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Purpose – The purpose of this research paper is to examine the integration of an increasingly diverse workforce in the UK following the EU expansion of 2004 to incorporate the accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe, at a time of increased migration from other areas of the EU such as Portugal. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents data from five case study companies. The key methods of data collection were 88 semi-structured interviews coupled with lengthy time spent on observation at each company, leading to an ethnographically-informed method. Findings – The key contribution of this paper is to analyse the relationships between migrant workers and the British workers they work alongside in the context of the EU expansion. It shows how low levels of English language skills lead migrant workers into low skilled roles, and that in the workplace this leads to hostility from British workers. However, as migrant workers had mainly sought employment through an agency, the case study companies actually accentuated differences between workers, and this paper examines why they act in this manner, and analyses the effects this has on workplace relations. Originality/value – This paper provides an original contribution to the equality and diversity literature as it analyses workplace relations in the context of the EU expansion of 2004. In addition to providing new empirical data for academics, it will also be of value for policy makers, particularly with regard to legislation relating to agency work, and also to management practitioners who have a diverse workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Over the past 20 years public policy has sought to promote and formalise the socioeconomic role of universities under the auspices of the so called ''third mission''. The purpose of this paper is to consider how the third mission relates to, and has the capacity to reinforce the core missions of teaching and research. Design/methodology/approach - By highlighting the key limitations of contemporary debate the paper bridges the conceptual model/case-study dichotomy that characterises the literature. The paper draws on an ongoing study of higher education institutions in the UK and Europe. Findings - The paper contends that triangulating teaching, research, and third stream activities reinforces the respective dynamics of each component through their recursive and reciprocal development. Research limitations/implications - The paper forms the foundations of a de novo research agenda to better understand the dynamics of the third mission as a central facet of the contemporary university. Practical implications - The paper has implications for policy-makers and institutional strategy alike - identifying an unparalleled opportunity for institutional development by linking teaching, research, and third stream activities. Originality/value - By highlighting the importance that universities need to embody an ''inherent idea'' the paper contends the third mission presents the capacity for institutional development beyond the third mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to provide human resources (HR) practitioners with a guide to international resourcing. Design/methodology/approach — This paper uses research from The Future of HR in Europe: Key Challenges through 2015 report and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's annual Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Survey 2007. It also uses case studies from the NHS and Standard Chartered Bank to demonstrate this research. This paper explores international resourcing, demographics and the role of HR in tackling skills shortages in Europe. Findings — This paper finds that managing talent is the most challenging issue facing employers in Europe. As the world becomes increasingly joined up through globalization companies are looking to source and deploy talent on a global basis. Research limitations/implications — The paper is not an exhaustive list of research and all of the publications apart from the research from the European Association for Personnel Management are from the UK, which perhaps limits its usefulness elsewhere. Practical implications — The paper provides a useful resource for employers and HR departments who are using or are looking to use international resourcing. Originality/value — This paper demonstrates the value of HR in attracting, retaining, and rewarding employees on a global basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to define a coherent management preference function for determining the conditions when the market can be effectively used in the management of spectrum based on abduction and volitional pragmatism. Design/methodology/approach - Volitional pragmatism based on the logic of abduction is used to provide an explanation for real world empirical observation of few spectrum trades in the UK. This is generalized for application with wider context of European frequency management. Findings - There has been a considerable regulatory effort directed toward spectrum trading in the EU. The UK experience with trading is clearly not what was expected. It was suggested that this is a result of an analytical approach based on deductive validationism subject to ceteris paribus assumptions. This approach does have merit but its application is over extended. This is due in large part institutional under specification of what constitutes the market and the nature of the transaction taking place. Research limitations/implications - The emphasis is in this paper is on the explanation of real world facts rather than normative prescription based on deductive validationism. Such an approach though fallible (all facts cannot be taken into account) is no less valuable in the process of regulatory decision making than deductive validationism. Practical implications - This paper provides a more