ABSTRACT
The development of industrialism is one of an ever-increasing capacity amongst human populations to fashion a multiplicity of employment relationships. Earlier, the exigencies of the physical environment largely determined task-based behaviour and, to a substantial degree, the social organization of work as well. By contrast, in advanced industrial societies, there is widespread variation in managerial strategies and ‘styles’, in trade union density, structure and policy, in the extent of legal or voluntary regulation of the terms and conditions under which work takes place and in the effectiveness of employers’ associations and governmental agencies. Thus, the parties to the employment relationship may be seen as creative ‘actors’ who, within acknowledged limitations of economic, political and social forces and the distribution of power, have a progressively rich and varied range of options available to them in the construction of distinctive national institutions. The more substantive parts of this study thus appropriately begin by a comparative assessment of the ‘actors’ in the industrial relations system, focusing first on diverse managerial strategies and ‘styles’ and the varied impact of employers’ associations.
