Patrick McGovern, Stephen Hill, Colin Mills, and Michael White
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199213375
- eISBN:
- 9780191695865
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213375.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
This chapter examines data on employee representation, participation, and individualism. It specifically evaluates whether recent developments in representation and participation correspond with the ...
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This chapter examines data on employee representation, participation, and individualism. It specifically evaluates whether recent developments in representation and participation correspond with the neo-Taylorist authoritarianism associated with the emergence of a more marketized employment relationship. It also considers the alternative possibility that interprets the increased use of employee involvement practices as part of a long-term tendency towards the internalization of the employment relationship. In addition, it observes the changing nature of employee voice in the context of long-term changes in labour market composition. Additionally, it investigates whether women and white-collar workers have a lower propensity to join trade unions than men and those in working class jobs and whether the absence of trade unions means that employees have lost the ability to influence decision-making. The data generally indicate that categorical inequality will be reinforced when employers direct their human resource management (HRM) policies towards employees as individuals rather than seeking to treat them as part of a collective group with standardized pay and conditions.Less
This chapter examines data on employee representation, participation, and individualism. It specifically evaluates whether recent developments in representation and participation correspond with the neo-Taylorist authoritarianism associated with the emergence of a more marketized employment relationship. It also considers the alternative possibility that interprets the increased use of employee involvement practices as part of a long-term tendency towards the internalization of the employment relationship. In addition, it observes the changing nature of employee voice in the context of long-term changes in labour market composition. Additionally, it investigates whether women and white-collar workers have a lower propensity to join trade unions than men and those in working class jobs and whether the absence of trade unions means that employees have lost the ability to influence decision-making. The data generally indicate that categorical inequality will be reinforced when employers direct their human resource management (HRM) policies towards employees as individuals rather than seeking to treat them as part of a collective group with standardized pay and conditions.
Phil Almond and Anthony Ferner (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199274635
- eISBN:
- 9780191706530
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199274635.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, HRM / IR
This book addresses some of the major contemporary issues in comparative business and employment relations. At its core are the findings of a four-year international exploration of the management of ...
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This book addresses some of the major contemporary issues in comparative business and employment relations. At its core are the findings of a four-year international exploration of the management of employment relations in American multinational companies in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Spain. Data from detailed case studies are used to illuminate the tensions between the forces of globalization and the continuing distinctiveness of national business systems. It looks at what is distinctively American about US multinationals, asking how the US business system’s particular features influence their management of human resources across national borders. It shows that the transfer of ‘Americanness’ is not a technical, top-down, managerial process, but a highly political and ‘negotiated’ one in which groups and individuals at different levels within the company try to influence the terms of transfer. The book uses a wealth of empirical material to explore the ways in which US multinationals manage international employment relations in different host countries. Four areas of policy and practice are considered in detail: pay and performance; collective employee representation; the management of workforce ‘diversity’; and managerial careers. It shows how global HR policies are made; how they are diffused internationally; and how they are adopted, adapted, or resisted by overseas subsidiaries. It also explores some of the structures and processes that characterize US multinationals: the changing balance between centralization and subsidiary autonomy; the management of international learning; and the structure and role of the international human resource function.Less
This book addresses some of the major contemporary issues in comparative business and employment relations. At its core are the findings of a four-year international exploration of the management of employment relations in American multinational companies in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Spain. Data from detailed case studies are used to illuminate the tensions between the forces of globalization and the continuing distinctiveness of national business systems. It looks at what is distinctively American about US multinationals, asking how the US business system’s particular features influence their management of human resources across national borders. It shows that the transfer of ‘Americanness’ is not a technical, top-down, managerial process, but a highly political and ‘negotiated’ one in which groups and individuals at different levels within the company try to influence the terms of transfer. The book uses a wealth of empirical material to explore the ways in which US multinationals manage international employment relations in different host countries. Four areas of policy and practice are considered in detail: pay and performance; collective employee representation; the management of workforce ‘diversity’; and managerial careers. It shows how global HR policies are made; how they are diffused internationally; and how they are adopted, adapted, or resisted by overseas subsidiaries. It also explores some of the structures and processes that characterize US multinationals: the changing balance between centralization and subsidiary autonomy; the management of international learning; and the structure and role of the international human resource function.
Melissa Aronczyk and Maria I. Espinoza
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190055349
- eISBN:
- 9780190055387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190055349.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture, Science, Technology and Environment
Chapter 2, Bringing the Outside In, examines the industrial infrastructures within which the burgeoning profession of public relations coalesced: rail, steel, and coal, and the simultaneous ...
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Chapter 2, Bringing the Outside In, examines the industrial infrastructures within which the burgeoning profession of public relations coalesced: rail, steel, and coal, and the simultaneous development of information infrastructures to situate these industries as paragons of democracy in the American imagination. It was in struggles over labor rights, workers’ rights, employee welfare, and industrial reform that the practice of public relations forged its methods, as scions of power and privilege attempted to manage the “external environment” of public and political opinion to reduce friction for the machinations of heavy industry. While the “external environment” does not directly map onto the natural environment, we see in these struggles the porousness of the boundaries between the inside and the outside of industrial production, allowing industrial leaders to control the outside world in addition to the one within their walls.Less
Chapter 2, Bringing the Outside In, examines the industrial infrastructures within which the burgeoning profession of public relations coalesced: rail, steel, and coal, and the simultaneous development of information infrastructures to situate these industries as paragons of democracy in the American imagination. It was in struggles over labor rights, workers’ rights, employee welfare, and industrial reform that the practice of public relations forged its methods, as scions of power and privilege attempted to manage the “external environment” of public and political opinion to reduce friction for the machinations of heavy industry. While the “external environment” does not directly map onto the natural environment, we see in these struggles the porousness of the boundaries between the inside and the outside of industrial production, allowing industrial leaders to control the outside world in addition to the one within their walls.
Paul Davies
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198854913
- eISBN:
- 9780191888977
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198854913.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Company and Commercial Law
Introduction to Company Law provides a conceptual introduction and a clear framework with which to navigate the intricacies of company law. The book analyses the mechanisms through which the law ...
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Introduction to Company Law provides a conceptual introduction and a clear framework with which to navigate the intricacies of company law. The book analyses the mechanisms through which the law provides an organisational structure for the conduct of business. Given that structure, the book discusses how the law seeks to reduce the costs of using it, whether these are costs for managers, shareholders as a class, non-controlling shareholders, creditors, or employees, identifying the trade-offs involved. This discussion takes in both the Companies Act 2006 and various types of ‘soft law’, notably the Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. This third edition contains two new chapters: one on liability and enforcement and the other on the social function of corporate law. Both are issues that have come to prominence in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–09.Less
Introduction to Company Law provides a conceptual introduction and a clear framework with which to navigate the intricacies of company law. The book analyses the mechanisms through which the law provides an organisational structure for the conduct of business. Given that structure, the book discusses how the law seeks to reduce the costs of using it, whether these are costs for managers, shareholders as a class, non-controlling shareholders, creditors, or employees, identifying the trade-offs involved. This discussion takes in both the Companies Act 2006 and various types of ‘soft law’, notably the Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes. This third edition contains two new chapters: one on liability and enforcement and the other on the social function of corporate law. Both are issues that have come to prominence in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–09.