard, and no better such presentation has appeared than this remarkable book, the carefully considered work of over 40 well-known authorities in the field from a wide variety of countries including Australia, France, India, Israel, Peru, Poland, and South Africa. The volume contains papers delivered at a conference sponsored by the Marco Biagi Foundation at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in March 2008.

This edited work attempts to ‘make sense’ of recent developments in the field of Human Resource Management in the People’s Republic of China. It attempts to see how the paradoxes and contradictions engendered by contemporary Chinese society are being resolved in the enterprises and workplaces of the Middle Kingdom. The book starts with an overview of the literature, then follows with a selection of micro-oriented, concerned with topics like recruitment and retention, then macro-oriented empirical studies, a number of the latter dealing with strategic as well as performance issues, with last, those comparing sets of societal cultural values. It attempts a synthesis of what has emerged from recent research on the ‘harmonious society’. These contributions from authors based in universities in eight countries, in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, United Kingdom and USA, cover a wide range of research on HRM, from the micro- to the macro-. Six of them teach and/or research at campuses on the Mainland. Their empirical, field-based research covers the last half-decade and presents a robust picture of both what practitioners have adopted and how researchers have tried to ‘make sense’ of what they have investigated. This book was based on a special issue of Intl Journal of Human Resource Management.