Industrial Relations and Industrial Change: The Restructuring of the World Automobile Industry in the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract

The paper discusses differences in industrial relations systems between the 'winners' and 'losers' of the auto industry's restructuring period in the 1970s and 1980s. It describes a set of sometimes counter-intuitive relationships between economic success in turbulent markets, product strategies, the use of modern technology, work organization, industrial relations 'rigidities', and patterns of skills and skill generation. Arguing that specific institutional constraints imposed by industrial relations may induce and, indeed, compel managements and firms to exploit new economic opportunities, the paper urges students of industrial relations to define their subject more broadly and, in particular, not to exclude central issues such as economic efficiency and competitiveness from their concerns.