Converging Divergences: Worldwide Changes in Employment Systems (Cornell Studies in Industrial & Labour Relations)

Converging Divergences is an important addition to the growing literature on comparative industrial relations.... Katz and Darbishire are to be congratulated on their meticulous and wide-ranging study.... This is a carefully researched and well-argued book.

Katz and Darbishire write about convergence with a decided twist. Not only has the monistic version of convergence towards the 'one best way' been replaced with 'four best ways', but the authors also discover three other kinds of variation.... In sum... this study will be a valuable addition to the comparativist's bookshelf. It successfully charts a number of key common trends that are evident across most advanced capitalist societies and it provides us with much insight into developments within two key industries.... Its larger message about patterns of commonality intersecting with national and local institutions and strategies deserves a wide audience.

This comparative study will be of use to educators and activists alike. The prior claims of convergence-thesis advocates, of societies characterized by strong trade-union representation and institutionalization, did not envisage the deregulated product and labor markets and the declining union representation of the present global economy. For activists, the book clearly outlines the challenges presented to unions by the decentralization of collective bargaining and global economic integration.

Broad and sweeping in its scope, yet differentiated and nuanced in its findings, Converging Divergences takes us on an impressive tour of developments in industrial relations across a wide range of countries and key industries.

Converging Divergences provides fresh insight into the impact of globalization on employment relations, illuminating both similarities and differences within advanced industrial economies. Harry C. Katz and Owen Darbishire analyze the complex changes that are leading to a growing inequality of income as collective bargaining becomes increasingly decentralized around the world. This book is required reading for anyone interested in worldwide changes to employment systems.

Examines the increasing diversity of employment systems... with a special focus on the automobile and the telecommunications industries.

This important book examines changing employment relations in a global context. The dominant theme is the erosion of collective bargaining as a means of managing employment. Recommended for labor studies collections, upper-division undergraduate through faculty.