Documents Torka, Nicole 3 results

"In the last two decades there has been a considerable amount of rhetoric about an alleged need to subvert established industrial relations systems for the sake of economic performance. Western Europe's Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs) have been the main target of debates centred on the question of whether a more liberal market economy is needed to increase wealth. Using the Netherlands as a case study, this paper tries to shed light on the need for change in the industrial relations systems of CMEs, and connects this discussion to the fundamental issue of innovation, a precondition for economic performance. We find that the Dutch industrial relations system does not hamper innovation and economic performance. However, while centralized and coordinated labour organizations (i.e., unions) cooperate with employers' associations and the government to respond to economic changes, their role in proactive, future-directed innovation calls for improvement."

"This article explores the relationship between employment status (agency workers vs. permanent employees) and affective and normative job and co-worker commitment. Our study was conducted on employees from four metal companies in the Netherlands. As HRM practices seem to influence employee commitment, we performed 89 interviews across all four companies and included blue-collar workers, their managers (direct supervisors, HR managers and production managers), as well as works council members. To test our hypotheses on commitment differences, we conducted quantitative research within the companies (permanent employees N = 167; agency workers N = 54), all blue-collar workers. Results show that permanent employees and agency workers express similar degrees of commitment to their job and to their co-workers, apart from affective commitment to co-workers, which is lower for agency workers than for permanent workers. We argue that national legislation, as well as managers' attempts to offer HR practices equal to those of permanent staff, play a prominent role in stimulating agency workers' commitment. "

"We compare the distributive justice perceptions of agency workers and permanent staff concerning different aspects of HRM. Moreover, we investigate if the supervisor-subordinate relationship quality (Leader-Member Exchange, LMX) influences the relationship between the contract status and distributive justice perceptions. We conducted semi-structured interviews in three Dutch logistics companies and distributed questionnaires among workers performing low-skilled jobs. Results show that a direct relationship between contract status and distributive justice perceptions remains when testing the mediator effect of LMX. Contract status seems partly to determine perceived LMX and, consequently, perceived distributive justice. However, the differences in perceived justice concerning voice, participation and pay between the worker groups change when individual workers perceive high-quality LMX. Thus, not only between group differences might be relevant, but also within group differences.

Wir vergleichen die wahrgenommene Verteilungsgerechtigkeit bei Festangestellten und Leiharbeitnehmern hinsichtlich verschiedener Aspekte des HRM. Es wird untersucht, ob die Qualität der Vorgesetzten- Mitarbeiter-Beziehung (Leader-Member Exchange, LMX) die Beziehung zwischen Vertragsstatus und wahrgenommener Verteilungsgerechtigkeit wie vermutet beeinflusst. Wir haben teilstrukturierte Interviews in drei niederländischen Logistikunternehmen erhoben und Arbeitskräfte in gering qualifizierter Beschäftigung mit einem Fragebogen befragt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Beziehung zwischen Vertragsstatus und wahrgenommener Verteilungsgerechtigkeit beim Test des Mediator- Effekts von LMX bestehen bleibt. Der Vertragsstatus scheint die Wahrnehmung des LMX und folglich das Gerechtigkeitsempfinden (teilweise) zu determinieren. Es ändern sich die Unterschiede im Gerechtigkeitsgefühl hinsichtlich der Mitsprache, der Mitbestimmung und des Gehalts zwischen den Gruppen, wenn individuelle Arbeitskräfte eine hohe LMX Qualität wahrnehmen. D.h. es sind Unterschiede zwischen Gruppen und auch innerhalb von Gruppen zu beachten."