The Oxford Handbook of Employment Relations Comparative Employment Systems

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.

Adrian Wilkinson, Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation, and Wellbeing, Griffith Business School, Griffith University,Geoffrey Wood, Chair of International Business; Adjunct Professor, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick; Griffith University,Richard Deeg, Professor and Chair of Political Science, Temple University

Adrian Wilkinson is Professor and Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing at Griffith University, Australia. Prior to his 2006 appointment, Adrian was Professor of Human Resource Management at Loughborough University. Adrian has also worked at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. He holds Visiting Professorships at Loughborough University, Sheffield University, and the University of Durham, and is an Academic Fellow at the Centre for International Human Resource Management at the Judge Institute, University of Cambridge. He has authored/co-authored /edited twenty books and over one hundred and forty articles in academic journals.

Geoffrey Wood is Professor of International Business, University of Warwick Previously, he was Professor and Director of Research at Middlesex University Business School and before that, taught at Rhodes University, South Africa and Coventry University, Coventry, UK. He currently is Overseas Research Associate of the University of the Witwatersrand. He has authored/co-authored/edited twelve books, and over one hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Work and Occupations, Work Employment and Society, Organization Studies, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Relations, Economy and Society, Human Resource Management (US)


Richard Deeg is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Temple University. He received his PhD from MIT and has been a Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. He has written extensively on financial market regulation, institutional theory, and varieties of capitalism. His publications include Finance Capitalism Unveiled: Banks and the German Political Economy (University of Michigan, 1999) and dozens of articles on German and European political economy in various journals, including Comparative Political Studies, Economy & Society, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of International Business Studies, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Small Business Economics, Socio-Economic Review, West European Politics, and World Politics.

1: Adrian Wilkinson, Geoffrey Wood and Richard Deeg : Introduction: Comparative Employment Systems
Section I: Defining the Field
2: Geoffrey Wood and Adrian Wilkinson: Institutions and Employment Relations
3: Harry Katz and Nick Wailes: Convergence and Divergence in Employment Relations
Section II: Institutions and Employment Relations Alternative Accounts, New Insights
4: Cathie Jo Martin: Getting down to business: Varieties of Capitalism and Employment Relations
5: Matt Allen: Business Systems Theory and Employment Relations
6: Robert Boyer: Developments and Extensions of Regulation Theory and Employment Relations
7: Christel Lane and Geoffrey Wood: Capitalist Diversity, Work and Employment Relations
8: Chris Brewster, Marc Goergen and Geoffrey Wood : Ownership Rights and Employment Relations.
9: Glenn Morgan and Marco Hauptmeier: Varrieties of Institutional Theory in Comparative Employment Relations
10: Niall Cullinane: Institutions and the Industrial Relations Tradition
11: Franco Barchiesi: Conflict, Order and Change
Section III: Comparative Evidence
12: Gregory Jackson and Anja Kirsch: Liberal Markets
13: Kristine Nergaard: Social Democratic Capitalism
14: Bob Hancké: Employment Regimes , Wage Setting and Monetary Union in Continental Europe
15: Harald Conrad: Continuity and Change in Asian Employment Systems: A Comparison of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
16: Martin Myant: Economies Undergoing Long Transition: Employment Relations in Central and Eastern Europe
17: Johann Maree: Employment relations in Africa
18: Jose Aleman: The Left Turn in Latin America: Consequences for Employment Relations
19: Michele Ford: Developing Societies: Asia
20: Frank Horwitz: Employment Relations in the BRICs Countries
Section IV: Substantive Themes
21: Michel Goyer, Juliane Reinecke, and Jimmy Donaghey: Globalization and Labour Market Governance
22: Barbara Pocock: Work, Bodies, Care: Gender and Employment in a Global World
23: Michael Barry, Adrian Wilkinson, Paul J Gollan and Senia Kalfa: Where Are the Voices? New Directions in Voice and Engagement Across the Globe
24: Heidi Gottfried: Insecure Employment: Diversity and Change
25: Samanthi J Gunawardana and Lindah Mhando: The Migration-Development Nexus, Women Workers and Transnational Employment Relations
26: Colin Crouch: The Neo-liberal Turn and the Implications for Labour
Section V: Reflections
27: Guglielmo G Meardi: The State and Employment Relations
28: Peter Fairbrother: Unions
29: Gilton Klerck: Institutions, Management Strategies and HRM
30: Fang Lee Cook and Geoffrey Wood: New Actors in Employment Relations
31: Sabina Avdagic and Lucio Baccaro: The Future of Employment Relations in Advanced Capitalism: Inexorable Decline?
1. Introduction: Comparative Employment Systems, Adrian Wilkinson, Geoffrey Wood and Richard Deeg NB
Section I: Defining the Field
2. Institutions and Employment Relations, Geoffrey Wood and Adrian Wilkinson
3. Convergence and Divergence in Employment Relations, Harry Katz and Nick Wailes
Section II: Institutions and Employment Relations Alternative Accounts, New Insights
4. Getting down to business: Varieties of Capitalism and Employment Relations, Cathie Jo Martin
5. Business Systems Theory and Employment Relations, Matt Allen
6. Developments and Extensions of Regulation Theory and Employment Relations, Robert Boyer
7. Capitalist Diversity, Work and Employment Relations, Christel Lane and Geoffrey Wood
8. Ownership Rights and Employment Relations., Chris Brewster, Marc Goergen and Geoffrey WoodNBNB
9. Varrieties of Institutional Theory in Comparative Employment Relations, Glenn Morgan and Marco Hauptmeier
10. Institutions and the Industrial Relations Tradition, Niall Cullinane
11. Conflict, Order and Change, Franco Barchiesi
Section III: Comparative Evidence
12. Liberal Markets, Gregory Jackson and Anja Kirsch
13. Social Democratic Capitalism, Kristine Nergaard
14. Employment Regimes , Wage Setting and Monetary Union in Continental Europe, Bob Hancke
15. Continuity and Change in Asian Employment Systems: A Comparison of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Harald Conrad
16. Economies Undergoing Long Transition: Employment Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Martin Myant
17. Employment relations in Africa, Johann Maree
18. The Left Turn in Latin America: Consequences for Employment Relations, Jose Aleman
19. Developing Societies: Asia, Michele Ford
20. Employment Relations in the BRICs Countries, Frank Horwitz
Section IV: Substantive Themes
21. Globalization and Labour Market Governance, Michel Goyer, Juliane Reinecke, and Jimmy Donaghey
22. Work, Bodies, Care: Gender and Employment in a Global World, Barbara Pocock
23. Where Are the Voices? New Directions in Voice and Engagement Across the Globe, Michael Barry, Adrian Wilkinson, Paul J Gollan and Senia Kalfa
24. Insecure Employment: Diversity and Change, Heidi Gottfried
25. The Migration-Development Nexus, Women Workers and Transnational Employment Relations, Samanthi J Gunawardana and Lindah Mhando
26. The Neo-liberal Turn and the Implications for Labour, Colin Crouch
Section V: Reflections
27. The State and Employment Relations, Guglielmo G Meardi
28. Unions, Peter Fairbrother
29. Institutions, Management Strategies and HRM, Gilton Klerck
30. New Actors in Employment Relations, Fang Lee Cook and Geoffrey Wood
31. The Future of Employment Relations in Advanced Capitalism: Inexorable Decline?, Sabina Avdagic and Lucio Baccaro