PAUL THOMPSON is Professor of Management in the Department of Business Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of The Nature of Work, Working the System (with Eddie Bannon) and Work Organisations (with David McHugh). CHRIS WARHURST is Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour in the department of Management Studies at the University of Glasgow. His research and teaching interests focus on management and labour issues within the international economy.

• Introduction; C.Warhurst & P.ThompsonThe New American Workplace: High Road or Low Road?; R.MilkmanWork Organisation Inside Japanese Firms in South Wales: A Break from Taylorism; A.DanfordRenewal and Tradition in the New Politics of Production; M.Martinez Lucio & P.StewartEmotional Labour and the New Workplace; S.TaylorCapitalising on Subjectivity: Organisational Change and the New 'Model Worker'; J.Flecker & J.HofbauerThe Times they are a Changing: Dividing and Re-Combining Labour through Computer Systems; J.GreenbaumSoftening the System: Conflict and Contradiction in Computing Work; M.Beirne, H.Ramsey & A.Panteli'Bright Satanic Offices': Intensification, Control and Team Taylorism; C.Baldry, P.Bain & P.TaylorSurvivors Versus' Movers and Shakers': The Re-Construction of Management and Careers in the Privatised Utilities; K.MulhollandHospitals and New Ways of Organising Medical Work in Europe: Standardisation of Medicine in the Public Sector and the Future of Medical Autonomy; M.Dent.

'Eleven articles on a critically important subject for us all.' - Long Range Planning 'Overall, the book achieves its stated aim. It helps to ground us in reality. It does this in a subtle...way, by helping us to understand the present by looking to the future...With its liberal referencing, this book is recommended reading for those who recognise, not only the centrality of work, but also the essential part that work plays in our lives.' - Athol Barrett, Prometheus 'Based on really interesting empirical work - making for good teaching too.' - Dr A.M. Greene, University of Aston