Flexible specialisation, work organisation and skills: approaching the 'second industrial divide'

Piore and Sabel's concept of flexible specialisation (FS) has initiated a lively debate between'optimists','pessimists'and 'sceptics'. The potential impact of FS on work organisation and skills is examined through a review of industry case studies with discussion of the implications for management, government and unions with respect to training policy.     

Blocked and New Frontiers for Trade Unions: Contesting ‘the Meaning of Work’ in the Creative and Caring Sectors

Many jobs feature tensions between workers’ own motivations, and the objectives imposed on them by management or economic imperatives. We call these tensions ‘meaning of work conflicts’. We ask whether trade unions can intervene in them, or whether they are simply too subjective to be a credible campaigning focus. We examine two professional groups in Britain and France, musicians and healthcare staff. Among musicians, workers tend to negotiate meaning of work conflicts themselves, seeing little role for unions in this process. This engenders legitimacy problems that unions have had to find ways around. By contrast, in the hospitals sector, there is more scope for unions to campaign over the meaning of work, thus potentially increasing legitimacy among staff and the public. The difference is explained by the more diffuse and fragmented nature of employer structures in music, and the more chaotic set of motivations found among music workers.     

Intelligent knowledge based systems (IKBS): organisational implications

Many factors other than technology can influence the forms of work organisation at several key stages during the process of change. This article discusses developments in the design of intelligent knowledge-based systems (IKBS) and argues that these new forms of computerisation will undermine the position of a number of management functions in the enterprise.     

Workers of the Internet unite? Online freelancer organisation among remote gig economy workers in six Asian and African countries

This article presents findings regarding collective organisation among online freelancers in middle‐income countries. Drawing on research in Southeast Asia and Sub‐Saharan Africa, we find that the specific nature of the online freelancing labour process gives rise to a distinctive form of organisation, in which social media groups play a central role in structuring communication and unions are absent. Previous research is limited to either conventional freelancers or ‘microworkers’ who do relatively low‐skilled tasks via online labour platforms. This study uses 107 interviews and a survey of 658 freelancers who obtain work via a variety of online platforms to highlight that Internet‐based communities play a vital role in their work experiences. Internet‐based communities enable workers to support each other and share information. This, in turn, increases their security and protection. However, these communities are fragmented by nationality, occupation and platform.     

Government,company, and dyadic factors affecting key account management performance in China: Propositions to provoke research

Key account management (KAM) literature over the past forty years has mostly focused on practices in North America and Europe. China-based KAM research will broaden the scope of analysis to one of the most compelling markets in the world. Our work with hundreds of Chinese KAM personnel representing numerous Western suppliers and Chinese suppliers guides our KAM research propositions for China. We offer propositions regarding conditions where Western suppliers are at a competitive advantage or disadvantage relative to Chinese suppliers. We emphasize the roles of government and of guanxi relationships and how these factors affect suppliers and key account (KA) behaviors including information sharing, demands placed by KAs, and KA retention. We further propose that these relationships are affected by the cultural match/mismatch between suppliers and their KAs.     

Disconnecting labour: The impact of intraplatform algorithmic changes on the labour process and workers' capacity to organise collectively

This article examines how gig economy platform companies, via algorithmic management, shape working conditions and collective organisation of food delivery couriers. Using qualitative data from one case study operating in a city in the United Kingdom, the study captures real-time intraplatform unilateral changes in algorithmic management to provide increased flexibility for couriers. Findings show algorithmic changes generating a reconfigured, fragmented and compliant workforce. As a result, couriers demonstrate different interests and motivations to work for the company, where disparities in the demands for improved working conditions hindered efforts for collective organising. This article argues that intraplatform algorithmic changes create affordances that companies can exploit to concentrate power over labour even when conceding some control over the labour process.     

Union Formation through Merger: The Case of Ver.di in Germany

This article is concerned with the recent merger of five German unions to form the new multi‐industry union, ver.di. Its focus is on the effects of the merger and on developments in the post‐merger phase. The article explores the various internal problems of the new union, concentrating on those that flow from the adoption of a matrix form of organisation. It deals also with the external relations of ver.di, with other unions and with the central organisation of German trade unions, the DGB. Central conclusions here are that the creation of ver.di is likely to exacerbate competition amongst German unions and further erode the position of the peak association.     

