Workplace Industrial Relations and the Global Challenge

Book excerpt: As more and more corporations operate around the globe, the development of an international perspective on industrial relations becomes increasingly urgent. Toward that end, the contributors to Workplace Industrial Relations and the Global Challenge examine the workplace itself. On the basis of ethnographic case studies and comparative data, they conclude that global economic forces and transnational corporations are, indeed, driving industrial relations initiatives. However, national and workplace cultures, as well as state policies, still strongly affect the ways in which cooperation and conflict are negotiated on the shop floor.