Comparative Industrial Relations Research: Towards Reversing the Gender Bias

This paper seeks to begin the reversal of the gender bias in comparative industrial relations research which is still focused on comparing and contrasting the regimes that cover mainly male manual workers. There is little systematic evidence on industrial relations practices in private or even public services, for non-manual workers or for atypical workers. These employment areas are central for women's employment and are of increasing importance in the labour market, but few attempts have been made to compare industrial relations regimes by reference to the protection they afford to women. Taking into account industrial relations practice in these areas can change significantly the classification and estimated coverage of collective bargaining systems. By 'mainstrearning' gender issues it also becomes clear that current macroeconomic policy proposals have major gender implications that are ignored in current debates     

Industrial Relations Systems and US Foreign Direct Investment Abroad

Five readily distinguishable industrial relations systems are identified based on differences in education levels, hourly compensation costs and various government and collective bargaining constraints placed on management's freedom to set the terms and conditions of employment. A model of foreign direct investment (FDI) that incorporates these key industrial relations variables is then specified and tested against US FDI across a sample of nine industries and 33 industrialized and developing countries. The industrial relations system variables significantly influence US FDI abroad. In particular, education is negatively related to FDI across low skill–low wage countries but is positively related to FDI across high skill–high wage countries. Higher hourly compensation costs (apparently capturing higher productivity) are associated with greater FDI. Whereas government restrictions on layoffs, union penetration and centralized negotiation structures are negatively related to US FDI, the ratification of ILO standards and works council policies are positively related to US FDI. Based on these findings, the FDI attractiveness of industrial relations systems are compared and policy implications discussed.     

One Store, Two Employment Systems: Core, Periphery and Flexibility in China's Retail Sector

Research on 'flexible' or 'contingent work', derived primarily from manufacturing and production contexts in Western settings, has often been theorized in terms of a core-periphery model. Based upon ethnographic research on vendor representatives and regular store employees conducted at a multinational retail firm in China, we indicate that this model is insufficient to capture the complexity of employment arrangements in this context. This article delineates the coexistence of two employment systems and a quadrilateral relationship in which workers' interests sometimes overlap but often compete. Our research also indicates that institutional arrangements in China significantly affect the strategies that are open to firms and the consequent structure of employment relations.     

Institutions Are What Actors Make of Them — The Changing Construction of Firm‐Level Employment Relations in Spain

This article analyses the variation and change in firm‐level employment relations in Spain between the transition to democracy and the global financial crisis. Using three auto companies as case studies, I address a crucial puzzle in the institutional literature on comparative employment relations: How do employment relations change and vary, even when national employment relations institutions do not? This article argues that differences in actor ideologies shape the construction of national institutions at the firm level, which explains change and variation of employment relations over time and across cases. The study identifies four drivers of ideological change — generational change, leadership change, identity work and diffusion — that impact the variation and change in employment relations at the firm level.     

Developing a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship: The relative efficacy of economic versus social factors

This study develops and tests empirically a model of reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship from an importer's perspective. A conceptual model with two distinct paths to reciprocity is proposed with a set of economic and social factors that influence an importer's reciprocity in its relationship with foreign exporters. The model is tested with a sample of 200 importers who have purchased industrial products from foreign exporters. The results indicate that reciprocity in the importer-exporter relationship is more heavily influenced by economic factors than by social factors. Theoretical and managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

Collective Voice under Decentralized Bargaining: A Comparative Study of Work Reorganization in US and German Call Centres

This article compares the process of and outcomes from work reorganization in US and German call centres, based on four matched case studies in the telecommunications industry. Both German cases adopted high‐involvement employment systems with broad skills and worker discretion, while the US cases relied on a narrow division of labour, tight discipline and individual incentives. These outcomes are explained by differences in institutional supports for collective voice. Works councils in the German companies used their stronger participation rights to limit monitoring and encourage upskilling at a time when US managers were rationalizing similar jobs. Findings demonstrate that industrial relations institutions can have a substantial influence on employment systems in work settings characterized by decentralized bargaining and strong cost pressures.     

Employment,technology and industrial relations in the UK clearing banks: is the honeymoon over?

Employment in UK retail banking has begun to decline as all the major institutions shed workers. Technological, organizational and market-driven reasons for the job losses in the major clearing banks are discussed. Irrevocable long-term changes in employers' industrial relations and human resource strategies are identified as necessary accompaniments to pushing the current retrenchment through in the context of a developing general crisis in employment relations.     

