ABSTRACT
Across the world, workplaces are experiencing a period of rapid change driven by factors ranging from technological developments and intensified competition to fashions in human resource management. There is considerable debate and disagreement as to whether these changes simply reflect the growing internationalization of markets and processes, or are part of a more profound phenomenon labelled globalization (Hirst and Thompson 1996; Ruigrok and van Tulder 1995). A detailed consideration of this debate is outside the scope of this chapter, and it is sufficient here to acknowledge that, irrespective of whether or not it is part of something deeper, the internationalization of markets and processes is occurring in many sectors of economic activity. There is growing recognition by governments, management and workers that the ability to compete and succeed in this new world economic order is contingent upon many factors, not least of which is the skill of the workforce. This requires continuous investment in the training and re-training of the workforce to cope with, or even drive, organizational and productive change.
