Collaborative relationships between firms have been growing in importance,

Describes the utility of supply chain partnerships as a mechanism for the diffusion of change in employee relations. Uses case study and survey evidence to explain the means by which this can be achieved. Examines data relating to both customer and supplier organizations in the manufacturing sector. Concludes that the customer‐supplier relationship can act as an agent of change in human resource management, particularly as they do not need to be artificially created, and can reach “peripheral” as well as “core” firms. Suggests that the local economic development agencies may be able to encourage the formation of networks of organizations in a particular industry and promote the spread of innovations in employee relations in this way.

In building relationships, how deeply do customers look into the internal activities of suppliers?

The paper aims to determine whether or not ceteris paribus women workers are less interested in joining trade unions than male employees by an analysis of the importance of sex for the individuaľs union membership decision. Cross‐tabulations and discriminant analyses are used to examine the Work Attitudes and Histories Survey of the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative of1986. An employee's sex is revealed to be related to propensity to unionize, a finding attributable mainly to women's concentration in low‐paid occupations and to the significantly lower favourability to trade unions expressed by female workers, compared with male employees.

This article attempts to establish the main determinants of an employee's involvement in trade unionism, and to explain the male/ female differential in union participation. Women, especially parttime workers, are less likely to participate in union meetings than men, which seems largely attributable to women's lower favourability to trade unions, although women are as likely as men to believe in the principles of trade unionism.