Documents workplace power 40 results

"The international human resource management literature has a long tradition of examining the impact of institutional differences on the employment practices adopted by multinational corporations (MNCs). The question of how actors make sense of institutional differences, however, has received less research attention. This study examines the enactment of employment practices as institutional differences are translated, contextualized and deployed by managers at subsidiaries of MNCs. Based on intensive case studies at two Japanese–Chinese joint-venture manufacturing plants, the study first shows that distinctive employment practices were adopted to manage the boundaries between employee groups. These distinctions are then explained by the institutional difference between the home country (Japan) and the host country (China) as well as the way that institutional differences were represented by the managers in the process of designing, developing and executing employment practices. The study therefore argues that country differences are not only assumed spaces, but are also a reservoir of management resources that are moderated, in the case of employment practices, by actors' strategic choices and political actions before they are enacted in the subsidiary. "

"Prominent writers in industrial relations (IR) have concluded the field is in significant decline, partly because of a failed theory base. The theory problem is deepened because other writers conclude developing a theory foundation for industrial relations is neither possible nor desirable. We believe advancing IR theory is both needed and possible, and take up the challenge in this paper.A long-standing problem in theorizing industrial relations has been the lack of agreement on the field's core analytical construct. However, in the last two decades writers have increasingly agreed the field is centred on the employment relationship. Another long-standing problem is that writers have theorized industrial relations using different theoretical frames of reference, including pluralist and radical-Marxist; different disciplinary perspectives, such as economics, sociology, history, and politics; and from different national traditions, such as British, French, and American.In this paper, we seek to advance IR theory and better integrate paradigms and national traditions. We do this by developing an analytical explanation for four core features of the employment relationship—generation of an economic surplus, cooperation-conflict dialectic, indeterminate nature of the employment contract, and asymmetric authority and power in the firm—using an integrative mix of ideas and concepts from the pluralist and radical-Marxist streams presented in a multi-part diagram constructed with marginalist tools from conventional economics. The diagram includes central IR system components, such as labour market, hierarchical firm, macro-economy, and nation state government. The model is used to explain the four features of the employment relationship and derive implications for IR theory and practice. Examples include the diagrammatic representation of the size and distribution of the economic surplus, a new analytical representation of labour exploitation, identification of labour supply conditions that encourage, respectively, cooperation versus conflict, and demonstration of how inequality of bargaining power in labour markets contributes to macroeconomic stagnation and unemployment."

"One of the major obstacles, if not the major obstacle, unions face in building their influence in the workplace is the opposition and resistance from those that own those workplaces, namely, the employers. Global Anti-Unionism examines the nature and form of this anti-unionism, and in doing so explains the ways and means by which employers have successfully maintained their right to manage. The role of the state is also considered at length as part of the process by which employer domination has been maintained. Set in the context of the global north and south, this volume provides an introduction to the key theories and concepts, followed by historical and contemporary sections examining different countries."

"In previous work, the authors have sought to demonstrate how a particular strand of contemporary political theory can be usefully adopted to shed valuable light on labour law. In short, the conception of ‘non-domination' grounded in contemporary civic republican political philosophy and associated with scholars such as Philipp Pettit and Frank Lovett prescribes a sophisticated account of freedom and a socially just order. In the latter's framework, social justice is secured when laws and policies are introduced to subject private social relationships characterized by dependency and an arbitrary imbalance in social power to a measure of external control. As a subset of a socially just order, the previous work of the authors sought to sketch out how nondomination theory could act as a justification for labour laws. This would conceptualize labour laws as a set of measures that are designed to achieve a degree of ‘non-domination' in the employment relationship. Labour law achieves this by introducing legal and policy controls limiting the employee's dependence on his/her employer and restricting the arbitrary power imbalance inherent in the relationship between the employer and the employee. By serving to tone down the level of arbitrary decision-making vested in the employer, the dependency of the employee on the employer, and/or by counterbalancing the degree of power wielded by the employer, it was argued that procedural and substantive labour laws such as unfair dismissal/discharge, minimum wage laws, working time controls, and collective labour and trade union rights can be perceived as measures that are consistent with a legal framework designed to secure a degree of ‘non-domination' of the worker. In this article, the various advantages of nondomination theory as a justification for labour laws are summarized before the discussion turns to a detailed assessment of the range of objections that can be levelled at such a justificatory framework. In particular, the accusation that it is not descriptively accurate as a model, nor normatively useful as a conception for labour laws, is subjected to greater scrutiny. The article concludes with the general proposition that although Pettit's and Lovett's non-domination model is insufficient to act as an abstract justificatory theory for labour laws, it can act as a driver for specific labour laws; and more specifically, for a particular conception or form of labour law that promotes a distinctive set of regulatory techniques, and vision of the role and function of the central notion of the contract of employment. The primary significance of this article rests in the insight that domination-based narratives of civic republicanism have the capacity to act as a bridge between existing individual, relational, autonomous, substantive and procedural accounts of the regulation of the law of the contract of employment and political philosophy: a ‘new normativity', albeit one that is restricted in scope. "

