The impact of private equity backed leveraged buyouts (LBOs) has attracted increased regulatory scrutiny in the past two decades. This reflects the private equity industry's growing economic importance, and also the increased activity of private equity firms beyond their traditional US and UK markets. Private equity's growing presence in continental Europe in particular has caused considerable public controversy in terms of implications for workers and labour unions. This paper explores the impact of private equity LBOs on three labour management issues central to recent debates: employment and wages; human resource management practices; and industrial relations. We concentrate on these aspects because the impact of private equity LBOs on labour management and workers' interests continues to inform debates concerning the appropriate regulatory framework in which the private equity industry operates.

Professor Chris Rowley, Director of the Centre for Research on Asian Management, was recently interviewed in the media in the Middle East on the important research undertaken on the unusual topic of maximising women's participation in the GCC workforce. The focus of the interview was in terms of the context of increasing levels of female education and growing numbers of female graduates.

It may come as no surprise to read that the UK's leading law firms discriminate on the basis of social class when recruiting but most law firms insist that they value diversity.

One question then is: whydo leading law firms persist in discriminating on the basis of social class? Read the full report to find out more.

It has recently been argued by some commentators that some companies have developed new weapons to fight unemployment in the recent global finaincial crisis, one of which is the use of so-called employees for "rent".