Employment Restructuring and Flexibility in Austrian and Danish Banking

Abstract

The literature on the impact of new competitive forces on `traditional' industries in Europe tends to emphasize a rather unidirectional line of development. Concentration of capital will pave the way for structural adaptation leading to rationalization and redundancies. In contrast, this cross-national study of the Austrian and Danish banking industries, which have very much in common in terms of their contextual characteristics, indicates rather diverse approaches to pressures for change. Even though competitive pressures are similar, differences in employment restructuring and flexibility prevail between the two national sectors.