Guest editorial
| Pages | 258-262 |
| Date | 03 April 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-02-2017-0042 |
| Published date | 03 April 2017 |
| Author | Jenny K. Rodriguez,Paul Stewart |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Guest editorial
Workplace regulation, employment and the state
This special issue focuses on questions and themes relating to workplace regulation,
employment and the state, and aims to highlight the ways in which the role of the state has
shifted as well as how different stakeholders engage with the notions of regulation that
consider its changing role. The relationship between workplace regulation, employment and
the state has traditionally focusedon the role of the state in addressing inequalitiesgenerated
by economic policies and processes (see e.g. Jacobsson, 2004). However, in the context of
economic globalisation, the statehas been a driver to changes to the globalpolitical economy
of labour. This has seen reforms to the state apparatus that have transformed it into both a
service provider and a control provider, effectively reconfiguring the role of the state from
regulator to facilitator in the creation of a new regime of control and employment relations
(Kuruvilla andVerma, 2006; Martínez Lucio and Stuart, 2011).As work organisations take on
more explicitroles as political and regulatoryactors, the need for new formsof regulation that
address the interplay between the transformation of the state and the increasingly dominant
role of private sector ideologies continue to emerge. Papers included showcase a range of
theoretical, methodological and empirical discussions that provide critical insights into these
issues, highlighting the ways in which the role of the state has changed in the articulation,
implementation and monitoring of regulation of work and employment. These allude to the
complexity of the role of the state and other stakeholders as a result of these changes.
Through theexploration of these issues, the specialissue contributes to extantliterature in the
areas of industrial relations, employment studies and HRM, not only identifying gaps in
existing knowledge and understanding, but also contributing new analytical angles and ideas
to set the future agenda for work in this area.
This special issueemerges from the Economic and Social Research Councilseminar series
“Regulation of work and employment: towards a multidisciplinary, multilevel framework”,
held in NewcastleUniversity (UK), StrathclydeUniversity (UK) and Monash University Prato
Centre (Italy) during the period 2013-2015. The seminar series looked to explore different
dimensions of the regulation of work and employment.This was accomplished by facilitating
dialogue between different stakeholders through the organisation of multidisciplinary
analytical forums to discuss the paradoxes and ambiguities related to competing and future
agendas of regulationof work and employment. The seriestook the important step of looking
at regulation from multidisciplinary, multilevel perspectives, framing discussions that
included a diversegroup of national and international speakers andparticipants. Participants
included academics from a range of disciplines (e.g. economics, law, employment studies,
HRM, psychology and sociology), geographical locations, and different career stages:
practitioners, policymakers and members of statutory bodies. The diversity of these groups
contributed to rich discussions about both the state of theory and research about the
regulation of work and employment, as well as the focus of policies and practices affecting
diverse stakeholders. In particular, the second seminar in the series focused on the changing
role of the stateand a fundamental outcome of thisseminar was the articulationof the need to
explore the role of macro-structures more comprehensively, such as the state, in shaping
frameworks for the regulation of work and employment, and how different stakeholders
engage with and respond to these frameworks.
Following up from these discussions this special issue captures ideas that look to
problematise them fromdiverse perspectives,showing changesin the role of both the stateand
stakeholders in terms of how they interpret, articulate and implement workplace regulation.
Employee Relations
Vol. 39 No. 3, 2017
pp. 258-262
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-02-2017-0042
258
ER
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