Managing and working in Britain and France: An introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the key elements of our comparative study. We set out two broad hypotheses: first, that an understanding of the economy and working conditions is incomplete without knowing what happens within and across workplaces; and second, that ‘local’ factors play a key role in shaping the practice of workplace employment relations, but in a more nuanced way that is ordinarily portrayed in the literature. The chapter situates our study within the existing comparative literature, provides a brief portrait of the two economies, and introduces the WERS and REPONSE survey data that provides the basis for our comparative analysis.