Gewerkschaften zwischen Konkurrenz und Kooperation? Inter-organisationale Beziehungen in der Facility Services-Branche (Unions between competition and cooperation? Inter-organizational relations in facility services)

Markus Helfen and Manuel Nicklich

Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, 2014, vol. 21, issue 2, 161-204

Abstract: Der Aufsatz untersucht qualitativ-explorativ, auf welche Weise sich netzwerkfoermige Wertschoepfung und Mehr-Arbeitgeber-Beziehungen in der Facility Services-Branche auf die inter-gewerkschaftlichen Beziehungen auswirken. Mit Hilfe eines strukturationstheoretisch inspirierten Ansatzes identifizieren wir insbesondere drei zentrale Praktiken der Gewerkschaften, um Inter-Gewerkschaftsbeziehungen zu bearbeiten, und zwar die Domaenenabgrenzung, die Ressourcenakkumulation sowie die tarifpolitische Regelsetzung. Mit Hilfe von drei Fallstudien ueber Unternehmen der Facility Services-Branche koennen wir aufzeigen, dass die Gewerkschaften insbesondere dann einem kompetitiven Muster folgen, wenn die Praxis der tarifpolitischen Regelsetzung zwischen den Gewerkschaften staerker abweicht und die bisherigen Praktiken der Domaenenabgrenzung sowie der Ressourcenakkumulation fortgesetzt werden. (This paper explores how value creation networks and multi-employer relationships in facility services affect inter-union relations. Building on an approach that is inspired by structuration theory we identify three central practices that unions deploy to shape their inter-union relations, i.e. defining jurisdictions, accumulating resources and collective bargaining. Empirically, we focus on three company case studies that shed light on the practices unions deploy to shape their relationships in the field of facility services. Our qualitative material reveals that unions enact a competitive pattern of these practices if the collective bargaining approaches diverge between the single unions involved and if the traditional practices of defining jurisdictions and accumulating organizational resources are deployed.)

Keywords: German trade unions; competition; collaboration; multi-employer-relations; inter-organizational relations; service industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J51 J52 J53 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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