Globalization and the Employment Relationship: towards an Explanatory Framework

A number of concerns now cluster around the study of globalization in business. Attempts to theorise and explain the diverse phenomena associated with globalization have tended to concentrate on financial changes and global markets. In the HRM/IR field, these attempts leave out some of the central variables of the subject area: most notably the actors in the field, their behaviour and the reshaping of their institutions. This paper suggests that a broader, socially based theory of globalization is necessary to explain and predict the processes and events surrounding the employment relationship. Using the main elements of Giddens' four dimensional theory of globalization, the paper traces a number of social links and relationships between transitions taking place in and around the employment relationship. It concludes that the use of such a multi-dimensional model of globalization greatly increases understanding of the interaction between globalization and the constituent elements of the employment relationship. * Thanks to Michael Wood, Jan Toporowski, Ed Heery and Barbara Townley for comments on earlier drafts of this paper 1 research assistant, SBU 2 lecturer, SBU