"Subordination has long been a key concept in labour law theory. It aims to depict a central characteristic of employment relationships that explains (at least partially) the need for labour laws. More recently there is an increasing interest among labour law scholars with the concept of domination as developed in republican theory. On the face of it, being dominated by an employer appears to be similar to being subordinated to an employer. To assess the relevance and usefulness of domination for labour law, I begin by providing an account of subordination and its different possible meanings. I then examine the different components of the definitions of domination developed by Philip Pettit and by Frank Lovett (with some reference to other scholars), and explore the similarities with, and differences from, the concept of subordination. I conclude that some key parts of domination – most notably the existence of arbitrary power – are not an optimal fit to describe employment relationships and justify labour law. In this respect domination cannot serve as a general theory of labour law. Nonetheless, republican theories are certainly helpful in providing normative support for specific labour laws as well as some other concrete benefits. "

"Dieser Beitrag kritisiert das herkömmliche, in der Forschung über globale Wertschöpfungsketten (GWK) geläufige Konzept von sozialem Upgrading, da es den Zusammenhang zwischen Machtbeziehungen und Beschäftigungsbedingungen unzureichend berücksichtigt. Die Autor*innen stellen eine Neukonzeptualisierung vor, die auf einem kritischen Verständnis von Beschäftigtenmacht beruht. Beschäftigtenmacht in GWK wird auf einer vertikalen und einer horizontalen Achse bestimmt. Die erste Achse betrifft die Beziehungen innerhalb von GWK, die zweite die lokalen Kapital-Arbeit- und Staat-Gesellschaft-Beziehungen. Zudem betonen die Autor*innen die Bedeutung einer Analyse der Intersektionalität von Beschäftigtenidentitäten im Rahmen von Machtverhältnissen und bei der Machtausübung. Beschäftigtenmacht – hier als strukturelle und Assoziationsmacht betrachtet – wird am Schnittpunkt der beiden Achsen ausgeübt und ist verwoben mit den Staat-Gesellschaft-Beziehungen und multiplen Beschäftigtenidentitäten. Eine exemplarische Analyse der Bekleidungsindustrie Kambodschas zeigt, dass die Neukonzeptualisierung bei der Untersuchung sozialer Up- und Downgradingprozesse hilfreich sein kann."

"In the countries of the global North, workplace democracy may be thought of as a thing of the past. Increasingly, working relations are regulated primarily by contract; workforces are fissured and fragmented. What are the consequences of this? How should we respond?

Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck argue that the time is ripe to restate the principles of industrial democracy and citizenship for the post-industrial era. Considering developments within political economy, employment relations and labour law since the postwar decades, they trace the rise of globalization and the 'dualization' of labour markets - the emergence of a core and periphery of workers - and the progressive insulation of working relations from democratic governance. What these developments amount to, they argue, is an urgent need for political intervention to tame the new world of 'gigging' and other forms of highly precarious work. This, according to the authors, will require far-reaching institution-building designed to fill legal concepts such as 'employment' with political substance.

This eloquent call for a reimagining and renewal of the institutional and material conditions of freedom of association and the reinvention of industrial democracy will be crucial reading for anyone interested in work in the twenty-first century."

"The sociological understandings of both cooperation and resistance at work are complex. This article contributes to knowledge about dialectic tensions concerning both collaborative and conflictual workforce orientations in the context of a ‘pre-arranged' union-management partnership agreement. It reports unofficial workforce militancy in opposition to both management and union policy regarding a socially constructed cooperative work regime. The article advances a ‘radical pluralist' analysis to understand the formation of worker interests and attendant workforce orientations within capitalism."

"The phenomenon of workplace partnership has attracted significant academic interest. This article uses case study evidence from a traditional heavy engineering MNC context to examine how the pursuit of collaborative strategies affected the roles of a multi-layered, mature community of trade union shop stewards. The analytical lens of legitimacy is used to provide insight into the contrasting experiences of senior and sectional stewards – a hitherto overlooked area. This study suggests limitations at one level of representation may be offset by advances at another and thus aids understanding of the conditions underpinning the impact of partnership."