The future of the German industrial relations model

David Marsden

Journal for Labour Market Research, 2015, vol. 48, issue 2, 169-187

Abstract: "The paper examines recent evidence on the erosion of the German industrial relations model. Although its coverage has declined, much of this has occurred in smaller and newer establishments, and compared with Britain, it has remained solid in the areas of Germany's traditional industrial strength. This is explained by the nature of high performance work systems that involve flexible working and on-the-job problem-solving. Both countries have modernised their work systems in recent decades, with German industrial firms maintaining higher degrees of worker autonomy and learning and British ones relying more on managerial control. The survival of the German model in this sector, as compared with services, is attributed to the role of such work systems in the high end of international competition. A model is developed to explain why stable cooperation within these work relationships is enhanced by means of a strong institutional framework. It is then used to explain why employers in the sectors using these systems have continued to work within these institutions. It is argued that employers' increased focus on the match between commercial needs and workplace institutions has contributed to the growing segmentation within German industrial relations which has been widely documented, and represents a departure from the classical post-war German model. The article finishes by asking how far this can go before damaging social and political cohesion." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Keywords: Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Großbritannien; Gewerkschaft; Industriebetrieb; institutionelle Faktoren; internationaler Vergleich; Mitbestimmung; Arbeitsbeziehungen; Tarifverhandlungen; Arbeitsorganisation; Zukunft der Arbeit; Zukunftsperspektive; 1990-2012 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J50 M55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12651-015-0188-3

Related works:
Journal Article: The future of the German industrial relations model (2015)
Working Paper: The Future of the German Industrial Relations Model (2015)
Working Paper: The future of the German industrial relations model (2015)
Working Paper: The future of the German industrial relations model (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iab:iabjlr:v:48:i:2:p:169-187

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/economics/journal/12651

DOI: 10.1007/s12651-015-0188-3

Access Statistics for this article

Journal for Labour Market Research is currently edited by Joachim Möller et al.

More articles in Journal for Labour Market Research from Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany] Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by IAB, Geschäftsbereich Wissenschaftliche Fachinformation und Bibliothek ().