The End of New Industrial Relations?

Abstract

This article assesses the extent to which `new' industrial relations regimes have developed in advanced economies over the past two decades and considers the prospects of new industrial relations. A review of evidence on current diffusion of new industrial relations practices and arrangements, combined with an assessment of change scenarios, suggests that new industrial relations regimes are unlikely to become generalized in advanced economies. Instead, new industrial relations will remain one of a series of coexisting regimes shaping relations between employers and unions, its occurrence being highly contingent on a series of local factors. We may thus be witnessing the end of new industrial relations as a generalizable regime for unionized enterprises and sectors in advanced economies and as a major explanatory paradigm for comprehending the dynamics of industrial relations systems.