coherent explanation of spectrum development and the spectrum management reform process. Originality/value - A set of conditions are provided for determining when the market can be used in the management of spectrum. This makes explicit the intended operation of the market as well as its limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In January 2005, the International Valuation Standards Committee (IVSC) published the International Valuation Guidance Note No. 8 entitled The Cost Approach for Financial Reporting - (DRC). This guidance note provides background to the use of depreciated replacement cost (DRC) in connection with International Valuation Application 1 (IVA 1), Valuation for Financial Reporting and suggests that the valuer reports the result of a DRC valuation as market value subject to the test of adequate profitability or service potential. This suggestion has caused a lot of debate and consternation in the UK where the DRC approach has always been considered as a method of last resort and not a market valuation. However, in continental Europe the cost approach (DRC) is often the principal method of valuation and has always been considered to produce market value. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of this change to valuation practice in the UK. Methodology/design/approach - In this paper, we discuss the concept of market value and its relationship to DRC in an attempt to identify the principal areas of concern in the UK and, through the use of an Italian case study, show how the DRC approach can be adopted as an appropriate method (not basis) for calculating Market Value. Findings - It is probable that most valuers will still provide the DRC valuation using exactly the same calculation as they did before. They are likely to provide the same (relative to the valuation date) figure; the difference is that they will feel less easy about the robustness of that figure Originality/value - It is argued that the UK market has, for too long, hidden behind DRC being a basis of value that UK valuers now feel uncomfortable in reporting DRC as market value. They are uncertain with the valuation figure. However, this uncertainty can be addressed in other ways and a suggested "solution" to help the valuer overcome their discomfort with the market valuation is proffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper critically reviews the motivations for introducing different connected healthcare to support Assisted Living in older and other vulnerable groups. The aim is to develop a new approach that will be sustainable in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology involves a consideration of assessment criteria currently being employed and the resulting costs and limitations in providing a person centred approach. The implications of introducing new technologies such as plesiocare and mCare are then considered. Findings – It was found that one of the most cost-effective applications of technology is in the support of informal carers but the telecare equipment that they are offered may not be the most appropriate. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited by a lack of formal risk assessments that are person centred. The implications include the need for improved training in assessment processes and access to a wider inventory of technologies. Practical implications – Existing telecare services will need to change in order to adopt more plesiocare and self-care approaches and to engage more actively in the development of models based on mcare. Social implications – Governments and health ministries may achieve better and lower cost support for their ageing population by adopting a model that includes multiple layers of technology, including easier access to self-care and mCare technologies. Originality/value – This paper includes the first discussion on plesiocare and its relative advantages over telecare in supporting informal carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting national and local level governance of policies, cultivated within a strong tradition of active labour market policies); The Netherlands (where there has been a deliberate shift in governance towards the local level); and the UK (typified by highly centralized decision making in policy design but local variation in delivery). Findings – The comparison identified different paths of decentralization and examines how these processes interact and overlap with modes of centralization/coordination of policies. Finally, the paper demonstrates the interface between the modes of decentralization and centralization. Originality/value – The investigation of vertical changes in the governance of activation in three country case studies provides an original in-depth analysis of types and paths of decentralization and centralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on several news briefs related to recent developments concerning professional education and industrial training across the Europe. The British Government's White Paper, titled "Third Competitiveness," launched in June 1996, reportedly, shows a worrying comparison between training skills in Great Britain and those of its main European competitors. The paper includes The Skills Audit, the first ever Government-commissioned study comparing learning and skills in Great Britain and four of its competitors in the world markets. It is reported that a total of 109 educational projects are selected by the European Commission in the second round of the Socrates education programme. Language teaching, adult education, and open and distance learning form the focus of these projects. A voluntary code of practice, adopted by the European Commission, reportedly, aims to ensure that women and men are paid the same for work of equal value. A major research programme has been launched in Great Britain recently to study the knowledge and skills people will need for employment in the twenty-first century.

