A German employee network and union renewal: the Siemenskonflikt

The paper shows how redundancies were resisted by Hi-Tech workers in a large German company. It details an employee network’s emergence to provide support to individuals and to pursue legal cases against the company, and analyzes the network’s norms and operation. The network operated in complementary ways to the union and works council, to achieve a favourable outcome. The case is used to test theoretical propositions derived from literature on Hi-Tech workers, union renewal and mobilization theory and it is suggested that mobilization theory requires further extension in several directions

Flexible working time and interest representation in German and British banking.

Chapter 1

US multi-nationals and the German industrial relations system

This paper critically reviews literature on the behaviour of US-based Multi National Companies (MNCs) in Germany in relation to the historic institutions of the German labour market works councils and industry wide collective bargaining. The German system is becoming increasingly company father than sectorally centred, and US based companies have reinforced a wing of German employer opinion seeking to further these developments. Surveys show US based companies generally accepting works councils and sectoral bargains but case study evidence also shows them seeking to weaken links with parts of the system external to the company. A typology is pro- posed and it is argued that many US based companies appear to follow a ‘formal compliance/content avoidance dichotomy’ tending to exacerbate the system's existing tendencies towards disarticulation. They also tend to explore all options available to them within the existing system. A research agenda is suggested

Consultation in a British utilities company: reinforcing the hierarchy?

This research note examines consultation in a British utilities company since privatisation in 1990, raising the general issue of how changing workplace requirements for representation can be met with varying degrees of success by different groups of workers and their unions. This can mean that existing hierarchies within workforces and between unions are strengthened

The management of trust-based working time in Germany

New developments in trust-based working time systems (i.e. systems whereby managers formally devolve their responsibilities for monitoring working time) in Germany are examined. A picture of these systems is presented and the main debates reviewed. It is argued that the successful introduction of such systems is contingent on a number of inter-related factors. These are: company size and management style, external and internal pressures and effective employee representation. It is concluded that such systems are most likely to be successful in larger organisations and that effective employee representation is a key requirement. Current circumstances are not necessarily conducive to the rapid spread of trust-based working time systems

Co-determination and working time accounts in the German finance industry

This article examines the workings of co-determination in the German finance industry through two case studies examining the introduction of working time accounts. It is shown that the accounts posed important new challenges for employees and works councillors that represented variants of long-existing negotiations around working time issues. The problems were clear and similar in both cases, giving rise to complaints to councillors, though not to managers. Councillors' responses differed in the two companies. In one, they successfully re-negotiated the agreement under which the accounts had been introduced. In the other, they did not succeed in doing so. The differences between the two representative bodies are analysed to reflect on a theory of employee representative influence

North American MNCs and their HR policies in liberal and co-ordinated market economies

We explore the landscape of HRM in North American MNCs which have been for long characterized as having an express preference for institutionalizing aspects of the home business system when operating aboard. Drawing upon institutional theory, both the USA and Canada are identified as liberal market economies. Building on this, we examine the HR preferences of subsidiaries originating in North America and operating in diverse liberal and coordinated market economies in order to test the extent to which the host context influences the pattern of HR policies and practices pursued, referring predominantly to the literature on USA firms. The results indicate that the pattern of HR practices pursued by North American owned MNCs varies widely depending on whether these North American owned MNCs are operating in liberal or coordinated market economies, lending support to the importance of context as a determinant of the likelihood of, and limits to, the transfer of HRM practices and preferences