现代企业雇佣关系模式的变革、冲突及其管理策略研究

外部劳动力市场主导的雇佣关系模式中的企业雇佣管理法则迥异于内部劳动力市场主导模式，新的雇佣关系模式破坏了雇主和雇员之间的心理契约，互惠关系被打破，企业在员工管理中面临四大在原有雇佣管理理念中难以自圆其说的两难问题。新的互惠关系的达成和维护成为雇佣关系达成新的平衡的关键。该研究认为，可雇佣性成为新的互惠关系形成的关键，围绕可雇佣性提升建立新的员工管理理念和系统成为企业在外部劳动力市场主导的雇佣关系模式中的雇佣管理策略。     

Counterpoising Collectivism: Performance-related Pay and Industrial Relations in Greenfield Sites

This paper addresses some of the industrial relations ramifications of performance-related pay (PRP) using empirical data from both new and longer established firms in the Republic of Ireland. Particular emphasis is placed on the adoption of PRP systems based on performance appraisal and the implications of such systems for collectivism in industrial relations. The paper concludes that the diffusion of such systems is indicative of increasing employer attempts to individualize the employment relationship and exclude union penetration. It is further argued that such PRP systems, irrespective of the motivation for their establishment, undermine the essence of collectivism and solidarity in industrial relations.     

Food sharing,redistribution, and waste reduction via mobile applications: A social network analysis

Food sharing mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular, but little is known about the new social configurations of people using them, particularly those applications that use consumers as voluntary intermediaries in supply chains. This article presents a social network analysis of a food sharing mobile application conducted in partnership with OLIO. The study focuses on longitudinal social network data from 54,913 instances of food sharing between 9054 people and was collected over 10 months. The results challenge existing theories of food sharing (reciprocity, kin selection, tolerated scrounging, and costly signalling) as inadequate by showing that donor-recipient reciprocity and balance are rare, but also show that genuinely novel social relations have formed between organisations and consumers which depart from traditional linear supply chains. The findings have significant implications for managers and policymakers aiming to encourage, measure and understand technology-assisted food sharing practices.     

From Core to Periphery? Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade-based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition primarily has induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core-periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density and fragmentation and an unfavorable public-policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and interunion coordination. We also argue that the government has not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve th e Philippines into a higher-value-added exporter.     

The Layering of Meso‐Level Institutional Effects on Employment Systems in Japan

Japan's corporate governance and employment relations systems have been under considerable pressures to reform towards a more Anglo‐American model, against a back‐drop of intensified global competition and slow economic growth over two ‘lost’ decades. But what is the relationship between these systems, and specifically, how does corporate governance structure condition employment relations practice? This paper adopts the ‘Systems, Society, Dominance and Corporate (SSDC) effects’ framework in order to contextualize and evaluate the outcomes of these pressures, particularly in the period following the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It reports case study data from various parts of the Japanese economy drawn from a series of firm‐based interviews and a variety of secondary sources. It is argued that there has been a strong degree of continuity in certain employment practices, such as lifetime employment, even in relatively new high technology firms, but that the pattern for other practices, such as seniority‐based pay, is more mixed with increasing differentiation between industries and individual organizations. We articulate a layered assessment of the varying SSDC effects at play in corporate Japan. This differentiation across industries and organizations is a function both of strategic choice (corporate effects) and also the increasing variation in the meso‐level institutional pressures that are experienced at organizational level; that is, the differentiation in the sources and nature of dominance effects that are relevant.     

Economic Integration and State Responses: Change in European Industrial Relations since Maastricht

The article analyses industrial relations change in the six largest EU countries since 1992 in relation to increased internationalization pressures. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis, it distinguishes between associational and state governance, and detects that despite a predominant, but not universal, trend of weakening trade unions and collective bargaining, no overall liberalization has occurred in the political regulation of employment (employment policies, welfare state, labour law, state support to collective bargaining, public sector). Rather than converging towards neoliberalism, industrial relations emerge as more politically contingent and dependent on multiple forms of power, which are affected by internationalization in different ways.     

The Politics of Partnership? Innovation in Employment Relations in the Scottish Spirits Industry

Perspectives that emphasize links between workplace innovation and broader HR policies, particularly of a 'mutual gains' nature, have become increasingly influential. This paper analyses the links and tensions between workplace change and industrial relations systems in the context of attempts to create a shop-floor politics of partnership during a period of corporate restructuring in two spirits companies. We argue that interface tensions between the employment relationship, the labour process and organizational governance are inextricably linked to the outcomes of partnership initiatives. While there are positive outcomes to more integrated approaches to partnership, a range of industrial relations issues, notably the ambivalent position of shop-stewards, remains problematic.     

