IRRU's current research clusters around five themes. In addition, IRRU also contributes to advancing research methodology in employment relations.
An overview of IRRU’s current research is provided in our Annual Report

Europeanisation and internationalisation of employment relations

IRRU research addresses several linked issues. Deepening European economic and market integration, and the EU’s eastern enlargement, have evolving implications for employment relations. Research examines the ways in which national and local employment relations are being shaped by pressures from the regime competition which mobility of capital, labour and services prompts. It engages with the emerging European-level framework of employment relations, which embraces a range of innovative governance mechanisms. There is also a focus on multinational companies, as a key agent contributing to the growing international dimension to employment practice.
Current and recent projects

Equality, inequality and diversity in employment

IRRU’s research is concerned with inequality at work and labour market disadvantage. Research encompasses exploration of the sources of inequalities and investigation of the location, experience, organisation and representation of specific socio-economic groups within the workforce. Further areas of focus are legal regulation, public policy, and private (management-instigated and collectively bargained) initiatives aimed at addressing equality and diversity in employment.
Current and recent projects

Evolving forms of employee representation and voice

The changing landscape of employee representation and arrangements for employee information and consultation are both engaged with by IRRU research. Union membership decline, and a weakening of union influence, has stimulated initiatives aimed at reversing these trends including contrasting emphasis on union organising and partnership arrangements. New forms of employee representation are developing, linked to the introduction of statutory information and consultation (I&C) rights into the UK under successive EU regulatory initiatives. The functioning and impact of these new I&C arrangements is of central interest.
Current and recent projects

Small firms, payments systems and employment relations

There are two strands to IRRU research. First, despite growing policy emphasis on the contribution of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to economic dynamism, the connections between work organisation, employment practice and outcomes are still not well understood. A series of projects has assessed pay systems and the quality of jobs in SMEs. Attention is paid to the specificities of particular types of SME, and the influence of these in shaping the relationship between organisational practice and outcomes. The second strand addresses the development of wage flexibility more generally across the UK and other European economies. It examines the rise of various forms of performance pay, the extent to which these are jointly regulated and wider changes in wage bargaining arrangements.
Current and recent projects

Legal regulation of the employment relationship

The UK’s framework of individual employment rights has been considerably expanded over recent years, including the introduction of universal entitlements concerning pay and working time and significant widening of the workforce groups covered by equality legislation. IRRU’s research is socio-legal in nature, with a particular focus on equality law; the legal framework for representation and consultation; public dispute resolution mechanisms; trade unions’ legal mobilisation strategy; and the management of employment transfers. Some IRRU research projects under other themes cross-cut with this one.
Current and recent projects

Advancing research methodology in employment relations

IRRU contributes significantly to advancing research methodologies and methods in the field of employment relations. Three current aspects stand out. First, IRRU has been at the forefront in developing survey methodologies of researching organisations, moving from the workplace, to the company and then multi-national company level. Second, through a sustained series of research projects, IRRU’s research has refined methodologies for cross-country, comparative research. Third, building from a feminist critique of widely accepted methodologies, IRRU researchers have contributed to the elaboration of gender-aware approaches and methods. Activity on these and other methodological issues enriches IRRU’s role in training doctoral students and in developing early-career researchers.