Multinational enterprises and industrial relations: a research agenda for the 21st century

There is a critical need for fresh research into multinational enterprises (MNEs) because they ‘disproportionately influence the direction of change’ in the management of people (Batt et al., 2009: 474). There are around 82,000 MNEs in the world, involving more than 810,000 subsidiaries, employing approximately 77 million people and accounting for one-third of total world trade (UNCTAD, 2010). It is therefore unsurprising that MNEs can have significant effects on employment practices