ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the product market pressures management faced in Sheffield and provides an insight into how management handled the uncertainties from the product market and its significances to employment relations. It introduces the recent development of the ethnic Chinese restaurant sector in Sheffield. The chapter focuses on two central issues in the sector: the nature of demand fluctuation and the level of competition. The chapter discusses how these two factors affected management practices and employment relationships. The intense competition significantly influenced labour management choices and the dynamics of workplace relations. The student number changed dramatically in different periods based on the university semester time, which determined the demand for ethnic Chinese restaurants in the same period. In the face of the market fluctuation, owner-managers had to frequently recruit and dismiss employees to match the change. As most of the Chinese restaurants provided similar food engaging in intense competition in the down-market, moving up-market would be one potential strategy.
