"This paper examines the complex interaction between globalisation practices of multinational corporations and the governing potential of response by local systems of employment regulation in light of rationalisation processes linked to financial market driven strategies. It investigates this issue by looking at optimisation programmes conceived and developed at the central headquarters of two German multinational companies and then traces their implementation at local sites in three different international settings: Germany, the USA and France. A central focus was the role that industrial relations systems play in the transformation process and whether (or how) the response varies according to the strength and coordination of the institutionalised system."

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