Research Note: Identifying the Invisible Colleges of the British Journal of Industrial Relations: A Bibliometric and Social Network Approach

The academic field of industrial relations has gone through much change in the last 20 years. On account of the rapid decline in union membership in the USA and the UK, industrial relations, which historically has focused on the employment relationship, has been searching for a new intellectual base. By conducting a bibliometric analysis of the journal British Journal of Industrial Relations (BJIR), we uncover the intellectual bases for that publication outlet for two time periods, 1986–1995 and 1996–2005. From the late 1980s to the mid‐1990s, BJIR's articles relied on the economics literature, while in the later period, it moved to the human resource and management journals, authors and articles. The possible explanations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Ascendancy of Employment Arbitrators in US Employment Relations: A New Actor in the American System?

In this paper, we survey the underpinnings of the trend towards employment arbitration in the United States, and its implications for the broader industrial relations system. Specifically, we address the question of whether or not employment arbitrators have been substituted for collective bargaining by the government to an extent that warrants their inclusion as an actor in the industrial relations system. We review developments in workplace dispute resolution in the United States, the literature that attempts to explain these developments and posit an assessment of the stability of employment arbitration, and employment arbitrators, as a central feature of the US industrial relations system.     

Inter-organizational Relations and Employment in a Multi-employer Environment

This study focuses on the employment dimensions of inter‐organizational relations, taking as an example a large regional airport. The dense and complex relationships that emerge in a multi‐agency setting are highlighted to illustrate the tensions and contradictions that characterize the management of workers in an environment where contracting and recontracting predominate. These findings suggest that there is a need, on the one hand, to include inter‐organizational relations in the study of the employment relationship and, on the other hand, to reinsert employment issues into the analysis of inter‐organizational contracting and partnerships.     

Managerial Strategies, Labour and Employment Relations and the State: the Canadian Case and Beyond

This paper addresses: (1) the extent to which changes appear to have occurred in managerial strategies and labour and employment relations in Canadian firms, and (2) the role of the state relative to anonymous economic forces in accounting for Canadian developments. The general findings are that, while there have been a number of significant changes, these have been more moderate than expected by 'transformation' theory; furthermore, the Canadian case is consistent with the argument that state actions play a major role relative to more anonymous economic 'forces' in accounting for developments in labour and employment relations. It also suggests an alternative model to that typically assumed by transformation theory, one in which state policies and economic conditions are considered to be important not only for their direct effects on employer policies, but also for their indirect effects, through their implications for worker expectations and union militancy. Although these conclusions are tentative and call for more systematic, comparative research, they are consistent with arguments by Burawoy and others that state actions can serve as an important source of labour regulation at the level of the firm.     

何种用工制度更具适应性效率——用工“双轨制”与“单轨制”的比较研究

用工"双轨制"是当前我国企事业单位的一种普遍现象,也是造成劳动关系矛盾的根源之一。这种现象至今依然存在的一个重要原因是人们对并轨改革心存顾忌。用工制度改革缺乏理论支撑。本文从制度适应性效率的视角。通过组织运作的模型抽象与模拟。对用工的"双轨制"和"单轨制"进行比较。得出的结论表明:用工"单轨制"更具适应性效率。更能促进组织绩效的快速增长:用工"双轨制"具有刚性特征,组织很难自行进行矫正;在并轨改革过程中。国家需发挥政策制定的主导作用,有必要出台相关的政策法规强制推行用工"单轨制"。     

Remaking the World of Chinese Labour: A 30‐Year Retrospective

Over the past 30 years, labour relations, and, indeed, the entirety of working‐class politics in China, have been dramatically altered by economic reforms. In this review, we focus on the two key processes of commodification and casualization and their implications for workers. On the one hand, these processes have resulted in the destruction of the old social contract and the emergence of marketized employment relations. This has implied a loss of the job security and generous benefits enjoyed by workers in the planned economy. On the other hand, commodification and casualization have produced significant but localized resistance from the Chinese working class. Up until now, the activities of labour non‐governmental organizations and of the official trade unions have contributed to the state's effort of individualizing and institutionalizing labour conflict resolution through labour law and arbitration mechanisms. Finally, we provide a brief discussion of the impact of 2008's Labour Contract Law and the outbreak of the economic crisis on labour relations. We conclude that the continual imbalance of power at the point of production presents a real dilemma for the Chinese state as it attempts to shift away from a model of development dependent on exports.