Multi-dimensions of Industrial Relations in the Asian Knowledge-based Economies

This collection of work by leading scholars investigates the impact of the globalization process on some selected Asian economies and societies. With particular focus on the role of institutional factors such as labour unions or workers’ associations, case studies are presented on labour-management relations at the workplace that have evolved to cope with globalization. The cases describe labour institutions in the society as a social force that acts as a catalyst for societal democracy and for industrial democracy at the workplace. These cases provide descriptions of the changes in the management’s stance and approaches towards labour unions in the selected countries as well as at the organizational level over the last three decades when much of the industrialization process has occurred in Asia.

• A case study approach which enhances analytical and problem-solving skills of students
• A focus on the impact of globalization process in the East and Southeast Asia which is becoming more significant in the new economy
• Prepared by local Asian research scholars

Dr Sununta Siengthai has been a full-time associate professor of the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology (A.I.T.) since 1999.

Dr John J. Lawler is currently a Full Professor of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Professor Chris Rowley has affiliations at IHCR, Korea University, Korea and IBAS, Griffith University, Australia as well as IAPS, Nottingham University, UK and Cass Business School, City University, London, UK and has been a Korea Foundation Research Fellow. He is Editor of the journals Asia Pacific Business Review and Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management and also Series Editor of the Working in Asia and Asian Studies book series. He has given a range of talks and lectures to universities and companies internationally, with research and consultancy experience with unions, business and government. He has published widely in the area of Human Resource Management and Asian business, with over 500 articles, books and chapters and practitioner pieces as well as being interviewed and quoted in a range of practitioner reports and magazines, radio and newspapers globally.

Dr Hiromasa Suzuki is Professor of Labor Economics at the Waseda University, Faculty of Commerce, Tokyo (Japan).