This article uses time-series data from two aluminum plants from Canada and the U.K. to analyze the social relations of productivity. The eventual turn to teamwork reflected, not hard evidence that productivity change had dried up, but a belief that they were the next step towards further...

Total quality management has been a central element in many efforts directed towards organizational change. Theories tend to fall into two extreme camps, which hold either that TQM transforms attitudes and behaviour or that it is nothing but a means to intensify work and tighten managerial...

Industrial relations (IR) in the UK are often seen as being in a state of some disarray. Yet analytical advances can also be detected. This article takes one part of IR, context-sensitive research, to suggest ways of building on such advances. Its focus is the intellectual core of the subject,...

Business rhetoric and conventional theory expect that employment regulations will have negative effects on small firms. Prior research has shown that effects are quite rare, but has not explained why. Case studies of 18 firms from three sectors identified four explanations. (1) Perceptions of...

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms,...

Books reviewed in this article: Peter A. Hall and David Soskice (eds.), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage Robert E. Goodwin, Bruce Headey, Ruud Muffels and Henk-Jan Dirven, The Real Worlds of Welfare Capitalism Francine D. Blau and Lawrence M. Kahn,...