Abstract
The process of globalization driven by the activities of multinational companies (MNCs) has led some commentators to argue that MNCs are footloose, sourcing, producing and marketing on a global scale, as dictated by their business strategy (Ohmae, 1990; 1993; Strange, 1997; The Economist, 1995) and that through these denationalized companies, a process of homogenization is at work.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Artus, L, Schmidt, R. and Sterkel, G. (2000) Brüchige Tarifrealität: der schleichende Bedeutungsverlust tariflicher Normen in der ostdeutschen Industrie, Berlin: Sigma.
Beaumont, P. B., Cressey, P. and Jakobsen, P. (1990) ‘Key industrial relations: West German subsidiaries in Britain’, Employee Relations, 12, 6, pp. 3–7.
Bispinck, R. (1997) ‘Deregulierung, Differenzierung und Dezentralisierung des Flächentarifvertrages: Eine Bestandsaufnahme neuerer Entwicklungstendenzen der Tarifpolitik’, WSI-Mitteilungen, 8, pp. 551–61.
Brown, W., Deakin, S. and Ryan, P. (1997) ‘The effects of British industrial relations legislation 1979–97’, National Institute Economic Review, 38, 3, pp. 69–83.
Brown, W., Deakin, S., Hudson, M., Pratten, C. and Ryan, P. (1998) The individualisation of employment contracts in Britain, Research Paper for the Department of Trade and Industry.
Coller, X. (1996) ‘Managing flexibility in the food industry: A cross-national comparative case study in European multinational companies’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 2, pp. 153–72.
Coller, X. and Marginson, P. (1998) ‘Channels of influence over changing employment practice in multinational companies a case from the food industry’, Industrial Relations Journal, 29, 1, pp. 4–17.
Cully, M., Woodland, S., O’Reilly, A. and Dix, G. (1999) Britain at work. London: Routledge.
Dickens, L. and Hall, M. (1995) ‘The state: labour law and industrial relations’, in Edwards, P. K. (ed.) Industrial relations. Theory and practice in Britain, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 255–303.
Dickmann, M. (1999) Balancing global, parent and local influences: International human resource management of German multinational companies. D. Phil thesis, Birkbeck College, University of London.
Dörre, K. (1996) ‘Globalisierungsstrategien von Unternehmen — ein Desintegrationsphänomen? Zu den Auswirkungen grenzüberschreitender Unternehmensaktivitäten auf die industriellen Beziehungen’, SOFI-Mitteilungen, 24, pp. 15–28.
Dörre, K. (1997) ‘Globalisierung — eine strategische Option. Internationalisierung von Unternehmen und industrielle Beziehungen in der Bundesrepublik’, Industrielle Beziehungen, 4, 4, pp. 265–90. Economist, The (1995) ‘A survey of multinationals’, 24th June, pp. 3–30.
Edwards, P. K., Ferner, A. and Sisson, K. (1993) ‘People and the Process of Management in the Multinational Company: A Review and Some Illustrations’, Warwick Papers in Industrial Relations, No. 43.
Edwards, P. K., Hall, M., Hyman, R., Marginson, P., Sisson, K., Waddington, J. and Winchester, D. (1998) ‘Great Britain: from partial collectivism to neo-liberalism to where?’, in Ferner, A. and Hyman, R. (eds) Changing industrial relations in Europe, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1–54.
Edwards, T. (1998) ‘Multinationals, work organisation and the process of diffusion: A case study’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5, 4, pp. 696–709.
EIRO (European Industrial Relations Online) (1997) ‘Ford case highlights the costs of inward and outward investment’, www.eiro.eurofound.ie, February 1997.
EIRO (1999) ‘Information and consultation in the UK: an alien imposition?’, www.eiro.eurofound.ie, April 1999.
EIRO (2001a) ‘Corus announces large-scale redundancies’, www.eiro.eurofound.ie, February 2001.
EIRO (2001b) ‘Works Constitution Act reform adopted’, www.eiro.eurofound.ie, July 2001.
EIRO (2002) ‘UK reaction to agreement on EU employee consultation Directive’, www.eiro.eurofound.ie, January 2002.
EIRR (1994) ‘Labour costs and international competitiveness’, European Industrial Relations Review, 241, February, pp. 13–17.
EIRR (2000) ‘Unrest at Peugeot’, European Industrial Relations Review, 320/12.
Ferner, A. (1997a) ‘Country of origin effects and HRM in multinational companies’, Human Resource Management Joumal, 7, 1, pp. 19–37.
Ferner, A. (1997b) ‘Multinationals, relocation and employment in Europe’, in Gual, J. (ed.) Job creation: the role of labour market institutions, Aldershot: Edward Elgar, pp. 164–96.
Ferner, A. and Varul, M. (1999) The German way: German multinationals and the management of human resources in their UK subsidiaries. London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society.
Ferner, A., Quintanilla, X. and Varul, M. (2001) ‘Country-of-origin effects, host-country effects and the management of HR in multinationals: German companies in Britain and Spain’, Journal of World Business, 36, 2, pp. 107–28.
Grant, W. and Paterson, W. (1994) ‘The chemical industry: a study of internationalisation’ in Hollingsworth, J. R., Schmitter, P. C. and Streeck, W. (eds) Governing Capitalist Economies. Performance and Control of Economic Sectors, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 129–55.
Guest, D. and Hoque, K. (1995) ‘National ownership and HR practices in UK greenfield sites’, Human Resource Management Journal, 6, 4, pp. 50–74.
Hassel, A. (1999) ‘The erosion of the German system of industrial relations’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37, 3, pp. 483–505.
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1996) Globalization in question, Oxford: Blackwell.
