Human Resource Management and the Institutional Perspective ― A Comparative Study of the Relationship Between the Context and the Firm

Combining the literature on comparative capitalism with that on comparative HRM, Human Resource Management and the Institutional Perspective explores the overlapping and distinct elements in work and employment relations both within and across country lines. The authors focus on intra-firm relations, internal diversity within varieties of capitalsm, and the uneven and experimental nature of systemic change, all the while employing an impressive level of theoretical rigor and empirical evidence. For those interested in contemporary developments in institutional theory, the relationship between regulation and practice, and in innovation and continuity in HRM, this book is a valuable resource. In a single volume, this text unites soundly based, theoretically strong and empirically new chapters that bring advances in institutional theory to bear on the subject of international and comparative Human Resource Management.

Geoffrey Wood is Professor of International Business, and Associate Dean at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK. He is also Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Visiting Professor at Pecs University Hungary and Nelson Mandela University South Africa, and Honourary Professor of the University of Witwatersrand. His current research interests centre on institutional diversity and change, and institutions, new investor categories and changes in work and employment relations.

Chris Brewster is Professor of International Human Resource Management at Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK and Visiting Professor at the University of Nijmegen, Netherlands and Vaasa University, Finland. He researches international and comparative HRM and has published over twenty-five books and more than 175 articles. He has a doctorate from the LSE and an honorary doctorate from Vaasa University, Finland.

Michael Brookes is a Reader in Work and Employment at Middlesex University, UK, as well as Director of the Khanyisa Project, a non-profit partnership seeking to address employability issues in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. His research interests include labour market discrimination, industrial relations and comparative HRM, with the central strand connecting all aspects of this research being exploring the relationship between national institutional configurations and firm level work and employment practices.