Industrial relations research in the UK has been significantly shaped by academics from the IROB group. The Industrial Relations Research Unit (IRRU) is world renowned for its historic and continuing leading role in the analysis of industrial relations through theoretically informed, empirical enquiry. A major focus of the present phase of the Unit's research programme is international employment relations, with a strong emphasis on comparative, and especially European issues. IRRU currently houses the European Industrial Relations Observatory. Recent research grants include studies of multinationals and the employment policies of their subsidiaries in the UK, as well as the impact on multinationals on industrial relations in Eastern and Central Europe. IRRU has a flourishing seminar series and regularly receives international visiting scholars.

Members of the group have also established the Innovation, Knowledge and Organisational Networks (ikon) Research Unit. ikon provides a home for research projects that focus on inter-organisational relationships and networks and their role in the development of technological innovation and innovative approaches to management and organisation. Current major ESRC funded research under the Evolution of Business Knowledge initiative examines the nature of innovation in biomedical industries in the UK and the USA. ikon is also associated with the ESRC Centre in Warwick Manufacturing Group as well as with Warwick Medical School. ikon runs a seminar series and regularly receives visitors from overseas.

Warwick Organisation Theory Network (WOTNet) builds on the long-standing tradition in IROB of critical organisation theory which is concerned with the interdisciplinary study of organisation in its broadest meaning. This is reflected in the current range of research interests in WOTNet. Current areas of interest include philosophy and organisations, the construction and diffusion of management knowledge, institutional theory, globalisation and the comparative study of organisations, the aesthetics and spatial construction of organisations, ethnomethodological and discursive accounts of organisations and the role of professional service firms, such as lawyers and management consultancies. WOTNet organises regular seminars and workshops.

Professor Jacky Swan

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