National Industrial Relations Systems Research Articles

Diffusion of HRM to Europe and the Role of US MNCs: Introduction to the Special Issue

There has been considerable debate both among scholars and policy makers concerning the extent to which national systems of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM) systems are converging. In Europe this debate has concerned both convergence within Europe and convergence between European systems and those of non-European states, most notably the USA. The convergence thesis rests essentially on the notion of competitive isomorphism: that is as firms are increasingly faced with similar competitive environments globally, they will adopt similar (optimally efficient) management practices. For example, a significant part of the European convergence debate concerns whether, in Europe, collective employee relations, mediated by representative institutions are being replaced by HRM management systems designed to establish a direct and individualised relationship between organization and employee. Some commentators have attributed this trend to the influence of a model of HRM derived from practices in the USA and increasingly adopted in Europe. Multinational companies (MNCs) have become of particular importance to this thesis. First, they are often seen as an important channel for the transmission of management practices from one country to another, in particular from the USA to Europe. Second, the transferability of management practices from one national context to another is a matter of considerable practical importance for managers in MNCs. Third, the economic importance of large MNCs and their border spanning nature means that their activities have particular salience to legislators and regulators. This special issue addresses these concerns in three ways. First reviews of the development of HRM in the USA and in Germany and evidence on convergence of HRM practices in Europe help us consider both what may be being transmitted from the USA and the evidence for its transmission. Second three papers, provide different kinds of evidence on the convergence or barriers to convergence of HRM practices between Europe and the USA and the role of MNCs in that transmission. Finally, the special issue concludes with three reviews of in all six books each of which are relevant to the concerns of this special issue.

Corporate governance, industrial relations and trends in company‐level restructuring in Europe: convergence towards the Anglo‐American model?

ABSTRACTThis article addresses the issue of how patterns of corporate restructuring are shaped by national systems of corporate governance and industrial relations. Using case studies of three multinationals, it sheds light on the question of whether the way in which restructuring takes place is converging towards the norms characteristic of the Anglo‐American model. It is argued that considerable changes are evident among national systems, but that these changes are not all occurring at the same pace, nor are all countries moving in the same direction. Consequently, the way that multinational companies restructure their activities varies markedly according to both the business system in their country of origin and the various host systems in which they are located.

Towards ‘Flexicurity’? Balancing Flexibility and Security in EU Member States

This paper focuses on the ‘flexibility-security nexus' in employment and the labour market in four EU-member states: Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The starting point of the paper is the concept of ‘flexicurity’, viewed as a particular way of dealing with this nexus. The paper explores differences in the emphasis put on types and levels of flexibility and security, as well as the particular trade-offs between forms of flexibility and security. Co-ordinated decentralisation and flexible multi-level governance in national Industrial Relations systems seem to represent important preconditions for the introduction of flexicurity arrangements, as the Danish and Dutch cases show.

Capital Mobility and the Embeddedness of Labour

The paper discusses claims that radical restructuring of capitalism in the late 20th century fundamentally changed class relations. It challenges abstract presentations of space and time transformation, in particular contesting the logic of generalised, asocial concepts of spatial compression. Changes in capital mobility are dynamic and contradictory processes and spatial and temporal transformations are experienced inherently unevenly. Movements of capital are themselves made by workers. Moreover, the economic weight and social labour involved in transport and communications increased rather than decreased during the last two decades of the 20th century. The paper concretises this critique, evaluating claims that the “national” scale and national systems of industrial relations became less important, through a preliminary investigation of data of levels of industrial action. It shows that even amongst key sectors of labour such as transport and communications workers, who might be thought especially implicated in global transformation, the significance of the national scale for labour activity shows no sign of diminishing.

Employment Practices of Multinationals in the Spanish and German Quick-Food Sectors: Low-Road Convergence?

This article examines the labour relations practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the German and Spanish quick-food service sectors. The demand for greater profitability and lower costs is leading to a greater standardization of work methods across a widening range of food service operators, resulting in the gradual elimination of more expensive, skilled and experienced workers, and an increasingly non-union approach in employee relations practices. The outcome involves increasing standardization, union exclusion, low trust, low skills, and low pay. These sectoral characteristics appear to outweigh both country-of-origin and host-country effects. The findings therefore confirm continuing variation within national industrial relations systems and the importance of sectoral characteristics and organizational contingencies in understanding MNC cross-border behaviour.

European social dialogue: an instrument in the Europeanisation of industrial relations

This article offers a historical and analytical overview of the development of the European social dialogue at the cross-sectoral and sectoral levels, and examines the potential of European social dialogue. In spite of the substantial institutional and cultural differences between the national industrial relations systems, the national social partners are increasingly facing the common challenges of globalisation and European integration. The European social dialogue has emerged as one of the potential instruments at the disposal of the social partners and European institutions for facing these common challenges. This article presents an evaluation of the development of European social dialogue to date and raises questions about future developments.

