This article explores the transfer of ideas and practices from a developing country to a developed one, adapting Boisot's codification and diffusion of knowledge and cultures to British and Nigerian industrial relations (IR). A survey of British managers reveals that North-to-South transfers dominate IR knowledge, while South-to-North transfers are persistently constrained by ignorance, paucity of literature, ethnocentrism, romance with history and tradition, political unwillingness, complexity, and cultural discontinuities. Increasing publicity, afforded by greater publication in international journals, is seen as one possible solution toward mitigating the current low rates of South-to-North transfers of IR ideas.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Akinsanya, A. A.
1984. Multinationals in a developing environment: A study of business-government relations in the third world. New York: Praeger.
2.
Bamber, G. J.
, and R. D. Lansbury. 1987. International and comparative industrial relations. London: Unwin Hyman.
3.
Boisot, M. 1982. A framework for analysing the diffusion of technical knowledge: The chemical industry in South East Asia. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis.
4.
Boisot, M.1986. Markets and hierarchies in a cultural perspective. Organisation Studies7:137-160.
5.
Damachi, U. G.
1978. Theories of management and the executive in the developing world. London: Macmillan.
6.
Dore, R.
1973. British factory—Japanese factory: The origin of national diversities in industrial relations. Berkeley: University of California Press.
7.
Dunning, J. H.
, and J. A. Cantwell. 1987. The IRM directory of international investments and production. New York: Institute of Research on Multinational Corporations and Macmillan.
8.
Fajana, S.1991a. Ascriptive influences on pay and employment conditions: A study of British multinationals and indigenous employers in Nigeria. International Journal of Human Resource Management2:345-358.
9.
Fajana, S. 1991b. Managerial philosophies and transfer of industrial relations practices: The case of British multinational companies in Nigeria. Ph.D. thesis, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
10.
Fashoyin, T.
1992. Industrial relations in Nigeria: Development and practice. London: Longman.
11.
Flanders, A.
1965. Industrial relations: What is wrong with the system?London: Faber and Faber.
12.
Gould, W. B.
1984. Japan's reshaping of American labor laws. Cambridge: MIT Press.
13.
Hyman, R.
1975. Industrial relations: A Marxist introduction. London: Macmillan.
14.
International Labor Organization
. 1977. Social and labour practices of multinational enterprises in the petroleum industry. Geneva: IILS Press.
15.
Jackson, M. P.
1985. Industrial relations. London: Macmillan.
16.
Kerr, C. C.
, 1960. Industrialism and industrial man. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
17.
Michel, R.
1959. Political parties. New York: Dover.
18.
Matsuura, N.1984. Japanese management and labor relations in U.S. subsidiaries: A survey. Industrial Relations Journal15:38-46.
19.
Millward, N.
, and M. Stevens. 1986. British workplace industrial relations, 1980-1984. The DE/ESRC/ACAS Surveys. Hants, UK: Gower.
20.
Osigweh, C. A. B.
1989. Organizational science abroad: Constraints and perspectives. New York and London: Plenum.
21.
Otobo, D.1988. The Nigerian general strike of 1981. Review of African Political Economy22:65.
22.
Pelling, H. A.
1976. A history of British trade unionism. London: Macmillan.
23.
Poole, M.
1986. Industrial relations: The origins and patterns of national diversity. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
24.
Rogers, E. M.
1983. Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
25.
Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations (Donovan Commission). 1968. Report, Cmnd 3623. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
26.
Stopford, J. M.
, and T. Turner. 1985. Britain and the multinationals [IRM series]. London: Wiley.
27.
Terry, M.1983. Shop stewards through expansion and recession. Industrial Relations Journal14:49-58.
28.
Todaro, M. P.
1977. Economics for a developing world. London: Longman.
29.
Whyte, W.F.
1983. On the need for new strategies. In Worker participation and ownership, edited by William F. Whyteet al.New York: ILR Press, Cornell.
