Solidaritaet in der europaeischen betrieblichen Mitbestimmung als theoretische Herausforderung – ein kultursoziologischer Loesungsvorschlag (Solidarity in Company-level Codetermination in European Multinationals as a Theoretical Challenge: A Cultural-sociological Approach)

Matthias Klemm, Clemens Kraetsch and Jan Weyand

Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, 2011, vol. 18, issue 4, 292-314

Abstract: Transnationale Unternehmenspolitiken und neue, insbesondere europaeische Gremien der betrieblichen Arbeitnehmervertretung erfordern, dass sich Arbeitnehmervertreter aus unterschiedlichen Systemen Industrieller Beziehungen miteinander verstaendigen. Um dies vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher kultureller Grundlagen der Interessenvertretung adaequat untersuchen zu koennen, muss die Forschung zur Organisation von Arbeitnehmerinteressen kultursoziologisch erweitert werden. Exemplarisch fuehren wir eine solche konzeptionelle Erweiterung am Themenfeld Solidaritaet durch. Begriff und Praxis der Solidaritaet rekurrieren auf die aehnlichkeit der Lage von Arbeitnehmern wie ihre Konkurrenz untereinander und die daraus erwachsende Notwendigkeit einer wechselseitigen Unterstuetzung im Kampf um bessere Arbeits- und Lebensbindungen. Wir entfalten anhand empirischer Daten die These, dass Aufrufe zur Solidaritaet nicht nur an der chronischen Diskrepanz zwischen Reden und Handeln und den dieser Diskrepanz zugrunde liegenden Interessenunterschieden scheitern, sondern auch daran, dass unterschiedliche Solidaritaetskonzepte, Handlungsbedingungen und -grenzen in der europaeischen Verstaendigung unzureichend aufeinander bezogen werden. (Both threats posed by transnational management strategies and the newly existing European level of workplace interest representation call for employee representatives to cooperate across cultures and national institutional systems. Intercultural communication and action in industrial relations raises new obstacles for actors but also new questions for research on this topic. In this paper we argue that research should broaden its focus towards cultural aspects within industrial relations. Therefore, a cultural sociological approach is applied in order to investigate communication and action regarding transnational solidarity in European workplace representation. The concept of solidarity focuses on the similarity of the social situation as well as on the competition among workers and underlines the need for mutual support in the struggle for better working and living conditions of working and live. Our main thesis is that failures of calls for solidarity do not only stem not only from existing differences of interest and power asymmetries but also from different meanings applied to solidarity. Both the meaning of solidarity and strategies in order to achieve solidarity are connected to with specific cultural “realms of experience” provided by different systems of industrial relations across Europe. The thesis will be developed from empirical data from Western Germany and Central Eastern Europe.)

Keywords: employer associations; interest representation; interest heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J59 J83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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