In Employment Relations the authors translate years of experience, with the help of interesting vignettes, real life examples and connections with popular culture, into a critical understanding of the topic that brings the field to life.

Conceived by Chris Grey as an antidote to conventional textbooks, each book in the 'Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap' series takes a core area of the curriculum and turns it on its head by providing a critical and sophisticated overview of the key issues and debates in an informal, conversational and often humorous way.

An excellent supplementary text for Employment Relations and HRM students or anyone interested in a short, succinct book on the subject of Employment Relations.

About the Author
Tony Dundon is Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland; and Visiting Professor at the Work & Equalities Institute (WEI), Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK; and a Visiting Honorary Professor at University of St Andrews Management School. Tony's research areas include employment relations, human resource management and organisational performance, employee voice and trade union organising. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), former Chief Examiner for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Consulting Editor for the International Journal of Management Reviews (IJMR) and International Advisory Board Member of Work, Employment and Society (WES). Tony has held visiting positions at Sydney University; Deakin University, Melbourne; Toulouse Business School, France; and Queensland University of Technology. His books include Understanding Employment Relations, (2nd edition, McGraw Hill, 2011); A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about employment relations (Sage, 2017), The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations (Routledge, 2018), Case Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management (Elgar, 2020), and Handbook of Research on Employee Voice (2nd edition, Edward Elgar, 2020). Niall Cullinane is senior lecturer in HRM and Employment Relations, Queen's University Management School. He has published previously in Economic and Industrial Democracy, Work Employment and Society, Industrial Law Journal and Human Relations. Adrian Wilkinson is Professor at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia and is Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and an Academic Fellow at the Centre for International Human Resource Management at the Judge Institute, University of Cambridge. Adrian has authored, co-authored and edited some 30 books, over 150 articles in refereed journals and numerous book chapters. Recent books (with co-authors): The Oxford Handbook of Management (OUP, 2017), A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about employment relations (Sage, 2017), The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations (Routledge, 2018), The Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management (Sage, 2019), The Future of Work and Employment (Elgar, 2020), Case Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management (Elgar, 2020) and the Handbook of Research on Employee Voice (Elgar, 2020.) He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK and a Fellow of the Australian Human Resource Institute. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

Reviews

An accessible introduction to the interdisciplinary field of employment relations that also sheds light on broader social and economic dilemmas we face. The authors are provocative - hitting the important tensions and contradictions facing working people today - with rich anecdotes from popular media and culture that bring the underlying academic research to life.

-- Rosemary Batt

This book provides an elegant, insightful and concise introduction to the field of Employment Relations. It is essential reading for anyone entering the field as a student and is an equally essential aid for anyone teaching in the subject area.

-- Edmund Heery
So, is the book 'fairly interesting'? Definitely. It is a delight to read a work that explains employment relations in an accessible and educative way while demonstrating the importance of the topic and its fundamentally conflictual nature. The book serves as an excellent introduction to employment relations for students, but will hopefully also inspire professors and lecturers to take new and interesting approaches to teaching the topic. It certainly inspired this reviewer. -- Stan De Spiegelaere

This is an essential introduction to the field of employment relations. Highly accessible and engaging, the key dynamics of employment relations are charmingly unpacked with quirky illustrations and cultural reference points. It is no arid textbook, but it packs a powerful punch that locates contemporary employment relations within a wider societal, political and economic context and the rising levels of inequality that need to be challenged.

-- Mark Stuart

I really did enjoy and chuckle reading this. And boy did it take me back! Without wishing to sound too irreverent I can only conclude: Despite having rubbish jokes and a terrible taste in music, the authors have written a book that makes ER genuinely interesting.

-- Dr Peter Dwyer

This book is short and reasonably cheap but also intensely interesting, informative and entertaining! The authors convincingly demonstrate that employment relations are important not only for anyone in today's workforce but also for how social wealth and income are distributed throughout society. It should be on every business school's reading list.

-- Russell Lansbury

Dundon, Cullinane & Wilkinson's A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Employment Relations may indeed be short and quirky. More importantly however it is substantial in content, balanced in approach and characterised by an engaging contemporary orientation, addressing as it does precarious work, low/zero hours contracts and the impact of technology and robotics on work and working lives. It also provides a critical and informed analysis of the impact of globalisation and financialisation. I have no doubt that students will like it. Who couldn't like an ER text that uses "Johnny Rotten's sneer" to illustrate the growth of radicalism in the 1970s?

-- Dr Patrick Gunnigle



Book Information
ISBN 9781446294116
Author Tony Dundon
Format Paperback
Page Count 168
Imprint Sage Publications Ltd
Publisher Sage Publications Ltd
Weight(grams) 190g