Political democratization, penetration by multinational corporations, and state support for collective bargaining are changing the societies of many developing and newly industrialized countries. Using qualitative, often comparative analysis, the contributors address the effects of industrialization on labor relations in Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, and Thailand. They examine such issues as the relationship between state development strategy and labor relations policies, the way in which industrialization influences changes in trade union strategy, how changes in the world economy influence industry regulation and labor relations, patterns of workplace industrial relations in subsidiaries of U.S. and Japanese multinational corporations, and the nature of human resource practices in large Korean manufacturing enterprises.

Stephen Frenkel is a professor at the Centre for Corporate Change in the Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Jeffrey Harrod is Professor of International and Comparative Labor Studies at the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, Netherlands.