The adoption and diffusion of high-performance management: lessons from Japanese multinationals in the West

This paper draws on surveys and case studies of management practices in Japanese transplants in the US, the UK and France to study possible impediments to introducing high-performance work practices. It shows significant national differences in the adoption of specific practices and in their clustering. While the exercise of power by labour and management and public policy result in nationally specific hybrid arrangements, the results demonstrate a common pattern in types of traditional practices that survive and of Japanese practices transferred. The most commonly adopted practices (such as teamwork and quality circles) relate directly to management interests in productive efficiency, while the retained traditional practices most often relate to worker compensation and internal labour market structures. National industrial relations systems appear to be important in the balancing of efficiency gains for managers and economic benefits for workers. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Globalisation versus relations industrielles « à la belge » ?

The article deals with current developments in industrial relation – traditionally organized within a national framework –, in the context of growing globalization. More precisely, it examines what happens to the Belgian system of industrial relations confronted to globalization. The paper first sums up the main challenges that globalization represents for national industrial relations systems. Second, it looks to those systems and refers to recent research to show how they keep their national specificity even though they are not static. They face external pressures but react with their own specific dynamics. Applied to the Belgian case, that means that the industrial relations system does not copy a foreign model nor follows an European standard. On the contrary, it remains characterized by a high level of institutionalisation, a high degree of internal co-ordination and a significant rate of union affiliation. In sum, the industrial relations « a la belge» keep their characteristics, while they integrate cross-national movements. Finally, the paper examines the specific case of multinational companies, in which interdependencies between global trends and local institutional conditions are frequent. Based on exploratory research conducted in Belgian subsidiaries of foreign groups in the chemical industry, it illustrates the complex interactions between local industrial relations and decision-making at the top of the multinational company. As such, multinationals materialize interdependencies between local and global levels. The two levels are intricate and their interactions result in local adjustments under constraints.

Europeanization and Means of Interest Representation by National Business Associations

European integration has profound effects on national systems of industrial relations. To date, most empirical research has addressed the role of unions and organized labour; there has been far less attention paid to the impact of Europeanization on the strategic outlook and representational activities of organized business interests. This article draws on a survey of Dutch trade and employers' associations to argue that such organizations are in the process of adjusting their external affiliations to the demands of effective agitation in a multilevel governance system. However, the national level remains the most important focal point in the representational strategies of business associations.

German Industrial Relations in Transition

A central characteristic of the German industrial relations system until the fall of the Berlin Wall had been its post-war stability and continuity. Indeed it was regarded not only as a significant contributor to Modell Deutschland, meaning the socio-economic and political stability which had marked Germany in the period up to 1990, but also as a model to be imitated and from which other national industrial relations systems might learn. The stability of the German industrial relations system depended on a number of interrelated factors. Firstly, there is a coherent legal framework of labour law giving distinct norms. Legislation defines the parties and outcomes to collective bargaining, the relationship of plant-level industrial negotiations between management and employee representative bodies, such as the works council, and there is an extensive codetermination legislation providing for employee participation. Secondly, employers' associations and trade unions enjoyed over many years a high degree of organisational concentration. The latter are based on the principles of industrial unionism and as these covered extensive industrial sectors the power relationship between trade unions and employers' associations were regulated at sectoral level. Finally, the German system has the distinctive characteristic of a separation of plant-level industrial relations from the sectoral level. The result of these features was to construct a system of industrial relations that demonstrated a high degree of consensus and social partnership, facilitated through mechanisms of consultation and mediation which avoided overt conflict.

German Industrial Relations in Transition

Lowell Turner, Fighting for Partnership, Labor and Politics in Unified Germany, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998, paper £12.95, x+195 pp.Lowell Turner (ed.), Negotiating the New Germany. Can Social Partnership Survive?, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997, paper £14.50, xi+271 pp.A central characteristic of the German industrial relations system until the fall of the Berlin Wall had been its post-war stability and continuity. Indeed it was regarded not only as a significant contributor to Modell Deutschland, meaning the socio-economic and political stability which had marked Germany in the period up to 1990, but also as a model to be imitated and from which other national industrial relations systems might learn. The stability of the German industrial relations system depended on a number of interrelated factors. Firstly, there is a coherent legal framework of labour law giving distinct norms. Legislation defines the parties and outcomes to collective bargaining, the relationship of plant-level industrial negotiations between management and employee representative bodies, such as the works council, and there is an extensive codetermination legislation providing for employee participation. Secondly, employers' associations and trade unions enjoyed over many years a high degree of organisational concentration. The latter are based on the principles of industrial unionism and as these covered extensive industrial sectors the power relationship between trade unions and employers' associations were regulated at sectoral level. Finally, the German system has the distinctive characteristic of a separation of plant-level industrial relations from the sectoral level. The result of these features was to construct a system of industrial relations that demonstrated a high degree of consensus and social partnership, facilitated through mechanisms of consultation and mediation which avoided overt conflict.

