The article argues that we need to pay more attention to the dynamics of the employment relationship if we are to understand current developments in labour markets human resource management, and labour institutions. The employment relationship is a socio-economic institution which has to satisfy the joint requirements of those who adopt it, both firms and workers. In the first section of the paper, I examine the structure of the employment relationship and the requirements that it must satisfy in order to be viable. In the next two sections, I trace out how this view affects our understanding of the dynamics of different kinds of human resource management systems at the workplace level, how it should refocus our approach to labour institutions, and in doing so, I also explore how the analysis can be applied to some of the emerging employment patterns, such as "project-based" employment, which at first sight might appear to challenge its foundations.
Employment systems; Employment relationship; HRM; Labour institutions; Work organisation