Purpose - The aim of this study is to analyze future changes of freshwater needs in the electricity production sector and to identify hotspots where future cooling water needs may not be fulfilled. Design/methodology/approach - To address the goals of this study, a scenario and simulation approach was selected to estimate water availability and water uses in Europe up to 2050. Two SCENES scenarios were selected to cover a wide range of water-related driving forces including future developments in population, GDP, electricity production, technological and structural changes, as well as climate change. Findings - Depending on the scenario, water withdrawals in the electricity production would increase by 68 percent or decrease by 33 percent between 2000 and 2050. At the same time, water availability at low flow (Q90) would decrease because of climate change in southern and south-eastern parts of Europe as well as in Ireland and the UK. Especially in these regions hotspots were identified where water is scarce and where growing water demand promotes water stress that may cause economic losses. Originality/value - This paper presents hotspots of the thermal electricity production sector in Europe. In these regions water shortages were expected to lead to water stress due to climate change accompanied by increasing water demand for cooling purposes and by competing water use sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to summarize the Group of Thirty's recommendations and explain how they relate to other concurrent financial market regulatory initiatives in the USA. UK, and Europe. Design/methodology/approach - The paper summarizes the report's four core recommendations, describes how they relate to recent reports by the US Treasury Department, the US Chamber of Commerce, and Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, and discusses how they may signal the direction of forthcoming domestic and coordinated international regulation. Findings - Momentum has been building for consolidation, increased oversight, and international coordination of the legal and regulatory framework that governs the financial industry. The report has an unabashedly pro-regulatory agenda. Originality/value - The paper provides helpful reference on the current direction of international financial institution regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments mediate, through their architecture of machinery and policy, access to rights and, by extension, to services. There is limited but growing recognition in both the UK and other European governments that individuals' power to negotiate this access is limited by the structural inequality of groups in certain named categories of disadvantage (inter alia, people with disabilities), and they are adapting their machinery to provide the support they require to 'level the playing field'. However, intersectionality (identities which cut across these recognised categories of disadvantage) prevents those affected from using such mechanisms effectively. Those whose disability impairs their mental awareness and understanding face an additional barrier. The paper explores how this limits the rights of those with both learning disabilities and mental illness, and looks at some of the ways in which this problem is being addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to look into Gabriel -- the Worldwide web server for those European national libraries represented in the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), providing a single point of access on the internet for the retrieval of information about their functions, services and collections. Above all, it serves as a gateway to their online services. Three national libraries emerged as natural partners in setting up a pilot project on behalf of the CENL membership as a whole Design/methodology/approach - Following the success of the Portico prototype, a development project was launched with the aim of creating a well-founded service and building up coverage of British Library services and collections by adding home pages for directorates and departments. Findings - The service has been developed through an international project involving the national libraries of the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Finland and Germany. Originality/value - Gabriel has the potential of becoming a model for collaboration in the networking field across a wide geographical area and among diverse institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents four papers relating to international aspects of bank marketing. Two of the papers describe the impact of American banks on Great Britain's corporate market for bank services and the concurrent internationalisation of British banks. The other papers report empirical findings regarding corporate use of bank services in Britain and Europe, the attitudes of decision makers and the purchasing processes followed when financial services are acquired. International banking has some prime areas that constitute its markets. One of the areas is that which forms the overseas markets for the domestic banks of various countries. For British banks all other countries except Great Britain represent overseas markets. In this sector of international banking the marketing strategies adopted in each market will be largely dependent on the banking regulations and conditions operating in that market. Since financial regulations differ to such a great extent throughout different countries, and the role of banks varies so much from country to country, no single strategy is adequate to cover all countries. In many ways services are more dependent on cultural norms than are products and therefore service industries find it more difficult to achieve significant market penetration in overseas markets.

