 Employment systems in the twenty‐first centuryPeter Gahan and Peter Turnbull British Journal of Industrial Relations, 2025, vol. 63, issue 1, 71-87 Abstract: In this article, we honour David Marsden's most important contribution: his Theory of Employment Systems (ToES). Grounded in standard economic analysis, ToES sets out to explain how a relatively small number of employment systems solve fundamental problems associated with open‐ended employment relationships (flexibility and opportunism). In the period since its publication, the employment relationship remains the dominant form of engaging workers; however, employment arrangements in the UK and elsewhere have been transformed, and employment systems in many settings more closely resemble configurations of rules that ToES predicted would prove unstable. While ToES does not explicitly integrate a number of important dimensions that define all aspects of employment systems, we show why Marsden's core theoretical insights retain analytical purchase as an explanatory framework. That said, taking a more sociologically and historically informed approach to understanding contemporary employment systems is required to comprehend the diversity of employment systems and how they evolve in the twenty‐first century. Date: 2025 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:63:y:2025:i:1:p:71-87 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article British Journal of Industrial Relations is currently edited by Edmund Heery More articles in British Journal of Industrial Relations from London School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC. |
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