Internationalisation of markets and the demise of Keynesianism have made business more independent of associational action. Membership density and ‘corporatist’ involvement in wage bargaining and ...public policy have declined only modestly, while the capacity to govern members has dwindled significantly. This development is driven by the way in which large firms and the state relate to business associations. Large firms still have a vital interest not only in associational action, but also in integrating their smaller counterparts. Stated‐based support for multi‐employer bargaining, as established in most countries, buttresses business associations. By equipping the associations with an encompassing grip on the labour market, this support prompts governments to involve them in public policy. Since encompassing labour market regulation enables the associations to impose negative externalities on unaffiliated businesses, it provides them with a strong selective incentive for membership. The significant decline of the associations' governing capacity emanates from pressures of their large members to reduce costs of association. The implications of this development for interest intermediation are twofold. Given the strong decay of union power, the resilience of corporatism strongly hinges on the continued strength of organised business and on its state‐sponsored engagement in bargaining. At the same time, leeway for compromising has been restrained by the significant decline in the governing capacity of organised business. This decline echoes an ever‐growing predominance of large firms in business associations, while economic internationalisation exacerbates interest conflicts between larger and smaller firms. To the extent that this configuration of interest and power weakens the ability of business associations to integrate the mass of small firms, it develops into the new Achilles heel of corporatism.
It is commonly assumed that the current direction of economic change is detrimental to such collective industrial relations actors as employers' associations. Adopting a crossnationally comparative ...perspective, this paper examines how employers' associations cope with this challenge. This is done in two ways. On the one hand, the impact of economic change on membership strength is tested against the impact of industrial relations institutions that embed collective action. On the other hand, the paper analyzes how the employers' associations have actively tried to adjust themselves to the changing conditions. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass der gegenwärtige ökonomische Wandel die Probleme kollektiven Handelns, wie sie sich Arbeitgeberverbänden stellen, verschärft. Auf der Grundlage eines internationalen Vergleichs untersucht dieser Aufsatz, wie Arbeitgeberverbände auf diese Herausforderung reagieren. Dabei werden zum einen die Auswirkungen des ökonomischen Wandels im Verhältnis zum Einflussgewicht institutioneller Faktoren auf die Mitgliederstärke der Arbeitgeberverbände analysiert. Zum anderen wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche Anpassungsstrategien angesichts der veränderten Rahmenbedingungen von den Arbeitgeberverbänden eingeschlagen werden.
Research on the performance effects of bargaining remains inconclusive. One reason for this is neglect of heterogeneity of the bargainers, namely differences in exposure to world markets and their ...implications for international competitiveness. Since the effects of bargaining on competitiveness depend on coping with productivity differentials between the exposed and sheltered sector, we discuss how distinct bargaining structures interact with these differentials. Exposed‐sector pattern setting is predicted to be the only bargaining structure that is sensitive to productivity differentials. The findings from time series cross‐sectional analysis corroborate the expected impact on labour costs and the current balance, whereas no employment effects are discernible.
The article addresses the issue of multi-national employers' effects on employment practices and industrial relations through the findings of 12 case studies of multi-nationals in the Czech Republic, ...in the automotive and finance sectors. It is found that in the automotive sector, where product markets are international, there is more transnational organizational co-ordination, but companies avoid transferring their employee participation practices, preferring unilateral management and leading to vertical segmentation between Western and Eastern European sites. In finance, companies from liberal market economies transfer sophisticated direct participation practices, also for anti-union purposes, as firm-specific advantages. The industrial relations outcome shows enduring gaps with Western European practices.
. Given notable fluctuations in the relevance of corporatist practices over time, did profound transformations in the profile of corporatism accompany these fluctuations? Based on data from twenty ...OECD countries, this article examines whether and how corporatist wage regulation changed its profile in structures, policies and performance from 1970 to 1996. The empirical evidence obtained from this analysis runs counter to the orthodox view of superior persistence and performance of classical (i.e., encompassing and centralized) structures of corporatism. Non‐classical (‘lean’) structures have gained in importance and performed no worse than their classical counterparts. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings for corporatist theory.
Conventional wisdom regards wage regulation as uncoordinated across Europe. In relation to advanced economic integration, this implies a `suboptimal' wage area, which led to many conjectures about ...its consequences, ranging from disorganization of collective bargaining to adverse macro-economic effects. This article tests the wage linkages between Germany and the Nordic countries on time series data for the metal industry. The findings show that organized, transnationally coordinated wage policies characterize these countries: Convergence in pay rates results from both economic developments and coordination of transnational bargaining through the pattern-setting role of the German bargainers. These transnational wage policies require the consequences of European integration to be reconsidered for wage regulation and its economic effects.
This paper analyses the impact of national labour relations on foreign direct investment (FDI), with emphasis on macro-markets and sector properties. Since there are sector-specific differences ...between industries in transferability, labour-relations effects on FDI probably vary across sectors. The paper finds that labour costs dampen FDI, while the impact of national market potential remains inconclusive. Collective labour institutions have a significantly adverse impact on FDI in manufacturing, and a relatively beneficial one on FDI in services. While investment in manufacturing seeks to minimize labour costs at given skill levels, investment in services maximizes skills at given levels of cost.
Strong exposed‐sector unions and weak public‐sector unions are seen as having beneficial effects on macroeconomic performance. Although these effects must work through the bargaining structure, the ...interaction with union composition is unclarified. This paper argues that the interaction effect qualitatively differs with the bargaining type. The findings show that the performance of pattern bargaining significantly increases with growing exposed‐sector union strength whereas uncoordinated bargaining and centrally coordinated bargaining do not interact with union composition.
Pattern bargaining stands out as both an under‐researched and controversial subject. This article is an analytical and empirical contribution to this debate. Theoretically, it provides a conceptual ...framework, which enables analysis to systematically differentiate between distinct forms of pattern bargaining in terms of scope, agency, development and function, which arise from differing contexts in terms of interest configuration, power relations and economic conditions. This framework is used to develop testable hypotheses on pattern bargaining as a mechanism of inter‐industry bargaining co‐ordination. The empirical part of the article examines these hypotheses for collective bargaining from 1969 to 2004 in Austria, which is commonly seen as a paradigm case of pattern bargaining. The article concludes by highlighting the broader implications its findings have from a cross‐nationally comparative perspective.
This article discusses the implications of the current economic crisis for the interaction of economic policy and labour relations. Its structure distinguishes between four phases of economic policy: ...Keynesianism; the conversion to orthodox economics; economic policy under accelerating market integration; and current crisis management. For each of the phases the impact of economic policy on the involvement of organized interests in public policy, inter- and intra-class relations, the labour-relations institutions, their feedbacks and performance is discussed. The article concludes that the extent to which coordinated bargaining and its actors enjoy state sponsorship may make the difference between stability and disintegration, and whatever changes will occur, they will increase cross national heterogeneity.
