人力资源管理柔性视角下工作家庭平衡策略的实践及启示

工作家庭平衡策略体现了人力资源管理的个体柔性。为了帮助员工在工作和家庭之间取得平衡,组织可以采取的平衡策略有柔性的工作时间和柔性的工作场所,柔性策略在不同国家的实践给我国企业带来积极的借鉴意义,我们在实施柔性策略时要注重平衡策略的有效使用及柔性保障问题。     

Training and commitment in a German manufacturing company during the post-2008 crisis: a case of internal flexicurity

Studies on the links between training and organizational commitment have only looked at professional and managerial workers, mostly in the U.S. This paper focuses on a German manufacturing company that employed many blue-collar workers and offered generous training opportunities during short-time work in the post-2008 crisis. In an analysis based on employee survey data, only training in job-specific skills and training in skills usable outside of work were found to be associated positively with organizational commitment. The findings suggest that employer-provided training programs may be part of a model that achieves internal flexicurity in economies such as Germany.     

Expatriate compound living: an ethnographic field study

In certain countries, closed expatriate compounds have developed. They serve to provide resident expatriates and accompanying family members with a comfortable and safe environment. Unfortunately, not much is known about compound life since associated empirical research is scarce. Through ethnographic field-work methodology, including interviews and participant observation during a period of 3 months, this exploratory study investigated 16 Danish business expatriates of a large Danish corporation and their families living in the same compound in Saudi Arabia. They shared their spare time and the expatriates had the same working hours in the same subsidiary. Results show that a Danish national group was established and maintained. This in-group dominated life in the compound and at work it may have contributed to the perceptual bias and discriminatory behaviour demonstrated by the Danish expatriates in their management of the foreign national employees. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.     

Between trust and control: company‐level bargaining on flexible working hours in the Danish and German metal industries

Denmark is often highlighted as a good example of organised decentralisation in which employee bargaining power remains comparatively strong. However, comparative analysis of the Danish case rarely reflects how the social contracts between management and workers' representatives contribute to the bargaining outcome at company level. Drawing on 10 case studies in the German and Danish metal industries carried out in 2005, this article argues that the social contracts at the Danish case companies allow a more efficient use of company‐level agreements on flexible working hours than the social contracts at the German case companies.     

Zipf's Law for Cities and Beyond: The Case of Denmark

Zipf's law for cities is one of the most conspicuous and robust empirical facts in the social sciences. It says that for most countries, the size distribution of cities must fit the power law: the number of cities with populations greater than S is inversely proportional to S. The present paper answers three questions related to Zipf's law: (1) does the Danish case refute Zipf's law for cities?, (2) what are the implications of Zipf's law for models of local growth?, and (3) do we have a Zipf's law for firms? Based on empirical data on the 61 largest Danish cities for year 2000, the answer to (1) is NO—the Danish case is not the exception which refutes Zipf's law. The consideration of (2) then leads to an empirical test of (3). The question of the existence of Zipf's law for firms is tested on a sample of 14,541 Danish production companies (the total population for 1997 with 10 employees or more). Based on the empirical evidence, the answer to (3) is YES in the sense that the growth pattern of Danish production companies follows a clean rank‐size distribution consistent with Zipf's law.     

The collective bargaining of flexicurity: A case for sector‐level analysis? The Italian chemical and metalworking sectors compared

Although employment relations in Europe have long been seen as a factor of rigidity, limiting managerial discretion and adaptability, in the last 30 years, they have witnessed a trend towards decentralisation of collective bargaining and negotiations increasingly centred on flexibility–security trade‐offs between employers and employees. Research on the contribution of collective bargaining to the so‐called flexicurity has mostly focused on national‐level institutional arrangements. In this article, we contend that meso‐level differences need to feature more prominently in the debate. Our comparison of two sectors in the same country (chemicals and metalworking in Italy) shows that decentralisation has divergent effects on flexicurity issues depending in particular on differences in market structures and on depth of bargaining. The interplay between these two factors affects what we refer to as procedural security, which we view as important in ensuring sustainable trade‐offs between flexibility and security.     

Adapting to survive: The case of Danish employers' organisations

Scholars often characterise Danish employers' organisations (EOs) as relatively stable, with a continuing role in the coordination of industrial relations and corporatist policymaking. This article shows that, beneath surface stability, Danish EOs have significantly adapted structurally and functionally to survive environmental pressures. However, rather than converging onto a liberal market trajectory, we find that Danish EOs have layered new functions onto traditional collective functions. We also find significant variations in functional adaptation depending on the employer constituencies' exposure to international competition and position in value chains. We argue that these adaptations imply that the provision of collective goods, especially in collective bargaining, is no longer sufficient for the survival of EOs.     