The article talks about the papers published by the Center Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW), which focuses on the social work profession's interest to push for closer links to enhance its status in the U.K. and in Europe. The paper "Social Work Education and 1992," by Hugh Barr considers initiatives in the European Community for the benefit of social work education and training in U.K. The second paper, "Links and Exchanges," offers a guide to establish links and exchanges between social work education programs in Europe. The two other studies discuss a study in France and analyzes racism and anti-racism in the European Community.

Purpose: The aim was to identify the competencies professionals need to promote co-creation engagement within communities. Design/methodology/approach: Co-creation could contribute to building community capacity to promote health. Professional development is key to support co-creative practices. Participants were professionals in a position to promote co-creation processes in health-promoting welfare settings across Denmark, Portugal, France and United Kingdom. An overarching unstructured topic guide was used within interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and creative activities. Findings: The need to develop competencies to promote co-creation was high across all countries. Creating a common understanding of co-creation and the processes involved to increase inclusivity, engagement and shared understanding was also necessary. Competencies included: How to run co-creation from the beginning of the process right through to evaluation, using feedback and communication throughout using an open action-oriented approach; initiating a perspective change and committing to the transformation of co-creation into a real-life process. Practical implications: Overall, learning about underlying principles, process initiation, implementation and facilitation of co-creation were areas identified to be included within a co-creation training programme. This can be applied through the framework of enabling change, advocating for co-creative processes, mediating through partnership, communication, leadership, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation and research, ethical values and knowledge of co-creative processes. Originality/value: This study provides novel findings on the competencies needed for health promoting professionals to embed co-creative processes within their practice, and the key concerns that professionals with a position to mediate co-creation have in transferring the abstract term of co-creation into a real-world practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments and conclusion to a previous article titled "Case Studies of British Engineering Companies Engaged in Industrial Co-operation With Eastern European Foreign Trade Organizations," published in the April 01, 1980 issue of the periodical. The companies visited during the survey described in this paper are considered to be a typical cross-section of British engineering companies engaged in industrial co- operation with the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, during the 1970s and the late 1960s. The majority of the executives interviewed had several years of experience in trade and industrial co-operation with Eastern Europe and consequently represented invaluable information sources on the practical aspects of these marketing operations. Industrial co-operation agreements are frequently far more complex to establish than the straightforward sale of a licence or capital equipment, from the viewpoint of the necessary co-ordination of aspects of design, development, production, costing and finance. For these reasons, it is probably better to base industrial co-operation agreements with Eastern European organisations on previous market knowledge in that region.

Purpose - This chapter aims at exploring the effects of globalization on technological change by focusing on the determinants of the direction of technological change at the firm level of analysis by following the induced technological change approach implemented by the localized technological change hypothesis. Methodology/approach - In the empirical analysis, we proxy the direction of technological change by means of the changes in the output elasticity of capital and analyze how it is affected by the changes in factor market costs and firms' attributes for a panel of 1,113 companies listed on UK and the main continental Europe financial markets for the period 1995-2003. Findings - We find that small firms are more likely to introduce capital-intensive technological changes while large firms will introduce skill-intensive technological changes. Research limitations/implications - Our model provides a clear analytical framework that interprets the growing skill intensity of the advanced economies as the result of the introduction of new technologies induced by the growing globalization and biased by the characteristics and the types of innovation strategies of the firms. Originality/value of paper - In so doing, the chapter adds to the existing literature in that it first explores the effects of globalization upon factor markets and, second, it investigates the effects of the direction of technological change within a microeconomic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employee involvement in management’s decision making has been a challenge for the European Community (EC) since its beginning. Already in view of the six founding countries the European Economic Community (EEC) was confronted with a significant degree of diversity between the different Member States. This diversity increased with every enlargement, in particular when in 1973 the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland became members and much later in 2004 when Central and Eastern European (CEE) States together with Malta and Cyprus were included. This diversity in the area of employee involvement in management’s decision-making is well documented. Therefore, it may be sufficient for the purpose of this paper to only give some broad indications. There are countries, as for example Germany, Austria, the Netherlands or Luxembourg, which have systems with a dual structure where employee involvement in management’s decision-making institutionally is separated from the trade unions, even if in actual practice the links between the two are significant. In other countries employee involvement is based on two pillars: both the trade unions and a body elected by all employees. This is the case in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. In the Scandinavian countries employee involvement is exclusively in the hands of the trade unions. In countries like Ireland and the U.K. employee involvement for a long time was more or less a taboo subject for the trade unions. The fear of being compromised in opposing measures through their industrial strength prevented them becoming integrated into the mechanism of decision-making in companies. Only recently--mainly due to the EU input--this attitude is changing gradually. Italy has developed an interesting mixture of its own. Even if it may be possible--as just indicated--to discover or ganisational similarities between the systems of different countries, the still remaining differences should not be overlooked. It has to be added that in some countries employee involvement in manage ment’s decision-making is exclusively based on legislation (as for example in Germany), in others exclusively on collective agreements (as for example in Scandinavia) and again in others on a mixture of both (as for example in Belgium). The subject matters for employee involvement are as different as the degree of participation, ranging from mere information to co-determination. And only some countries know employee involvement in company boards whose systems again differ significantly from each other. In short, there is a wide spectrum of patterns of employee involvement in management’s decision-making and some countries where such involvement is virtually unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents news briefs in Great Britain as of December 1, 1974. Findings of the report "Woman and Work: Sex Differences and Society," published by the Department of Employment; Provisions of the Education Bill; Publication of a booklet setting out guidelines to assist companies in establishing planned programmes of training for personnel involved in applying computer controlled systems to industrial processes; Growth in the number of higher education students.

