Investment in personnel and FDI in Belarusian companies

We examine trends in investment in personnel in Belarussian enterprises and the impact they have on companies’ capacity to attract FDI and modernise. Others have argued in favour of the economy’s robust fundamentals, using macro-level data. They have suggested that Belarussian industry has attracted considerable FDI, due in part to high investment in human capital. Our findings, based on micro-level data from Belarussian enterprises in 2009–2014, demonstrate that investments in personnel have decreased since the global financial crisis and are suboptimal, reducing industry’s capacity to attract and retain FDI. Management has limited ability and inclination to address these problems, due to government pressure. We conclude that the model may be becoming less sustainable as a result

The transformation of work and industrial relations in the post-Soviet bloc: 25 years on from 1989

The uprisings of 1989 in the Soviet sphere were momentous in their political impact. Examination of this prolonged transformation is timely. We progress from case study analysis of the workplace – important in the early stages of transformation – to reflective overviews which consider the accumulated experience of a quarter of a century of post communism. Our overview studies highlight, for example, aspects of gender difference within the frame of ‘winners and losers’. The commonalities of ‘state capture’ are revealed across the states and geographical differences emerge in post-communist ‘recovery’ which highlight processes of uneven and combined development. Finally we identify relationships between state, labour and capital which stand outside the economic prescribed orthodoxy and the expected convergence of East with West. Instead of convergence to liberal economic values and practices we find crony capitalism associated with clientelism and mafia crime forming the backdrop to institutional failure

The state and company management in Belarus

The chapter analyses changes in the level of decision-making autonomy of state-controlled and private companies operating in Belarus under the conditions of increasing institutional concentration. We find that the excessive regulatory burden still allows for some enterprise-level autonomy in investment decisions, particularly for private companies, while state-controlled companies have to resort to using their informal connections to secure the ability to operate semi-autonomously. The findings thus challenge the thesis on extreme rigidity of Belarusian regulatory system and shed light on certain management practices at the company level

Compulsory reduced working time in Belarus: Incidence, operation and consequences

This article examines compulsory reduced working time (CRWT) in five Belarusian factories, to assess its impact on employment relationships and evaluate arguments about ‘Soviet legacies’ and labour ‘patience’. Local use of CRWT increased between 2001 and 2012, and took a form more inimical to worker interests, thereby differing from official macro statistics. Managers expressed discontent at being pushed by state policy to use CRWT, but used it as a disciplinary tool. Workers perceived worsening work relationships and threats of collective response were in evidence. Arguments about ‘Soviet legacies’ and labour’s ‘patience’ therefore currently appear inappropriate

Labour management in Belarus: transcendent retrogression.

Labour management practices at enterprise level in Belarus are more negative for workers than under the Soviet system. Welfare has largely disappeared, as has Soviet-style informal bargaining; wage payment may be in kind; training is minimal; job insecurity is extreme and trade unions perform a corporatist role. Thus, as Burawoy argued, ‘involutionary retrogression’ has indeed taken place, but in what may be denominated a ‘transcendent’ form