Algorithmic management in food-delivery platform economy in China

This article investigates the organisation of work under algorithmic control in the platform economy. Based on a 1-year ethnographic study conducted at top food-delivery platforms in China, this study finds two main mechanisms for organising labour under algorithmic management: the virtual organisation of labour and algorithm-driven labour process control. First, platform drivers are reorganised in an outsourced labour force, placed in application-based virtual-networked production under sophisticated technological infrastructure. Second, to habituate drivers to the virtual mode of production, food-delivery platforms utilise four algorithm-driven control techniques, which are identified as: smart machinery control, information monopoly, management by multi-stakeholders, and ‘carrots and sticks’. The findings highlight the process of algorithmic design in configuring a digital managerial ecosystem for platform governance and contribute to emerging debates on algorithmic management.     

Building coalitions on Facebook: ‘social media unionism’ among Danish bike couriers

Platform work represents an important challenge for the ‘Danish model’ of unionisation. Using interviews and ethnographic data, this article analyses the strategies of the Danish grassroots union movement the Wolt Workers' Group, representing principally migrant couriers using the food-delivery platform Wolt. This study is an attempt to map an emergent form of flexible labour organisation based on horizontal, informal online networks while supported in different ways by established unions. We term this strategy of balanced autonomy and support ‘social media unionism'. Wolt couriers' attempts at grassroots organisation via social media is an important and understudied issue, especially their complex relationship to union actors. The ‘social media unionism' explored in this article allows for the formation and maintenance of nimble grassroots mobilisation among workers that are otherwise hard for unions to reach, such as migrants platform workers. We argue that this strategy holds both great possibilities and challenges for the labour movement.     

Determinants of trade union influence over technological change

Trade unions have generally found it difficult to exercise influence over the process of technological change and its effect on the conditions and content of work. This article seeks to identify the circumstances under which unions may be able to gain access to the decision-making process and in turn shape the organisational outcomes of new technology.     

Managerial technologies and power relations: a study of the Australian waterfront

In recent times, the modern port has been characterised by rapid changes in work technologies and the consolidation of logistics functions. These changes signify an important recomposition of the port labour process and raise questions about the strategic location of frontline manual jobs. This research examines how these changes have played out in the Australian ports industry, developing the argument that a depersonalised managerial form of control is emerging with potentially challenging consequences for worker solidarity and collective organisation. The argument is that relations between port management and workers have changed significantly, with a reconfiguration of job roles, skill compositions and thus workplace power relations. It is informed by qualitative research at two Australian ports, exploring the organisation of work and the impact of recent technologies.     

The Direction of Union Mergers in the United States: The Rise of Conglomerate Unionism

Trade union mergers have become common throughout the industrial world. In the United States, since the late 1970s, these have become increasingly multi-jurisdictional. Beginning in the 1990s, the trend has been dominated by five 'conglomerate' unions, who have embraced this as a strategy for growth and increased effectiveness. This article will examine the roots of this 'conglomerate' direction and quantitatively assess the claims for greater effectiveness in finances, organizing, and collective bargaining. The tentative conclusion is that while resources and policy matter, the conglomerate merger strategy of these unions has not improved any of these functions either over time or in comparison to other unions that have put less emphasis on multi-jurisdictional mergers.     

企业集团财务资源协同管理效应的度量

本文以集团企业的现金流量表及其特性为基础，揭示了集团资产、负债和权益协同管理与集团现金流协同效应的关系，建立了度量经营活动现金流协同效应的模型，分析了模型中效应参数之间的关系。同时，提出了企业集团的投资现金流和融资现金流协同效应度量的命题。最后，对企业集团智力资产对经营活动现金流协同效应的贡献进行探讨。这些模型和命题的创立为企业集团度量和分析协同管理效应提供了一套便利的方法。     

'You don't know what you've got till it's gone': re-contextualising the origins, development and impact of the call centre

This paper locates the emergence of call centres within the broader political economy. We demonstrate how British Gas responded to privatisation, restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by radically changing work organisation. Using documentary evidence and oral testimonies, we show how the call centre was pivotal to tightening control over the labour process, to intensifying work and transforming the experience of work.     

The 'Skill-oriented' Strategies of German Trade Unions: Their Impact on Efficiency and Equality Objectives

In the present debate about options for the modernization of trade unions, the predominant argument being propounded is that trade unions and workers' representatives at plant level should take more 'responsibility' for the competitiveness of the firms. Among other things, they are advised to enter into 'alliances' with management at the level of qualification politics. This paper considers some important collective bargaining arrangements which the German trade unions have negotiated over the last few years in order to improve mutually beneficial further training decisions within German firms. The emphasis is on the potential of different agreements for achieving efficiency and equality objectives in the context of contemporary changes in production and restructuring processes.     