Discusses abstracts of papers on occupational training in Europe, compiled as of March 1990. Issues of performance improvement, staff development and management development within the framework of corporate human resources planning published in the 'International Journal of Manpower'; Executives' views on management education in Great Britain, published in the 'Leadership & Organization Development Journal.'

This article presents two discussion papers from the Centre for Research in Industrial Democracy and Participation. Joint Consultation Revisited by Mick Marchington and Roger Armstrong,this paper continues the debate about the aims, scope and extent of Joint Consultation in Great Britain. The authors argue that a renaissance of consultation has indeed happened during the last decade. On the basis of their own research they take issue with other viewpoints that regard consultation as being recently marginalised or revitalized. Instead they look at the strategic gains management and workforces get from this form of participation. Introducing New Technology: A Participative Approach by Vittorio Di Martino and Peter Cressey the authors of this paper adopt a European perspective on the issue of participation and the introduction of new technology. They outline the social partners' preferred approach to this issue. They also detail recent research undertaken into employee involvement, again concentrating on European research of a comparative nature. The paper argues the need for a more specific approach to new technology too often research has been conducted at an abstract or general level without investigating the reality and potential for participation within companies.

The article reports that the New Economics Foundation has published the European Happy Planet Index which revealed that Europe's human well-being services is less efficient compared to its delivery forty years ago. The Index highlights carbon efficiency which illustrates changing perspectives on health and wealth of European nations. The Index also ranked Great Britain 21st out of thirty European countries on its efficiency in delivering well-being services. The Index was published in association with Friends of the Earth.

This article presents a study which examined how attitudes to maternal employment at different stages of child rearing vary across and within eight nations in the European Union: Great Britain, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Spain, using data from the 1994 International Social Survey Programme. The prevalence of married women in the labor force undermines the traditional gender division of labor, whereby men are responsible for the public sphere of paid work and women are confined to the private sphere of home life. Increasingly women, even those with small children, are in paid employment. Women are now expected to contribute to the family income, but they are also expected to place family needs first. Based on the results of the study, cohort, education and women's labor force participation all have a marked effect on attitudes to maternal employment, with support for mothers working associated with more recent cohorts, higher education and the labor force participation of women or the wives/partners of men. Women's employment status has a stronger effect on the attitudes of men than of women. One unexpected and interesting finding was the dramatic effect that the labor force participation of women has on women's attitudes to maternal employment in the Netherlands. Austria is the only country where endorsement of maternal employment is consistently suppressed by its relatively conservative gender-role attitudes. Meanwhile, Ireland and Spain are very comparable with Germany in having low support of mothers working when the youngest child is of school age.

The permanence of regional trading blocs is primarily influenced by the relative costs and benefits of membership. Whilst these are complex and wide ranging, such effects are unlikely to be captured by financial contributions to regional budgets. Budgetary contribution to the EEC is discussed, but the analysis inevitably leads to a balance of trade approach to membership. Whilst econometric exercises to locate the source and extent of balance of payments deficits and surpluses have produced some disaggregated estimates, a variety of sources are used to extend the direct cost concept of UK membership of the EEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States that store location is considered to be the most important decision a retail organization can make. Location as a critical factor in success; Literature on store location models; Methods used by grocery retailers in Great Britain to assess store location sites; Discussion on the use of existing store location models for geographical areas of Eastern and Central Europe.

