ABSTRACT
By the mid-1980s, it had become evident that a further substantial advance in the discipline of industrial relations would be feasible if theoretical and research endeavour had a more pronounced comparative emphasis. Yet it was also fully appreciated that much of earlier abstract discourse and empirical method was ill-adapted to such a purpose. Given, too, that rigorous comparative investigations (in which a country-by-country treatment of themes is discarded in favour of their examination across different societies) were in their infancy, the obstacles to fundamental progress inevitably appeared daunting. In consequence, while interest in comparative issues intensified, there had been few milestones marking an unmistakable pattern of onward and upward ascent.
