ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore and profile the extent to which there exists an interrelationship between the disciplines of employment relations (ER) and international human resource management (IHRM). We do this by considering the scholarly research that has been conducted in both arenas, and also by exploring three unique sources of data, in which questions regarding the intersection of these disciplines can be readily examined. In so doing, this chapter contributes to the broad, ongoing discussion around the convergence or divergence of employment practices following from the ascension of globalization (see, for instance, Katz and Darbishire 2000; Mills et al. 2008). This discussion has typically relied on considering variations in market economies as a starting point for comparing this disciplinary intersection (i.e. Hall and Soskice 2001), though more recent research has rejected the field's tendency towards compartmentalization of this kind (see, for instance, Hyman 2009). Less has been written where the multinational company (MNC) has been used as the initial point of reference (Brewster et al. 2013), though some research, particularly within the IHRM discipline, has begun to adopt the MNC as the key unit of analysis.
