Introductory

Abstract

The four papers in this section deal with adjustment to technological and social change on the part of enterprises, labour unions, and employees. The first three authors are concerned with detailing and analysing the actual impact of change, while the final paper is more normative in approach and sets forth the personnel and industrial relations policies which individual enterprises should follow in the programming of technical changes and manpower adjustments. The authors write from different national and international perspectives — the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — and consequently their analyses and conclusions must be considered within the environmental and institutional framework in which they write. The reader will still, however, discern common threads which run through all four papers and which have general applicability to similar situations in different countries.