The reluctant bargainers? McDonald’s, unions and pay determination in Germany and the UK

There is growing evidence that multinational enterprises (MNEs) increasingly develop organisation‐based employment strategies, which promote the transmission of employee relations practices across national borders. This article provides an analysis of one MNE’s employee relations practice and what appears to be its preference for operating, where possible, independently of national industrial relations systems. The findings, which draw on a UK/German comparison, raise a number of questions about the adequacy of even highly juridifed national systems to protect workers rights in practice.

National Industrial Relations Systems and Transnational Challenges: An Essay in Review

This essay in review examines a series of recent texts which address the tension between economic internationalization and national industrial relations systems. The notion of `globalization' identifies real and substantial developments which challenge established forms of employment regulation, but these developments are contradictory and create new possibilities for strategic intervention.

Unions' Responses to Teamwork: Differences at National and Workplace Levels

This article compares trade unions' responses to teamwork in one Spanish and two British factories of the same multinational company. According to some authors, different national and local systems of industrial relations are currently converging around a global model of `cooperative dependence', with teamwork as one of the elements. However, the research reported in this article reveals significant differences in union responses to teamwork, at both national and local levels. These differences show, in turn, the continued vitality of national and local frameworks of labour regulation, and indeed the unions' capacity to exploit international constraints in order to reinforce their position in the industrial relations system.

European Collective Bargaining: A Virtual Prospect?

Recent developments in the EU have given renewed impetus to the prospect of European‐level collective bargaining. Greater divergence within national systems of industrial relations alongside the emergence of European‐level structures is reflected in the emergence of nascent forms of European collective bargaining at three levels: interprofessional, sector and Euro‐company. Best described as ‘virtual collective bargaining’, these embrace two processes: the conclusion of ‘framework agreements’ or ‘joint opinions’ which establish bargaining parameters for national‐level actors; and ‘arms length’ bargaining, where the parties do not negotiate directly, but where bargaining outcomes are increasingly anticipated and co‐ordinated across countries. EMU is likely to accelerate these processes.

Review Article: On Founding Choices and Strategic Choice

This review article concerns both comparative texts with a focus on national industrial relations systems and works concerned with difficulties faced by unions today. The author considers that one important aspect to be taken into consideration, both in describing the systems and in assessing the present challenges, concerns the `founding choices' which helped establish the modern institutional orders. She also suggests that more attention be given in comparative work to building up knowledge in a cumulative way.

Union Response to Teamwork: the Case of Opel Spain

The article examines the unions’ response to teamwork in Opel Spain in the light of the different theoretical analyses of this change. It is argued, through this case study, that both the unions’ responses and the theoretical approaches to teamwork, are partially derived from particular features of the national systems of industrial relations from where they stem.

The `Culture-Free' Organization? Industrial Relations in European Authorities

How far can organization-specific industrial relations coexist with national industrial relations systems? This article adopts a novel perspective on this question by looking at organizations which are outside any national framework of industrial relations. Two case studies of employment conditions, labour relations and trade union structures in European authorities reveal industrial relations systems independent of those of the country in which they are based, and primarily dependent on organization-specific factors such as the institutions regulating employment conditions in the organization.

Trade unions, management and European works councils: Opening Pandora's box?

This paper makes a contribution to the ongoing debate on transnational worker representation in light of the European Works Council (EWC) directive. Three issues in particular are highlighted which we believe contribute to the organizational and political developments of EWCs. First, we present some variables which have stimulated worker representatives to 'network' with each other across national boundaries prior and parallel to the EWC directive. Looking at factors other than the EWC directive can give us a greater appreciation of the likely interactive nature of employee representatives, trade unions and management in the new forums. Second, and in particular, we explore whether certain elements of existing national industrial relations systems either stimulate or limit interest by employee representatives in forming and aligning themselves to transnational forums. Given that the German and British industrial relations systems are so different, and that the divergence between them is seen as an impediment to EU attempts to promote the growth of an integrated European system (Crouch, 1993), the research compares developments in these two countries. Third, the paper explains how management is responding to developments in transnational worker representative forums within the context of divergent industrial relations systems. We highlight in particular the way management is able to utilize institutional aspects of national systems in conditioning transnational worker representation in the newly structured forums. Such responses, we argue, raise questions regarding our understanding of convergence and divergence in industrial relations.

Multinational Companies and the Future of Collective Bargaining: A Review of the Research Issues

Growing European economic integration has encouraged restructuring within multinational companies (MNCs), involving the development of organization-based employment systems, changing forms of management control and a shift in bargaining power. These developments are promoting the decentralization of collective bargaining and challenging established structures of multi-employer bargaining. How far MNCs withdraw from multi-employer bargaining will however be shaped by the different national industrial relations systems. Future research should examine the involvement of MNCs in national systems of multi-employer bargaining and the organizational, procedural and substantive aspects of their industrial relations activities at European level. Such a programme of cross-national research raises important issues of funding and collaborative organization.