This article outlines the broad characteristics of integrated shopping centers across Europe. The analysis and interpretation of internationalizing trends in retailing have tended to concentrate on issues and opportunities at the business. However, contemporary retailing activity brings with it a range of other phenomena connected with the requirement for profitable operation; ranging from specific infrastructure needs to the search for appropriate trading environments. One of the most significant components of the contemporary retailing is the purpose-built shopping Centrex, often marketed and managed as a single entity. The second peculiarly European development has been the growth of the retail warehouse park, which accounted for much of the out-of-town growth in Great Britain. There are estimated to be over 2,000 retail warehouses in Great Britain. The number of retail parks, planned clusterings of stores, rose from one in 1982 to 90 six years later and at least another 60 were expected to open in 1990.

This article will attempt to address an area of investigation which has been largely neglected by retail marketers, namely the physical distribution and logistics strategies of European retailers. More specifically, it will be argued that the strategies which have evolved in the UK are unique and differ markedly from those of their continental European counterparts. These differences have a particular significance to retailers with pan-European aspirations, especially for UK retailers entering Western European markets and for continental retailers wishing to reap the relatively high profit margins which can be obtained in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to review and assess distribution strategies in the machine tool (MT) industry in Europe, drawing on a postal survey of UK MT importers undertaken in 1991. Interest in the topic derives, first, from a comparative dearth of information on the role of agents, distributors and sales subsidiaries in the export marketing channel; second, from the increased interest in European distribution in the light of the Single European Market and pan-Europeanism; and third, from the machine tool perspective, with the changing basis of competitive advantage from hardware to marketing and software capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis that country and industry differences influence the structure of the characteristics which distinguish between non-exporters and exporters was verified. After a series of interviews and pre-studies, a four-part questionnaire was designed including 194 independent variables. In summer 1982, it was sent to a random sample of 1,500 managing directors of British and German food-processing and mechanical engineering firms. The industries were selected for their contrasting characteristics. In the present research, a further refinement was introduced by adding the industry dimension as a control factor. As two industries were analysed, mechanical engineering and food processing, the number of discriminant analyses doubled compared to the previous country-specific analysis. For example, British exporters are now further divided into those stemming from the British mechanical engineering industry and those belonging to the British food-processing industry. The results of the analysis showed that the extent of the differences is smaller than anticipated. This is because most of the differences can be viewed as facets of six key dimensions. They apply in differing strength to all established export behavior profiles and lend support to a wide range of contributions in the export behavior literature.

In view of the accredited advantages and disadvantages of East-West industrial co- operation agreements and the growth of this type of business arrangement during the last decade, it was decided to supplement the small number of already published accounts of the experiences of British companies in this field of business activity with case study material from a further sample of British firms. The case studies cover various branches of the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and transport equipment industries, which appear to account for some 40 - 60 per cent of the total of East-West industrial co-operation agreements and also cover the various types of co-operation activity usually associated with these industries.

The article examines the outcomes when flexible working practices were introduced into four European countries. Three elements of flexibility, contract flexibility, working time flexibility and task flexibility, were examined. The effect of introducing flexible working hours on the relationships and responsibilities, among and between management, trade unions and employees, is analyzed. The case studies of British, Italian and Swedish companies provide some evidence of the emergence of particular practices in the introduction and maintenance of flexible working which are more likely to ensure that all three groups see it as a positive feature of human resource management.

The article assesses the impact of European industrial relations policy on the industrial system of Great Britain. In terms of organization, there are divisions between trade unions in Europe as there are in Great Britain, but these divisions arise for different reasons and have a different effect. Generally at the heart of the division between British unions is the pursuit of membership. The strength of British unions and their financial health is intrinsically tied up with their ability to recruit and retain their members. Therefore, union security is of major concern. There are three approaches of workers in Europe: reformist, traditional communist, and new revolutionary. The reformist approach is the social democrat approach. The aim is the survival of capitalism but with limitations. It is a cooperative approach aimed at preserving the structure of society. The traditional communist approach aims to change the capitalist system but it increasingly seeks to do this by being integrated into the system so it can be changed from the inside. The revolutionary approach aims at nothing less than overturning existing society and replacing it. It is pure socialism together with anarchy and often appears to be aided by elements from the Christian Democrats, perhaps because of its appeal to certain academics and intelligentsia, high civil servants and students and for reasons already stated. Employers' associations are much more important in collective bargaining in Europe than in Britain. In general, major labor matters are settled either at national level, industry level or regionally by employers' federations and the trade unions.