One Company, Diverse Workplaces: The Social Construction of Employment Practices in Western and Eastern Europe

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
List of Tables......Page 10
List of Figures......Page 11
List of Abbreviations......Page 12
Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 14
Introduction: Multinationals and Employment Practices across Europe......Page 16
Multinationals’ approaches to the construction of employment practices......Page 19
The empirical case......Page 24
The argument......Page 26
Outline of chapters......Page 28
1 Constructing Employment Practices in Multinationals: A Framework for Analysis......Page 33
Understanding employment practices......Page 34
Organizational approaches to company behaviour......Page 36
Institutionalist approaches to company behaviour......Page 41
Micro-foundations of constructing employment practices......Page 43
Assumptions on behaviour and social interaction......Page 45
Actors and their attributes......Page 47
Social interaction......Page 50
Forms of social interaction......Page 54
Social interaction as means of constructing employment practices......Page 56
Conclusions......Page 58
2 One Multinational, Four Host Countries: On Diversity in Subsidiary Employment Practices......Page 60
Electra as case study......Page 61
Electra’s subsidiaries......Page 64
Hard employment practices......Page 67
Wage policy and wages......Page 68
Numerical flexibility......Page 69
External flexibility......Page 70
Internal flexibility......Page 72
Functional flexibility......Page 74
Soft employment practices......Page 75
Work organization......Page 76
Motivation, performance pay and employee participation......Page 79
Social rewards and fringe benefits......Page 83
Subsidiary employment practices and local standards......Page 86
Conclusions......Page 89
3 Channelling Corporate Values and Interests: Social Interaction within the Multinational......Page 91
Electra’s past legacy for current challenges......Page 92
Administrative heritage – the formation of corporate values......Page 93
The formation of corporate interests, organization and strategy......Page 95
Internal and external forces shaping Electra’s organization and behaviour......Page 98
Interaction between headquarters and subsidiaries......Page 101
Production issues......Page 102
Employment issues......Page 104
Interaction between Electra’s sister subsidiaries......Page 108
Analysis of social interaction within Electra......Page 110
Conclusions......Page 112
4 Building a Local Corporate Presence: Social Interaction between the Multinational and Local Societies......Page 113
Beyond the subsidiaries’ gates: Electra and the local industry structure......Page 115
Labour market actors......Page 120
Municipalities and local governments......Page 123
Citizens, media and other local actors......Page 126
Committed to being local?......Page 128
Conclusions......Page 131
5 From Bargaining to Dancing: Social Interaction between the Multinational, Local Workers and Trade Unions......Page 133
Management–worker interaction in Electra subsidiaries......Page 135
Electra and national industrial relations in Western and Eastern Europe......Page 139
Industrial relations in Electra’s subsidiaries......Page 143
Negotiating employment flexibility practices with subsidiary trade unions......Page 148
Analysis of social interaction between Electra and subsidiary employee representatives......Page 154
Conclusions......Page 161
6 Social Foundations of Trade Union Influence: Cross-Border Interaction of Unions and Employee Representatives......Page 163
Cooperation and competition in cross-border trade unionism......Page 165
Cross-border trade union interaction: a national and sectoral perspective......Page 168
Cross-border trade union interaction: a company-level perspective......Page 172
Institutionalized cross-border interaction: the European Works Council......Page 178
The EWC in Electra......Page 179
Informal functioning of the Euroforum: between friendships and antagonism......Page 181
Euroforum versus trade unions......Page 182
Two faces of cross-border interaction......Page 184
Conclusions......Page 187
7 Accounting for Diversity: The Social Construction of Employment Practices......Page 190
Uncovering diversity in employment practices......Page 191
Accounting for diversity......Page 194
Unfolding social interaction in Electra......Page 200
Electra’s corporate headquarters and subsidiary managements (α)......Page 201
Interaction among Electra’s sister factories (β)......Page 202
Electra’s interaction with local actors (γ)......Page 203
Interaction between trade unions and the European Works Council (δ)......Page 205
Complementarities in interaction forms......Page 206
Sustainability of social interaction for diversity in employment practices......Page 208
Conclusions......Page 209
8 Multinationals, Employment Practices and Institutional Change from below......Page 212
Implications of MNC behaviour and the social construction of employment practices......Page 215
Preconditions for social interaction: compatibility of actors’ interests with host-country institutions......Page 216
Embedding as institution building from below......Page 220
Reflections on the social construction of employment practices......Page 222
Appendix......Page 229
Notes......Page 233
Bibliography......Page 257
Index......Page 270