A diversity of opinion exists about the definition, intellectual boundaries, and major premises of the fields of human resources management (HRM) and industrial relations (IR). To help provide a common frame of reference for discussion and debate on the symposium topic, I endeavor in this paper to flesh out a consensus position on these matters
Over the past several decades all of the advanced industrial societies have experienced growing pressures on the institutions governing their industrial relations systems. These pressures can be traced to long-term changes in the nature of the international economy, and have manifested themselves in different ways from one country to another. The cases of the OECD member countries are str…