1,721,001 research outputs found
Varieties of workplace dualisation: a study of agency work in the German automotive industry
Full text linkThis article investigates the variation in workplace arrangements on agency work across four German automotive plants. The plants differ in terms of the proportion of agency workers, the length of their assignment, their function and their wage level compared with the permanent workforce. The article explores how the interaction between national-level deregulation, workplace power resources and the local political and economic context affects the bargaining outcomes achieved by works councils. Findings rely on interviews with human resource managers and labour representatives at workplace and sectoral level
How Do Employers Choose between Types of Contingent Work? Costs, Control, and Institutional Toying
Full text linkThe increasing variety of contingent work raises the question of how employers choose between various types of contractual arrangements. The authors review relevant Employment Relations and Strategic HRM literature and distinguish four types of contingent contracts along the dimensions of costs and control. They argue that employers are making choices based on cost and control constraints but are able to reshape these constraints through “institutional toying.” Their case study of a German manufacturing plant and R&D center illustrates the mechanisms of institutional toying, which are consistent with the literature on institutional loopholes and exit options. The article develops propositions that explain the diversity of contingent work arrangements and show how toying strategies enlarge the range of options available to employers.</p
Trade unions, bargaining coverage and low pay: a multilevel test of institutional effects on low-pay risk in Germany
Full text linkEmployment relations scholars argue that industrial relations institutions reduce low pay among the workforce, while the insider-outsider literature claims that unions contribute to increase the low-pay risk among non-union members. This article tests these expectations by distinguishing, respectively, between the individual effect of being a union member or covered by collective agreements and the sectoral effect of strong trade unions or encompassing collective agreements. Findings from multilevel logistic regression analyses of the German Socio-Economic Panel reveal that unions and bargaining coverage have distinct effects at individual and sectoral level. The analysis of their cross-level interactions provides partial support to both the insider-outsider approach, since non-union members are more exposed to the risk of low pay in highly unionized sectors, and to the power resource perspectives, since the probability of being in low pay in sectors with encompassing collective agreements decreases also for those workers who are not covered by them
Union forms: adaptation and inertia
No full textThis chapter reviews the different forms unions can take and have taken across time and space as they have adapted to changes in the labor market. When examining union ‘forms’, we focus on their internal governance structure, the constituencies they represent, and their repertoires of representation. Specifically, we draw on examples from Denmark, Italy, Germany, and the United States, which reflect traditional union typologies. For each country, we sketch the union forms as well as how traditional unions have changed over time. We show that some unions have changed their statutes and bargaining strategies, expanded their services, or set up new structures. Finally, we compare the trajectories of unionism and highlight the commonalities across countries as well as the differences due to the institutional context and the strategies of the main employment relations actors
Going Up-Skill: Exploring the Transformation of the German Skill Formation System
No full textThe German skill formation system has been undergoing significant changes over the last two decades and most recently we observed massive expansion of higher education vis-à-vis the ‘traditional’ dual vocational training, which stands in contrast with the notion of equilibrium that has accompanied the German skill formation system in the literature. Yet, while the institutional underpinnings of the traditional model have been subject to comprehensive scrutiny and theorisation – including analyses of recent patterns of change – it remains unclear what arrangements have become institutionalised as skill formation ‘moves up’ from the dual vocational training to the university system. The article suggests that a (dominant) pattern of state coordination co-exists with a segmentalist pattern: the state mobilised resources and coordinated the provision of high skills to the benefit of all companies and in particular of small and medium sized enterprises that have relatively fewer resources and capacity to train; in parallel, large firms, with more resources and a large internal labour market, met their high skill needs also without state-mediation, by establishing direct relationships with higher education institutions through dual study programmes
Dualisation as class conflict: The case of labour market and vocational training in Germany
No full textPopular accounts of labour market reforms in Western Europe have identified a process of dualisation over the last three decades, whereby service sector employ-ment has been deregulated while workers in the core manufacturing sector still en-joy high levels of employment protection and high wages. Two different labour market logics are thought to be in place between core and peripheral sectors and to co-exist in a stable equilibrium nurtured by the co-incidence of interests between capital and labour in core manufacturing sector, who jointly acted to safeguard workers in core sectors at the expense of peripheral service sectors. Building on the case studies of labour market and vocational training reform in Germany, this ar-ticle challenges this account. It is argued that processes of dualisation are best conceptualised as the contested outcome of a political conflict between capital and labour
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Challenge of External Work Arrangements for Industrial Manufacturing Unions in Germany and Italy
Full text linkWork externalisation has challenged the ability of industrial unions to represent workers along the value chain and sustain solidaristic policies, leading to the growing fragmentation of wages and working conditions. This article aims to complement institutionalist analyses of unions’ strategies towards peripheral workers by pointing at the role of the labour process. The authors argue that variations in the bargaining strategies and their outcomes for different types of peripheral workers can be explained by observing the extent to which the use of different external work arrangements for specific tasks challenges the logic of industrial unionism. The findings rely on a structured comparison of unions’ responses to the use of agency work and on-site subcontracting in four plants owned by two multinational companies in Italy and Germany
The Equality of Life Game: Examining Class-Based Privilege and Inequality in Workforce Entry Through Experiential Learning
Full text linkClass-based privilege and inequality remain defining features of contemporary society, shaping access to employment and career progression. Business schools, as gatekeepers to elite professions, often reinforce these patterns through implicit meritocratic assumptions and limited opportunities for perspective-taking. This article introduces Equality of Life, a tabletop simulation game designed to raise students’ awareness of how unequal starting positions—rooted in Bourdieu’s (1986) theory of economic, social, and cultural capital—affect career opportunities. Grounded in experiential learning theory and structured as a consciousness-raising experience, the game simulates the cumulative effects of class-based privilege and disadvantage, beginning at birth and culminating in the competition for an elite graduate job. Unlike traditional educational games that promote merit-based progression, Equality of Life deliberately subverts these mechanisms to create a deliberately unfair playing experience that highlights structural inequality. Evaluation data from two quasi-experimental studies demonstrate that playing the game increases students’ recognition of structural barriers. The game offers a practical and theoretically grounded tool for prompting business students to question dominant narratives and consider the structural conditions shaping workforce entry
Explaining divergent bargaining outcomes for agency workers: The role of labour divides and labour market reforms
Full text linkUnder what conditions can unions successfully regulate precarious employment? We compare the divergent trajectories of collective bargaining on agency work in the Italian and German metal sectors from the late 1990s. We explain the differences by the interaction between trade unions’ institutional and associational power resources, mediated by employers’ divide-and-rule strategies and by union strategies to (re)build a unitary front. In both countries, the liberalization of agency work allowed employers to exploit labour divides, undermining unions’ associational power and preventing labour from negotiating effectively. However, while Italian unions remained ‘trapped’ in the vicious circle between weak legislation and fragmented labour, German unions were able to overcome their internal divides. The different degree of success depended on the nature of the divides within the labour movements
Comparative institutional disadvantage:Small firms and vocational training in the British manufacturing sector in comparative perspective
Full text linkThis article asks why British manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggle to meet their intermediate technical skills needs. While the comparative political economy literature typically attributes the failure to train in Britain to collective action problems, we complement this perspective by pointing at the ill-conceived policy design of the quasi-market for vocational education and training (VET). In particular, we shed light on the role of training providers, as they respond to the incentive structure of the quasi-market, especially the output-based nature of standards and the system of funding distribution. To strengthen our argument, we compare the British case with the Italian statist system, which enables SMEs to access technical skills through school-based vocational education, and with the German collective system, in which SMEs develop skills through apprenticeships
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