Globalisation And Employee Participation

First published in 1997, this is an important and wide-ranging book. It is rooted in a fascinating, research-based case study of employee participation in the state-owned Greek public power (electricity) corporation. Drawing on extensive familiarity with the relevant literatures, however, it also provides a full appreciation of the significance of this case by placing it within both the history and current framework of employee organisation and industrial relations in Greece, and the development of Greece as a peripheral capitalist society in a global economy. By exploring the issue of employee participation in this way Dr Psimmenos not only makes a unique, original contribution to the study of industrial organisation and management-worker relations in Europe but also shows the impact which the institutions and processes of globalisation have upon a society and economy like Greece – part of the European Union and also subject to the constraints of international capitalism. Globalisation and Employee Participation will be welcomed by academics and researchers in sociology, politics, industrial relations and political economy, as well as those concerned with the history and present state of Greece and other Mediterranean societies. It is a valuable, scholarly addition to the literature in these areas.

First published in 1997, this is an important and wide-ranging book. It is rooted in a fascinating, research-based case study of employee participation in the state-owned Greek public power (electricity) corporation. Drawing on extensive familiarity with the relevant literatures, however, it also provides a full appreciation of the significance of this case by placing it within both the history and current framework of employee organisation and industrial relations in Greece, and the development of Greece as a peripheral capitalist society in a global economy. By exploring the issue of employee participation in this way Dr Psimmenos not only makes a unique, original contribution to the study of industrial organisation and management-worker relations in Europe but also shows the impact which the institutions and processes of globalisation have upon a society and economy like Greece - part of the European Union and also subject to the constraints of international capitalism. Globalisation and Employee Participation will be welcomed by academics and researchers in sociology, politics, industrial relations and political economy, as well as those concerned with the history and present state of Greece and other Mediterranean societies. It is a valuable, scholarly addition to the literature in these areas.

This text examines the theme of employee participation in large industrial undertakings, through its political and ideological content, and provides a detailed study of the effects that capital's global industrial restructuring has had on the role and discourse of employees in the democratization of industrial relations. Following a comparative review of the main global trends and characteristics of industrial developments, the book emphasizes the political role of two major processes - integration and deregulation of industrial organization in the shaping of a framework of power relationships between capital and labour.

Helps readers deliver practical policies to transform work world and society. This work consists of twelve articles. The first four papers relate to the growing literature on employee participation and firm performance. The second group of papers looks at the impact of ownership structures into managerial compensation and control.

Values at Work is an analysis of organizational dynamics with wide-ranging implications in an age of market globalization. It looks at the challenges businesses face to maintain people-oriented work systems while remaining successful in the larger economy. George Cheney revisits the famous Mondragón worker-owned-and-governed cooperatives in the Basque Country of Spain to examine how that collection of innovative and democratic businesses is responding to the broad trend of marketization. The Mondragón cooperatives are changing in important ways as a direct result of both external pressures to be more competitive and the rise of consumerism, as well as through the modification of internal policies toward greater efficiency. One of the most remarkable aspects of the changes is that some of the same business slogans now heard around the globe are being adopted in this set of organizations renowned for its strongly held internal values, such as participatory democracy, solidarity, and equality. Instead of emphasizing the special or unique qualities of the Mondragón experience, this book demonstrates the case's relevance to trends in all sectors and across the industrialized world.

This title was first published in 2001. Management of the employment relationship changed markedly in the last two decades of the 21st century, and a major part of this has been the extension of employee involvement and participation in the workplace. Modern management theorists and researchers have commonly emphasized the importance of two-way communication and co-operation between management and labour in determining the success of human resource management (HRM) strategy and in maximizing workplace efficiency. Some researchers argue employee participation and empowerment are progressive management practices which have universal benefits to performance enhancement, as opposed to most other HRM practices whose success is contingent upon the organizational context. This title explores these themes through an international collection of case studies, which are the outcome of a comparative project of the Workers' Participation Study Group of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA).

'This fifth edition is an indispensable tool for all those interested in keeping abreast with the developments in the world of work on a global scale.' - Peter Auer, International Labour Organisation'By far the best and most widely used contemporary comparative industrial relations book.' - Sarosh Kuruvilla, Cornell University, USAEarlier editions of this book have become the standard reference for a worldwide readership of students, scholars and practitioners in international agencies, governments, companies and unions. This fifth edition examines globalisation and comparative theories, including notions of convergence and of varieties of capitalism.Chapters on employment relations in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea are updated, and new chapters on China, India and Denmark are included. Experts examine the context of employment relations in each country: economic, historical, legal, social and political. They outline the roles of the major players: employers, unions and governments. They outline the processes of employment relations: local and centralised collective bargaining, arbitration and mediation, joint consultation and employee participation. Topical issues are discussed: non-unionised workplaces, novel forms of human resource management, labour law reform, employee involvement, multinational enterprises, networked organisations, differences between Asian and western companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, migrant workers, technological change, labour market flexibility and pay determination.

Worker Participation: Current Research and Future Trends, Volume 16 of Research in the Sociology of Work, offers cutting edge research on the character and implications of workplace participation. Written by some of the leading scholars in the sociology of workplace transformation and alternative organizations, the chapters here examine various outcomes, causes, and consequences related to participation programs and worker democracy today. Topics include ways in which participation schemes are socially constructed and negotiated; the meanings that workers attach to opportunities for involvement in the workplace; practice, participation, and consent in alternative organizations such as cooperatives and collectives; and theoretical treatments that call for new ways of thinking about workplace participation. Methodologically pluralist and concerned less with specific productivity effects of worker participation, this volume highlights the social structural, social constructionist, and meta theoretical dimensions of worker participation and democratic organizations in the twenty-first century. The global, 24/7 economy and the organizational changes it has generated have enormous implications for the organization, experience and use of time in (and out of) the workplace. In addition to eroding the boundary between home and work, creating time pressures both within and outside of the workplace, the need for businesses to compete in a 24/7 global economy has re-problematized time in the workplace. Drawing on sociology, labor economics, organizational behavior and social history, the papers in this volume examine either empirically or theoretically, a variety of aspects of time in the workplace. Contributors to this volume examine issues surrounding the distribution of and struggle over work hours and how these vary across a number of factors including race, class, occupation and other structural components of work. They examine temporal structures within organizations including inequities in flexible scheduling, entrainment and work teams, polychronicity, and how changing temporal structures affect professionalism and expertise. They also consider the way in which changing uses and organization of work time, in the context of economic instability and globalization, affect the difficulties of reconciling work and family. At the more micro-level, the papers consider individuals' perceptions and constructions and intersubjective constructions of time. To varying degrees, the authors speak to the policy implications or strategies for managing new times. Taken as a whole, these papers shed light on the way in which globalization and the emergence of a 24/7 economy have altered the ways, times, and meanings of time at work. Research in the Sociology of Work is now available online at ScienceDirect full-text online of volumes 10 onwards. *Examines various worker participation models and evaluates the success of their outcomes *Adopts a variety of methods and highlights the different dimensions of worker participation

This book has become the standard reference for a worldwide readership of students, scholars, and practitioners in international agencies, governments, companies and unions. The Fifth Edition examines globalization and comparative theories, including notions of convergence and of varieties of capitalism. Using a consistent format in each chapter, experts examine the environment of employment relations in each country: economic, historical, legal, social and political. They outline the roles of the major players: employers, unions and governments. Then follow discussions of the main processes of employment relations: local and centralized collective bargaining, arbitration and mediation, joint consultation and employee participation.