Managing People Globally

5

Employee relations

5.1 Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the area of employee relations. Here, unlike some other commentators, we do not make a hard distinction between the terms industrial relations (IR) and employee relations, which we take to include all aspects of work and the work environment. The area of IR and then employee relations were key areas feeding into the development of personnel management, and then into HRM. The field has critical impacts on HRM, through the political process as well as employer and employee organisations (such as trade unions), and includes labour market changes and legislation. In parts of Asia politics and employee relations are often strongly linked. This discussion forms the first half of ...