Flexibility,labour retention and productivity in the EU

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between internal flexibility, the employment of fixed-term contract workers and productivity in 27 European Union countries. Drawing on European Company Survey data, the paper assesses whether establishments that employ on a fixed-term basis experience higher productivity than their competitors and stronger labour productivity improvements over time. These issues are of importance, given the recent weakness of productivity growth in many EU member countries, the steps that governments have taken to relax rules relating to the employment of fixed-term workers and the emphasis placed on contractual flexibility within the European Commission’s flexicurity agenda. The paper finds that establishments that do not use fixed-term contracts enjoy productivity advantages over those that do. Establishments that employ on a fixed-term basis but retain workers once their fixed-term contract has expired perform better than those that do not retain workers. The findings also show that establishments that pursue internal flexibility report both higher productivity than competitors and productivity increases over time. In addition, they are more likely to retain workers who have reached the end of a fixed-term contract.     

Flexicurity and job satisfaction in Europe: The importance of perceived and actual job stability for well-being at work

In this paper we study the effect of a micro-level measure of flexicurity on workers' job satisfaction. To this end, using micro-data from the Eurobarometer survey, we disaggregate the sample of workers into different groups according not only to their employment contract (i.e. permanent or temporary), but also to their perceived job security, and we evaluate differences in job satisfaction between these groups. After the potential endogeneity of job type has been controlled for, the results show that what matters for job satisfaction is not just the type of contract, but mainly the perceived job security, which may be independent of the type of contract.The combination “temporary but secure job” seems preferable to the combination “permanent but insecure job”, indicating that the length of the contract may be less important if the worker perceives that s/he is not at risk of becoming unemployed. Our main conclusions are robust to the use of alternative definitions of workers' types and they generally hold within different welfare regimes and also for different aspects of job satisfaction, mainly those more related to job security.     

New results on the effect of maternal work hours on children's overweight status: Does the quality of child care matter?

Existing empirical research on child overweight derives mainly from North America and points at rising maternal employment as an explanation for the increasing trend in child weight. These results cannot be replicated in Denmark, where an increase in maternal work hours does not increase the likelihood of weight problems for their children. This paper tests four possible explanations for this difference: (1) the effect of maternal employment on child obesity is heterogeneous and varies according to the country's weight distribution; (2) the quality of child care is on average higher in Denmark; (3) the counterfactual care provided by Danish mothers is of lower quality; and (4) Danish fathers contribute significantly to their children's health. This paper finds evidence consistent with the hypotheses that Danish child care and fathers play a significant role in explaining the absence of a significant relationship between maternal work hours and children's overweight status.     

Industrial relations in Denmark: problems and perspectives*

Most studies on Scandinavian industrial relations have inevitably focused on Sweden, and little has so far been written on Danish industrial relations[1]. This article highlights the similarities and differences between the Danish system and the ‘Swedish model’, and examines some of the current issues in Danish industrial relations.     

Are Three Cracks in the Danish Model of Industrial Relations?

The Danish system of industrial relations bears a lot of similarity to the traditional Scandinavian model of industrial relations. In this article the authors argue that whilst the Danish model has weathered the forces of change remarkably well up to now, a number of recent developments have started to produce ‘cracks’ in the model.     

The perceived importance of HR duties to Danish line managers

Today, HR scholars widely acknowledge that realising HRM requires the involvement of all managers and that the personal motivation of line managers plays an important role in their successful involvement. Yet, previous research has neglected to study how line managers rate the importance of particular HR duties and how the importance assigned to HR duties varies across managers. Based on a survey of 1,500 Danish managers, we find that ‘motivating others’ is considered the most important HR duty whereas ‘team building’, ‘handling conflicts’ and ‘coaching’ are considered the least important HR duties. Female top managers in the public sector exhibit the greatest interest in HR whereas men at lower managerial levels in the private sector give lowest priority to HR work. We conclude with possible explanations for the observed differences in a Danish context and beyond and provide suggestions for facilitating managerial involvement in HRM. In doing so we are well aware that the Scandinavian model of HRM in general and the Danish implementation in particular may represent a unique frame for the results.     

Intergenerational mobility: New evidence from consumption data

The intergenerational persistence of consumption describes the extent to which children inherit the living standards of their parents. Evidence on this parameter is scarce due to limited data on the joint consumption of parents and children. This paper identifies parents who participated in the Danish Expenditure Survey, links them to their children through population‐wide Danish registries, and estimates the intergenerational elasticity of consumption in Denmark. The results suggest that, consistent with intergenerational consumption smoothing, the persistence of consumption across generations is higher than the persistence of earnings and income.     

