ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates the utility and appropriateness of ethnographic methods to the study of industrial relations in the developing world. It highlights the benefits of workplace level studies that build up a detailed picture of surrounding contextual factors. The book focuses on the influence of the specific local workplace context, on workers' perceptions of their work lives and their attachments to social groups. It presents how in common with other industrial relations actors, trade union leaders and members must play their appropriate parts in the dramas of the employment relationship. The ethnographic research allows a deeper understanding of the issues which frame the world-views of those involved in a particular research context. The Impact of New Information Technologies and electronic forms of organising can provide features of close-knit community relationships over a much more dispersed organisational base.
