Demographic changes: Conflict in Germany

Two important demographic trends for advanced industrialised nations are: rapidly ageing populations and falling birth rates (Buck and Dworschak 2003; Henseke et al. 2009; Kirpal and Kühl 2006; Thun et al. 2007). These shifts are expected to lead to a rise in the average age of workforces and a long-term decline in the size of the working population (Köchling 2003). Demographic change, as a topic, has increasingly gained currency in recent years, especially since 2012 has been designated the European Year for Active Ageing by the European Commission. The European Commission has stated that the aims of their initiative are to improve working conditions and increase labour market participation for older people. However, these aims must be placed within the wider political-economic context of the global financial/economic crisis or, to be more sceptical, alongside a European-wide dismantling of the welfare state. This article examines some of the challenges that demographic change has presented in Germany. As the article discusses, one outcome of demographic shifts is a shrinking pool of workers to finance a growing number of pensioners. Germany makes an interesting case in how the tension between the German Stakeholder Model and the neo-liberal agenda of the Merkel government is reflected within the demographic change problem

Managing ageing workforces: Empirical evidence from Germany

Demographic change (ageing populations and falling birth rates) affects all industrialised nations, including Germany. Traditionally, the problems associated with managing numbers of older workers were mitigated by the Altersteilzeitgesetz in Germany. Under this law, firms were offered financial support by the government to offer early retirement (Müller-Camen et al. 2009). As these provisions came to an end in 2010, the need to find alternative solutions to displacing older workers, as well as ensuring their better integration into the organisation, should have become a more pressing challenge for German companies. Additionally, studies suggest that the long-term use of early retirement, as a displacement tool, has led to the creation of an early exit culture, whereby older employees expect to be offered early retirement and will be resistant to working after sixty years of age (Teipen and Kohli 2004). Having said all this, studies focusing on demographic change in Germany posit that, despite the fact that German managers are aware of the problem of demographic change, they do not perceive it to be a matter of urgency (Kirpal and Kühl 2006; Müller-Camen et al. 2009; Thun et al. 2007). Indeed, researchers suggest that firms are not doing enough, or even anything, to prepare themselves for the changes in labour market demographics.This article summarises empirical findings from German organisations regarding the challenges of managing older employees

Flexible working in Germany

The spread of low-wage, low skill, low value-adding jobs within the third sector has been well documented in liberal market economies such as the United Kingdom. It may be expected that Germany, characterised as a coordinated market economy (CME), wherein “interaction among firms and other actors [and] depend[s] more heavily on non-market relationships” (Hall and Soskice, 2001: 8), would have a different story to tell. However, the expansion of the German tertiary sector has opened the door to the increase of low wage, low skill jobs, similar to those in the UK. Furthermore, labour market deregulation and reforms to employment contracts have similarly had an impact on the experience of work in Germany, especially for women workers. This article considers the extent to which state reform and other changes in the labour market have contributed to the decline in traditional working relationships and altered the landscape of the German labour market

The 21st Century Assessment: Measuring 21st Century Skills among Middle School Students

First Student Poster Presentation. Presenters: Annahita Ball and Hilary Drew - "the 21st Century Assessment: Measuring 21st Century Skills among Middle School Students".The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Impact evaluation workplace employment relations survey and european social survey: Final report to the ESRC

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) to undertake an impact evaluation of the Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS) and the European Social Survey (ESS) focusing on the extent to which research utilising WERS and ESS data has influenced policy and practice across the UK to date. Specifically, the research was designed to:• Identify and study specific policy and practice impacts, and the potential for the same arising from WERS and ESS data• Study the mechanisms through which WERS and ESS have achieved and could in the future achieve impact through the use of data by other organisations and individuals based in the UK.• Identify the range of organisations and/or individuals who have made use of the WERS and ESS, and the ways in which the data have been used within the UK.• Study the role of think tanks, and other intermediaries and knowledge brokers, as transmission routes through which WERS and ESS data may have influenced policy, through comparative activity, identify best practice and lessons for impact generation within research infrastructure investments.• Critically reflect upon the methods used to assess and identify research infrastructure impact.This report summarises the findings of the study

Understanding apprentice pay: Final report

This is the final report from a study of apprentice pay in the UK. It uses a mixed methods approach. Econometric analysis of the Apprentice Pay Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings confirms findings of previous reports that the apprentices are more likely to be paid below the minimum wage than other workers, and that this is most likely to occur when they move into the second year of an apprenticeship.The study also carried out interviews with apprentices, trainers and employers in the hairdressing and childcare sectors. Apprentices rely strongly on others to provide any information about wages. Whilst we did not find any evidence of deliberate underpayment, there exists a 'low pay culture' and strong power dynamics in the examined sectors which mean that there are very weak mechanisms for checking for and correcting underpayment.The report recommends that(1) ASHE and the APS be taken as lower and upper bounds for non-compliance estimates, respectively(2) information about minimum wages be targeted specifically at this group(3) the development of a smartphone enabled 'app app' to facilitate wage checking by the most vulnerable apprentice

How CESR informs student research:The engaging in critical business enquiry module at UWE

This article from the July 2013 edition of the CESR review outlines the objectives behind the UWE UG1 module Engaging in Critical Business Enquiry

Understanding apprentice pay: Interim report

This is the interim report from a study of apprentice pay in the UK. It uses a mixed methods approach. Econometrics analysis of the Apprentice Pay Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings confirms findings of previous reports that the apprentices are more likely to be paid below the minimum wage than other workers, and that this is most likely to occur when they move into the secodn year of an apprenticeship.The study also carried out interviews with apprentices, trainers and employers in the hairdressing and childcare sectors. Preliminary results are reported here, which indicate that apprentices rely strongly on others to provide accurate information about whether the correct wage is being pai

How do knowledge brokers work? The case of WERS

A resource-based view of organizations suggests that internal knowledge is amongst the most important sources of competitive advantage. Regardless of whether these ideas are exaggerated, it is not necessary to buy into them all to accept the significance of knowledge as a resource. Knowledge is complex, multi-faceted, intangible, often tacit and specialised; consequently, it is difficult to manage exchange. This has implications for narrowing the gap between academic research and policy impact, and for developing policy-relevant academic research. One way of improving the exchange and flow of knowledge is to use knowledge brokers (KBs), who bridge the gap between creators and users of knowledge. The function of a KB may vary according to context. In the case of specialised knowledge, some have gone as far as to suggest that KBs are part of a creative process, where knowledge-broking may be a way of codifying, translating and sharing difficult-to-disseminate knowledge. This idea has been expanded upon in the literature with KBs engaged in the process of the creation of new knowledge.This paper examines how one particular study, the Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS), uses KBs to bridge the gap between research and practical knowledge. the findings indicate that KBs in both government and academia have been essential in the effective deployment of WERS research in policy-making and commercial practice