Introducing Employment Relations: A Critical Approach

This new and extensively updated edition of Introducing Employment Relations draws on the most up-to-date research and contemporary examples to help students develop their knowledge, understanding and critical assessment of the main issues relating to employment relations.Essential reading for undergraduates and postgraduates studying employment relations, human resource management, and business studies, Introducing Employment Relations contains a wealth of features designed to prompt students to critically reflect on how employment relations are regulated, experienced, and contested by organizations and employees; collectively or individually. Facilitating learning and prompting lively debates, such features include case studies, reflective segments, international perspectives, insights into practice, summary points, and end-of-chapter assignment and discussion questions.Whilst maintaining a critical focus to draw out the contemporary debates surrounding employment relations, this text is written in a lively, engaging and accessible style.This book is supported by a range of online resources, including:For students:Annotated web linksWeb case studiesUpdates to content relating to legislation, research, or policyVideo linksFor lecturers:PowerPoint slidesCase study guideA guide to end-of-chapter questionsA guide to web cases

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introducing employment relations 1: The nature of employment relations Part 2: The dimensions of employment relations 2: Employment relations in the contemporary economy 3: The politics of employment relations 4: Social divisions and employment relations Part 3: Key elements of employment relations 5: Managing employment relations 6: Trade unions and worker representation 7: Pay determination and employment relations 8: Working time and employment relations Part 4: Conflict and employment relations 9: Labour conflict and employment relations 10: Resolving labour conflict Part 5: Employment relations: Perspectives and prospects 11: Globalization and employment relations 12: Conclusion: Understanding employment relations

About the Author :
Dr Steve Williams is a Reader in Employment Relations at the University of Portsmouth.

Review :
This book provides a comprehensive and critical account of contemporary UK employee relations. This book is very up-to-date on contemporary research with various national and international examples that encourage students to think critically about employment relations. A comprehensive and up-to-date book on employment relations. Easily accessible, full of useful examples and case studies that make things clear to students. Has a good relationship between theory and practice and is structured in a clear way. This is a contemporary and welcome book of international significance, providing a solid understanding of employment relations and an articulate discussion of the circumstances of the twenty-first century envirnment, in which these relations operate. By highlighting the experiences of workers themselves, it manages to cover in a critical way the role of managers and HR practitioners, and to further illustrate the role of trade unions and worker representation. Anyone interested in the ways work and employment relations are experienced, regulated and contested, from various perspectives, will find this book an invaluable source of fascinating and critical arguments. Highly accessible to both our home and international students, this excellent introduction to employment relations provides a critical understanding of the historical context, politics and dynamics of employment relations today, with a focus on the UK and the EU, including instructive teaching tools and case studies of recent policy and legal challenges such as Brexit and their significance for ER. Introducing Employment Relations provides a theoretically informed discussion of key debates in the field of employment relations. The chapters are guided by a clear structure that organizes the material in an accessible manner. Its critical approach to the analysis of employment relations makes it an essential book for both students and teachers. The fifth edition of this excellent, proven book is written in a straightforward and engaging style, making it easy for students at all levels to understand the field of employment relations as well as major changes within the wider political, economic and social context. A highly accessible and comprehensive text. This is an excellent, comprehensive and very insightful book that critically and thoughtfully addresses the many and varied contemporary developments in employment relations. In a field awash with introductory texts; Williams' Introducing Employment Relations stands head and shoulders above the rest. This book is an outstanding introduction to the study of work and employment relations; synthesising key theoretical debates, the wider research literature and novel, contemporary case studies. What I truly like about this book is it offers very structured, focused and comprehensive content on employment relations. You can see a clear flow of discussion points in each chapter which connects its readers to real life scenarios through strategically placed case studies and other related examples. This is an insightful and critical text that introduces students to the full range of participants and processes within individual and collective employment relationships.