Involvement, participation and partnership: review of the debate and reflections on the Irish context

Involvement, participation and partnership: review of the debate and reflections on the Irish contex

Bearing all the hallmarks of oppression: union avoidance in Europe's largest low-cost airline

Ryanair is now Europe’s largest low-cost airline. It is also one of the most controversial, due to its outspoken boss, its cost-containment strategies, and its hostile relations with organized labor. Ryanair has consistently denied accusations that it is antiunion, stating that it respects the right of workers to organize and even claiming to be a champion of its employees’ right to non-unionization. However, this claim does not hold up in the face of extensive evidence of union suppression. This article addresses such evidence, particularly, the various methods by which Ryanair has avoided and suppressed unions. In Ireland, Ryanair successfully crushed an organizing campaign by the country’s largest union, the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union, after a lengthy and bitter strike. The only other union continuing to challenge Ryanair is the Irish Airline Pilots Association. However, its efforts recently suffered a major setback when the Supreme Court ruled that Ryanair’s nonunion “employee representative committees” were a form of collective bargaining, allowing the company to affirm its nonunion status

Why Ireland? a qualitative review of the factors Influencing the location of US multinationals in Ireland with particular reference to the impact of labour issues

The encouragement of foreign direct investment (FDI) represents a key plank of industrial policy in Ireland. This paper considers the impact of labour issues on the decision of US multinational corporations (MNCs) to locate facilities in Ireland. Drawing on data gathered in ten major US corporations, and from executives employed in the main industrial promotions agencies, this paper evaluates the relative impact of labour issues on the location of MNCs. While our findings point to the critical significance of Ireland’s low corporate tax regime in attracting US FDI to Ireland, they also identify the relative impact of issues such as labour supply, quality and cost, and broader human resource management factors such as labour flexibility and trade union recognition, on the location decision of inward investing MNCs

Performance management

Performance managemen

Organisational learning in multinational companies: explaining inter-organisational variation

This paper addresses the extent to which multinational companies (MNCs) deploy practices to facilitate organisational learning and the reasons for inter-organisational variation in sodoing. Using data from 260 MNCs in Ireland, we find that comparatively large numbers of firms have practices in place to facilitate organisational learning across their global operations. Most notably, we find almost half of all MNCs have a formal policy on organisational learning, while more than six in every ten MNCs in Ireland utilise three or more organisational learning mechanisms. In investigating inter-organisation variation with respect to our organisational learning dimensions, we test a number of hypotheses involving nationality, sectoral, MNC and HR factors. Our results show that the international HR structures are significant factors in explaining organisational learning in MNCs. We also find support that employment size, sector and integration between the MNCs global operations are useful variables in explaining variation in the use of organisational learning practices in MNCs

Charting the contours of employment relations in foreign-owned MNCs: survey evidence from the Republic of Ireland

This paper reports findings from the first large-scale representative survey of employment practices in multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland. Using data from some 260 MNCs, it investigates the contention that foreign and Irish-owned MNCs differ in their approach to employment relations (ER). The paper finds evidence that Irish, UK and ‘rest of Europe’ MNCs are more likely to recognise trade unions, whereas US MNCs are the least likely to do so. More strikingly there is a growing trend of union avoidance amongst unionised companies through the establishment of new non-union sites. Differences between foreign and Irish-owned MNCs are also apparent. Overall, the evidence supports the view that a new orthodoxy is emerging in Irish ER whereby foreign-owned MNCs are introducing home country practices which are at odds with the more traditional pattern existing in Irish-owned MNCs

Subnational location capital: the role of subnational institutional actors and socio-spatial factors on firm location

Firms do not simply locate, but rather seek to accrue location‐based advantages such as knowledge, market insidership and resource utilization. Adopting the lens of social capital, this paper explores how subnational institutional actors facilitate location capital for firms. Using qualitative case study analysis of six multinational companies (MNCs), we highlight the important role of subnational institutional actors in fostering three dimensions of subnational location capital – structural, relational and cognitive. We show that subnational location capital, defined as the economic and social assets accessible through relationships within a subnational location, enable firms to derive advantages via subnational engagement. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the dynamic interaction of firms with subnational location, particularly the nuanced role of subnational institutional actors with MNCs

Firm-location dynamics and subnational institutions: creating a framework for collocation activities

The dynamic interaction between locational attributes and foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important condition for successful economic activity. Yet while significant research has identified the integral role of socio-spatial aspects to the duration, composition and performance of multinational enterprise (MNE) activity, there is limited understanding of how subnational regions coordinate with investment. This paper seeks to explore how subnational regions, and their composite institutions, function in coordinating - or not - to attract multinational investment and facilitate collocation advantages. Using case study analysis of two subnational regions within a single advanced economy, we illustrate the potential variation and implications of subnational institutional structure, posturing and engagement with FDI. Our findings are discussed in terms of the role of subnational variation for MNEs and insights to industrial policy for developed countries

Employee voice in multinational companies

Employee voice in multinational companie

Industrial relations in multinational companies (MNCs): double breasting and trade union avoidance in Ireland

Industrial relations in multinational companies (MNCs): double breasting and trade union avoidance in Irelan