The Internationalisation Process of Danish Firms -Gradual Learning or Discrete Rational Choices?

Abstract

The Uppsala Internationalisation model has greatly influenced Nordic research on the internationalisation process of firms. In this article, the Uppsala model is tested on Danish empirical material. The Danish firms largely follow a sequential development as regards the geographical dimension, where, typically, they set up in culturally close markets first and later set up in the more distant markets. On the other hand, the firms seem to follow to a less extent a pattern of sequential expansion of market commitment on the single foreign markets, just as a surprising number of establishments are set up without previous activity on the market. Crucial differences cannot be found between the establishment pattern abroad of large and small firms. The Uppsala model in itself cannot explain the internationalisation pattern of the Danish firms, which is why the article advocates that the internationali-sation process should be understood as an interaction between internal conditions in the firm (“learning” processes), external competitive conditions and more basic economic factors (assessment of market potential).     

Public management reform in Denmark

Abstract

This article discusses public management reform in Denmark. First, the institutional features of the Danish public sector are introduced. Danish ministries enjoy a considerable amount of autonomy that makes central co-ordinated public management reform challenging. The second part of the article outlines the contents of public management reform and provides an overview of the major reform initiatives of the last three governments. Denmark's reforms are characterized as a mixture of strategies for modernization and marketization, but with most emphasis on the former rather than the latter. Together with successive governments, the Danish Ministry of Finance has argued strongly for efficiency, economy and effectiveness as key values and they have been institutionalized in modernization efforts. Denmark should now be considered a country where NPM reforms have taken a firm hold.     

Conformance and Deviance: Company Responses to Institutional Pressures for Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

This paper analyses how large Danish companies are responding to new governmental regulation which requires them to report on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The paper is based on an analysis of 142 company annual reports required by the new Danish regulation regarding CSR reporting, plus 10 interviews with first‐time reporting companies and six interviews with companies that failed to comply with the new law. It is concluded that coercive pressures from government have an impact on CSR reporting practices. Further, the analysis finds traces of mimetic isomorphism which inspires a homogenisation in CSR reporting practices. Finally, it is argued that non‐conformance with the new regulatory requirements is not solely about conscious resistance but may also be caused by, for example, lack of awareness, resource limitations, misinterpretations, and practical difficulties. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Employment Security and Labor Market Behavior Christoph F. Buechtemann (Ed.) The Survival of the Danish Model. A historical sociological analysis of the Danish system of collective bargaining Jesper Due, Jørgen Steen Madsen, Carsten Strøby Jensen, Lars Kjerulff Petersen. The Equality Dilemma. Reconciling working life and family life, viewed in an equality perspective. The Danish example , Søren Carlsen and Jørgen Elm Larsen (Eds.) International and Comparative Industrial Relations. A Study of Industrialised Market Economies, (second edition) G. Bamber & R. Lansbury (Eds.) Women's Employment and the Capitalist Family Ben Fine     

Technological innovation and industrial organization in the Danish wind industry *

The origin of this article is the paradox that heavy US R&D funding to hi-tech aerospace industry in the seventies and eighties was not able to provide an appropriate industrial technology base in wind technology that could match the wind turbines from the much more low-tech Danish machine industry (agricultural sector), which received very limited public R&D funding. Nevertheless, the Danish manufacturers took the lion's share of the world market in the eighties, in casu the California home market for the American producers. A bottom-up learning based development strategy almost completely outperformed a science based top down development strategy for this re-introduced energy technology (top down failures were also seen in the UK, Denmark, W. Germany). The top-down and bottom-up strategies reflect two very different types of de facto entrepreneurial behaviour and industrial organization.     

Dynamic research environments: a development model

The paper outlines a model for the development of dynamic and innovative research environments in national innovation systems. The development model is based on an in-depth study and analysis of fifteen research environments selected by the Danish Council for Research Policy as examples of dynamic and innovative public research environments. According to the model, research environments follow certain stages with respect to epistemological, organizational and socio-cultural development that either enable them to advance from one stage to the next in the model or impede this advance. The consequence of the latter is either a static state or dissolution. In the long run only dynamic and innovative research environments survive. The analysis of the cases studied identifies several preconditions that have to be present in such research environments in order for them to emerge, develop and finally reach excellence. The results presented here may well be a valid tool for policy-makers, particularly in Europe where the framework conditions for public R&D are comparable to the Danish.