9 - Conclusions

Abstract

Corporate- and industrial-level economic structure has been shown to be an important determinant of employees' earnings. Organizational, technical, and market factors all contribute to this role. This chapter discusses the role of economic structure in terms of the resources it provides to employees for the attainment of improved working conditions. This approach has produced many new insights into the relationship between economic structure and working conditions. The economic structure comprises three sets of factors: organizational factor, technical factor, and market factor. Each of these factors defines structural situations faced by labor at the workplace that result in either increased vulnerability or increased opportunity for labor to improve working conditions. Based on this interpretation, it has been argued that, whereas the type of market factors stressed by previous interpretations might be crucial for the survival and growth of the company, internal organizational factors and technical factors are more important for defining resources and vulnerabilities for workers and; therefore, are more important than market factors are in influencing labor force outcomes.