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This paper focuses on change in union structures and the challenges posed by current socio‐economic transformations for the emergence of appropriate representative structures.

What is the impact of union structure on the strategic capacity of national union movements to respond to economic re‐structuring? Focuses on the experience of five countries (Canada, France, Japan, the UK and the US) and their common problems as regards, first, the movement of employment into the service sector, second, transformations in the organization of production within and beyond the firm, and third, transformations in and the multiplication of collective identities in the labour market. Structure does appear to condition union strategies, albeit in a highly variable and contingent manner. Although most unions are currently involved in some kind of structural review, the success of these adjustments remains fairly equivocal. Structure can, however, facilitate or hamper the development of strategies at appropriate levels or foster the emergence of other forms of representation because it does not furnish appropriate representational responses. In the conclusion, reviews several new structural models but no single model is likely to prove dominant.

The question of responsibility is not new to labour law. The earliest developments in labour law and social law sprang from a “legal revolution” to borrow the words of Georges Scelle, considering the concept of responsibility that prevailed in common law. Civil responsibility which was originally based on fault could now be based on the risk inherent to a socially useful activity so as to ensure that the responsibility for damages that might result from it be equitably shared. This development took place under the generalization of the industrial production mode, first within the frame work of laws respecting compensation for industrial accidents.

Investigates what is happening in North America with regard to labour relations law. Examines, first, collective labour relations and labour law and, second, focuses on the legal regulation of the individual relationship, also known as employment law. Goes on to cover these two separate, but intertwined, entities in depth and as they are interpreted in both Canada and the USA. Concludes that labour law is changing and moving toward contractualization and proceduralization. Wonders whether labour law will be able to continue to play the role of protecting wage earners for which it was originally developed.

France has a long tradition of research on labor and employment issues dating back to the emergence of the “Social Question” in the 1830s. Yet, the field identified as industrial relations (IR) emerged slowly in France and has not achieved the institutional status it did in Anglo-Saxon countries. French universities have no IR departments and there are no academic journals with IR on the title. Teaching takes place within different disciplines and research produces an abundant literature, which does not always claim the IR label.

The concept of “industrial relations”, translated as “relations professionnelles”, started to be used in France only after World War II (WWII). The terms commonly used both before WWII and even nowadays alongside IR are “relations du travail” (labor relations) or “relations sociales” (social relations). Even though “industrial relations” might not always be the label used, a distinctive French IR tradition exists nonetheless which this paper identifies and presents.

The paper starts with the forerunners at the origins of the field of IR in France, high ranking civil servants who played a role not only in the development of French but even of international industrial relations, and represented a “problem-solving” approach to IR. The emergence of IR as a field of research with a self-recognized academic community bent on “science building”, however, mostly followed the evolution of IR practice in France in the post-WWII period, which the paper then analyzes, presenting the IR milieu in France through its research structures, theoretical debates and challenging prospects.

This paper aims to examine the organisational factors responsible for the inclusion of women as Human Resource (HR) directors in Canadian-based subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs).

Based on the resource dependence theory, this study outlines the features of subsidiaries that appoint a woman HR director. Hypotheses were developed and assessed through analysis of a database obtained from a quantitative investigation. Analyses are based on 100 multinational subsidiaries operating in Canada.

Three primary findings arise from this study. Firstly, the larger the subsidiary, the less likely it is for a woman to hold the position of HR director. Secondly, there is a positive and significant correlation between the percentage of women employed in an MNC subsidiary and the presence of women in the HR director position. Finally, MNC subsidiaries with high executive career progression autonomy are more likely to have a woman HR director than those lacking in such autonomy.

This study proposes improving the representation of women in HR director positions by increasing the percentage of women employed in organisations and by granting greater decision-making autonomy to subsidiaries of MNCs.

This paper contributes to broader research on gender inequality in leadership. This paper responds specifically to the dearth of research into gender inequality in HR directorships, despite HR as a profession being female dominated. This study focuses upon HR in multinational corporations – again, an under-researched area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether intervention participants’ process appraisals relate to change in well-being and lean outcomes of entire teams. For this purpose, the study focussed on two main characteristics of a lean implementation process – workshop quality and outcome expectancy – and their interaction with the participation rate, and examined their association with leaner work processes and affective well-being in nursing teams.

Data were collected from a lean implementation project within 29 nursing wards of a university hospital. Employee surveys covering lean work processes and affective well-being at work were conducted before the implementation of four-day lean workshops in each nursing ward and six months after. The participating employee representatives evaluated the workshop quality and outcome expectancy of the workshops.

Multilevel analyses indicated that workshop quality did not relate to leaner work processes, but was associated with enhanced affective well-being after six months. By contrast, outcome expectancy was associated with leaner work processes, but did not relate to well-being. No moderation effects with participation rate were found.

The study shows the importance of monitoring process indicators in the early stages of implementation and optimising workshop contents and formats accordingly to ensure positive outcomes for entire teams.

The present study considers intervention participants’ process appraisals of workshop quality and outcome expectancy as good indicators of future change in lean work processes and the well-being of entire teams.

Cross‐cultural studies show that most, but not all, human societies engage in warfare. Some non‐warring societies cluster as peace systems. The existence of peace systems, and non‐warring societies more generally, shows that warfare is not an inevitable feature of human social life. This article considers three peace systems in some detail: Brazil's Upper Xingu River basin tribes, Aboriginal Australians, and the European Union. A primary goal is to explore features that contribute to peace in each of the three non‐warring systems. What do these peace systems suggest about how to prevent war? Provisionally, key elements would seem to be the promotion of interdependence among the units of the peace system, creation of cross‐cutting links among them, the existence of conflict resolution procedures, and belief systems (including attitudes and values) that are anti‐war and pro‐peace.

The aim of this paper is to profile the evolution of library services and information literacy instruction provided for transfer students in collaboration with other campus units at a Master’s level institution and for librarians wishing to develop services for this population.

This paper is a case study enhanced by a literature review, outlining the development of services, resources and instruction for transfer students at one institution.

This paper provides information about the need for library services designed specifically for transfer students at four-year institutions and the importance of cross campus collaborations to develop and offer these resources.

The literature on the provision of library services to transfer students is minimal. This case study details the development of cross campus collaborations that resulted in enhanced library services for this population.

Restructuring has assumed a significant importance across Europe due to the growing pressures of internationalisation affecting transnational capital. By drawing from two case‐studies in the public health service and the manufacturing sector in Belgium, this paper aims to present evidence of the local unions' capacity to strategically use the industrial relations institutional framework, which foresees the rights of employee representatives to make a proposal for an alternative plan to restructuring, in order to fight redundancy at the workplace.

The study uses a new institutionalist approach in social science and political economy which emphasises social agency and actor capacity to influence and shape their institutional context. The research design was based on two case studies. The methodology was qualitative and comparative.

There is diversity in the process of collective resistance to company restructuring, highlighting different combinations of external and internal union capabilities at the core of such diversity. However, the study also illustrates commonality regarding union strategy to manipulate the national legal framework in order to combat collective redundancy.

The research results inform unions' practices and policy making with regard to the social process and the outcomes of company restructuring.

The paper has important social implications with regard to unions' strategies of resistance and bargaining processes in situations of company restructuring.

The paper provides support for neo‐institutionalism as an insightful way of understanding local unions' responses to collective redundancy in Belgium.