Globalisation and changing patterns of employment relations : international and comparative frameworks

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of globalisation on national employment-relations (ER) systems. It reviews conceptual frameworks in international and comparative employment relations literature that can be used to examine the relationship between globalisation and national patterns of employment relations. It then identifies three approaches to globalisation and ER in the existing literature, which draw on these conceptual frameworks. First, a simple globalisation approach argues that economic changes associated with globalisation are likely to produce pressures for convergence of national employment relations. Second, an institutionalist approach predicts continued diversity and divergence in national employment relations systems because of the role that different national-level institutions play in mediating common economic pressures, which may result from globalisation. Third, an integrated approach focuses on both market and institutional variables and seeks to explain similarities and differences between countries. The paper suggests that interaction between economic factors, national and institutional-level arrangements, along with the strategic decisions made by employers, state officials and unions all help to shape ER outcomes. Drawing on a recent study of employment relations changes in ten developed market economies, the paper argues that an integrated approach provides the most promising framework for understanding and explaining changes in employment relations.