Viewing Korean employment and industrial relations

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides the foundation of understanding for the volume and subsequent chapters. In it we frame the big picture, define key terms, and give helpful historical perspective to the field of EIR. The discussion starts at the general level regarding meanings, principles, and features of employment-industrial relations and then moves to the specific case of EIR in Korea. The field of study and practice covered in this volume was for most of the twentieth century known in English-speaking countries as industrial relations (IR). The IR term first came into popular usage in the 1910s in the USA and Canada, slowly spread to Britain, Australia, and other empire countries in the 1920s–30s, and then in the 20 years after World War II gradually spread to continental Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other world regions. Particularly important in promoting the field of industrial relations outside its original Anglophone base was the International Labour Organization (ILO), founded in 1919, and the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA, now ILERA – the International Labour and Employment Relations Association), founded in 1966.