US Multi-Nationals and the German Industrial Relations System

Ingo Singe and Richard Croucher ()
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Ingo Singe: Hamburg University
Richard Croucher: Senior Research Fellow, Human Resource Research Centre, Cranfield School of Management

management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 16, issue 1, 123-137

Abstract: This paper critically reviews literature on the behaviour of US-based Multi National Companies (MNCs) in Germany in relation to the historic institutions of the German labour market: works councils and industry wide collective bargaining. The German system is becoming increasingly company-rather than sectorally centred, and US-based companies have reinforced a wing of German employer opinion seeking to further these developments. Surveys show US-based companies generally accepting works councils and sectoral bargains but case study evidence also shows them seeking to weaken links with parts of the system external to the company. A typology is proposed and it is argued that many US-based companies appear to follow a ?formal compliance/content avoidance dichotomy? tending to exacerbate the system?s existing tendencies towards disarticulation. They also tend to explore all options available to them within the existing system. A research agenda is suggested.

Keywords: US Multinationals; Germany; Industrial Relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 J53 M10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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