Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2006): African Sociological Review

3- Modernisation and Migration: The Transformation of Labour Relations in the Global Automobile Industry

https://doi.org/10.57054/asr.v10i2.3689
Mark Anstey
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7449-1514

Corresponding Author(s) : Mark Anstey

mark.anstey@nmmu.ac.za

African Sociological Review, Vol. 10 No. 2 (2006): African Sociological Review

Abstract

The need to develop and sustain competitive advantage drives businesses to constant modernisation strategies. These have a powerful influence on the shaping of labour relations systems not only in enterprises and industries, but their nations of origin. New technology and systems of work organisation oblige change in labour relations arrangements. Imperatives for growth and profitability evoke searches for new markets, and themigration of production pushing businesses into political, economic and
cultural realities quite different to those of their nations of origin. In this article a brief history of the automobile manufacturing industry is presented to illustrate how forces for modernisation, market factors and migratory production strategies shape, and are shaped, by labour relations in a particular industry across nations through time. The rise of China as an automobile producing nation is likely to have profound implications for labour relations systems everywhere.

Keywords

drives businesses New technology modernisation
Anstey, M. (2006). 3- Modernisation and Migration: The Transformation of Labour Relations in the Global Automobile Industry. African Sociological Review, 10(2), 43–71. https://doi.org/10.57054/asr.v10i2.3689
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Author Biography

Mark Anstey

Labour Relations and Human Resources Unit
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Port Elizabeth
South Africa

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