Managing innovation in a knowledge intensive technology organisation (KITO)

This study aims to add to the existing knowledge of how innovation works in organisations. By understanding how to assess/evaluate processes that support and enable innovation, managers can better manage innovation as a business process. This paper addresses elements of organisational behaviour that relate to people management where innovation and technology management is concerned. Perception plays a crucial role in driving behaviour and therefore the widely accepted business scorecard methodology has been used to measure innovation practices in the organisation. The research was done in a knowledge intensive technology organisation (KITO) in South Africa. Interviews with managers of R&D were conducted. These interviews were used to adapt an existing audit instrument to suit the technology–based organisation. Thereafter, a comprehensive audit of innovation was conducted at three different management levels using the adapted instrument. Over 100, mostly R&D managers, were asked to complete a scorecard–based questionnaire and to draw a visual representation (VR) of innovation. The results of the interviews, audit and VRs were used to produce a management framework that is not only applicable to a KITO, but can also be used widely to improve innovation through enhanced visual understanding of any technology–based organisation. The results of the study indicate that measuring innovation through a validated instrument is highly valuable. The Holistic System Framework for innovation and the measurement instrument facilitated (1) management of, and (2) organisational learning about innovation. The comprehensive audit indicated, on a strategic level, the strengths and weaknesses of the innovation process as practised in the organisation. The instrument is valuable at a strategic management level as it indicates where in the organisation the gaps exist regarding the management of the process of innovation with the aim to create a competitive advantage.     

Value propositions in a digitally transformed world

Business-to-Business and broader marketing are increasingly influenced by the digital transformation of business, leading to the evolution of new central marketing concepts (e.g., value propositions, value co-creation, customer experiences/journeys, customer centricity, etc.). Therefore, it is not surprising that important emerging marketing concepts, such as value propositions remain ill-defined. We argue herein for the evolution/expansion of the theoretical boundaries of value propositions from largely a firm-centric communication marketing tool toward a concept representing a significant step in an actor's judgment & decision-making processes. A framework emphasizing marketing interactions is developed that reconciles much of the emerging evidence related to goal theory, perceived value, resource sharing, value propositions and their communication, marketing ecosystems, and the value co-creation process. In the proposed framework, value propositions are re-conceptualized as a central within-subject belief about resource-sharing vis-à-vis marketing interactions within the larger process of value co-creation over time. The managerial and research implications of the proposed framework are presented and discussed.     

Richard Hyman: Marxism,Trade Unionism and Comparative Employment Relations

Richard Hyman has been a hugely influential figure in the field of industrial relations for the best part of four decades. At a time when the future of the very subject has been questioned, we highlight three areas of Hyman's work that we believe provide fertile territory for future research. The first concerns the importance of theory and the continuing need to broaden the subject of industrial relations so that it is treated as an area in which we can examine wider questions about ‘the political economy of waged labour’. The second area is the changing nature of employee representation which, for much of Hyman's career, was synonymous with the analysis of trade unions under capitalism. The third area is one of the more striking recent successes within the subject, namely the study of comparative industrial relations. Each of these areas reveals Hyman's talent for identifying and clarifying a set of issues around the politics of work that will endure regardless of whether the subject is known as industrial relations, employment relations or human resource management.     

Twin Tracks—Employee Representation at Eurotunnel Revisited

The introduction of the European Directive on Information and Consultation and the recent implementation of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations into United Kingdom (UK) law have increased the focus on workplace representation arrangements. This paper examines the interplay between nonunion and union representative arrangements at Eurotunnel (UK) and assesses their effectiveness in representing the needs of employees over a 5‐year period. Importantly, the paper also examines the opportunities and challenges of both nonunion representation (NER) and union voice arrangements. The findings show that the effectiveness of nonunion structures as bodies representing the interests of employees in filling the lack of representation is questionable. However, union recognition through an employer–union partnership agreement has also raised important issues regarding the effectiveness, impact, and legitimacy of unions at Eurotunnel. The main implication of this research is that the existence of a mechanism—union or nonunion—for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be a sufficient condition for effective representation of employee interests. In addition, while trade unions may provide greater voice than nonunion arrangements (thus the reluctance of management to accept such voice arrangements), the strength of voice is dependent on the legitimacy and effectiveness of trade unions in representing employees’ interests at the workplace. And that in turn depends on the union being perceived by the workforce as both representative and able to act independently. If the union cannot, it will not meet the needs of either employees or management—and could run the risk of being supplanted under the provisions of the new EU Directive on Information and Consultation with tougher requirements for compliance in terms of procedures for consultation and information disclosure.