AbstractThe article presents an overview of some of the significant developments in British industrial relations in 1992 from a managerial perspective. Against a background of deepening recession and redundancy, and some attempts to reorganize more flexibly, company approaches to equal opportunities, to training and development and to employee involvement (both individual and collective) are outlined. Interpretation reveals contradictory trends and a contrast between the rhetoric and the reality of innovation. Unless greater future emphasis is given to meeting employee as well as organizational needs, further problems seem likely to emerge.