This book examines how businesses manage their labour systems, and particularly how they manage the complex interaction of factors which give rise to instances of 'partnership' style relations between businesses and their employees. The book draws from the literature concerning 'Varieties of Capitalism' (VoC) and the different institutional and regulatory designs inherent in different types of political economy. The book is informed by a new and extensive set of empirical data from Australia that examines the activities of national and multinational business corporations, their outlooks and relationships with stakeholders, and relates these to new and evolving theoretical frameworks based in political economy and law. The book places the Australian regulatory model within this international debate, and assesses the extent to which the system does or does not fit into the general categorisation created in the VoC literature.

Preface; Chapter 1 Corporate Governance, Employment Systems and Workplace Partnerships in Australia; Chapter 2 Law and Regulatory Style in Australian Corporate Governance and Employment Systems; Chapter 3 Corporate Governance and the Management of Labour; Chapter 4 Attitudes and Outlooks of Australian Company Directors to Stakeholders; Chapter 5 The Interaction of Corporate Governance and Labour Management in Australian Companies; Chapter 6 Postscript;