The precise relationship between an employee and employer is often ambiguous within complex organizational boundaries. This book re-evaluates the way employment relations are conceptualized and examines employment conditions in non-union organizations.

The authors present a detailed analysis of the conditions and patterns of employment relations in both small and large non-union firms. They assess the impact of regulation, managerial ideology and market influences on employer strategies to avoid unionization. Using social and psychological exchange, the book concludes with an assessment of the capacity of workers to act as an agent of change in these non-union relationships. The implications for worker mobilization, trade union expansion and employer strategies are also considered in the light of detailed case study analysis.

'Dundon and Rollinson offer a compelling assessment of how the employment relationship is made and modified in the absence of a trade union.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School

' This is a masterly analysis that demonstrates the complexity of non-union employment relations and the inherent contradictions therein.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School

‘This book is one of the few pieces of research in the area on non-union employment relations, and as such makes an important contribution to current dates on the future of the field … [it] achieves a worthwhile outcome and the authors should be congratulated.’ – The Journal of Industrial Relations

'Dundon and Rollinson offer a compelling assessment of how the employment relationship is made and modified in the absence of a trade union.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School
' This is a masterly analysis that demonstrates the complexity of non-union employment relations and the inherent contradictions therein.' - Jonathan Winterton, Toulouse Business School

Tony Dundon is Lecturer in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, and research director for High Performance Work Systems, Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (CISC), National University of Ireland, Galway. Derek Rollinson is Principal Lecturer in Employee Relations, Organisational Behaviour and Organisational Analysis at Huddersfield University Business School. His main research interests are in the internal dynamics of discipline and grievance handling and control in organisations.