Hu, Y.-S. (1992) ‘Global or stateless corporations are national firms with international operations’, California Management Review, Winter, pp. 107–26.
Jacobi, O., Keller, B. and Müller-Jentsch, W. (1998) ‘Germany: facing new challenges’ in Ferner, A. and Hyman, R. (eds) Changing industrial relations in Europe, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 190–238.
Jungnickel, R. (1996) ‘Globalisierung: Wandert die deutsche Wirtschaft aus?’, Wirtschaftsdienst, 6, pp. 309–16.
Kahn-Freund, O. (1983) ‘Labour law and industrial relations in Great Britain and West Germany’, in Wedderburn, K. W., Lewis, R. and Clark, J. (eds) Labour law and industrial relations: building on Kahn-Freund, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 1–13.
Kohaut, S. and Schnabel, C. (1998) ‘Flächentarifvertrag im Westen viel weiter verbreitet als im Osten’, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- undBerufsforschung Kurzbericht Nr. 19.
Kohaut, S. and Schnabel, C. (1999) ‘Tarifbindung im Wandel’, IW-Trends, Vol. 26, No. 2.
Kotthoff, H. (1981) Betriebsräte und Betriebliche Herrschaft. Eine Typologie von Partizipationsmustern im Industriebetrieb, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
Kotthoff, H. (1994) Betriebsräte und Bürgerstatus. Wandel und Kontinuität betrieblicher Mitbestimmung, Munich: Hampp Verlag.
Kurdelbusch, A. (2001) ‘The rise of variable pay in Germany: evidence and explanations’, Paper presented at the conference Multinational Companies and Human Resource Management: Between Globalisation and National Business Systems, De Montfort University, Leicester, 12th–14th July.
Lane, C. (1989) Management and labour in Europe. The industrial enterprise in Germany, Britain and France, Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
Lane, C. (1995) Industry and society in Europe. Stability and change in Britain, Germany and France, Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
Lane, C. (1997) ‘European companies between globalisation and localisation — a comparison of internationalisation strategies of British and German MNCs’, Economy and Society, 27, 4, pp. 462–85.
Lawrence, P. (1991) ‘The personnel function. An Anglo-German comparison’, in Brewster, C. and Tyson, S. (eds) International comparisons in human resource management. London: Pitman, pp.131–44.
Lohr, K., Röbenach, S. and Schmidt, E. (1995) ‘Industrielle Beziehungen im Wandel’, in Schmidt, R. (ed.) Chancen und Risiken der industriellen Restrukturierung in Ostdeutschland, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, pp. 183–215.
Marginson, P. (1994) ‘Multinational Britain: employment and work in an internationalised economy’, Human Resource Management Journal, 4, 4, pp. 63–80.
Marginson, P., Buitendam, A., Deutschmann, C. and Perulli, P. (1993) ‘The emergence of the Euro-company: towards a European industrial relations?’, Industrial Relations Journal, 24, 3, pp. 182–90.
Marginson, P. and Sisson, K. (1994) ‘The structure of transnational capital in Europe: the emerging Euro-Company and its implications for industrial relations’, in Hyman, R. and Ferner, A. (eds) New frontiers in European industrial relations, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 15–51.
Mendez, A. (1995) ‘Stratégie des entreprises et intégration sociale européenne’ Quint-Essenzen, no. 43, January, Institut für Arbeitsrecht und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft, Trier.
Mueckenberger, U. (1988) ‘Juridification of industrial relations: A German British comparison’, Comparative Labour Law Journal, 9, pp. 526–56.
Mueller, E (1996) ‘National stakeholders in the global contest for corporate investment’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 2, 3, pp. 345–68.
Mueller, F. and Purcell, J. (1992) ‘The Europeanisation of manufacturing and the decentralisation of bargaining: multinational management strategies in the European automobile industry’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 3, 1, pp. 15–34.
Müller, M. (1996) Unitarism, pluralism and human resource management in Germany: A comparison of foreign and German-owned companies. D. Phil Thesis, Birkbeck College, University of London.
Müller, M. (1997) ‘Institutional resilience in an changing world economy? The case of the German banking and chemical industries’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 35, 4, pp. 609–26.
Müller, M. (1998) ‘Human resource and industrial relations practices of UK and US multinationals in Germany’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 9, 4, pp. 732–49.
Ohmae, K. (1990) The borderless world, London, New York: Collins.
Ohmae, K. (1993) ‘The rise of the region state’, Foreign Affairs, Spring: 78–87.
Porter, M. (1990) The competitive advantage of nations, London, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Purcell, J. (1993) ‘The end of industrial relations institutions’, Political Quarterly, 64, 1, pp. 6–23.
Purcell, J. (1995) ‘Ideology and the end of institutional industrial relations: evidence from the UK’, in Crouch, C. and Traxler, F. (eds) Organized industrial relations in Europe: what future? Aldershot: Avebury, pp. 101–20.
Royle, T. (1998) Avoidance strategies and the German system of co-determination, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 9, 6, pp. 1026–47.
Ruigrok, W. and van Tulder, R. (1995) The logic of international restructuring, London: Routledge.
Schmidt, R. (1998) ‘The transformation of industrial relations in Eastern Germany’, in Hoffmann, R. and Jacobi, O. (eds) The German model of industrial relations between adaptation and erosion, Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, pp. 51–60.
Smith, C. and Meiksins, P. (1995) ‘System, society and dominance effects in cross-national organisational analysis’, Work, Employment and Society 9, 2, pp. 241–67.
Sparrow, P. and Hiltrop, J.-M. (1994) European human resource management in transition, Hemel Hemptstead: Prentice Hall.
Strange, S. (1997) ‘The future of global capitalism; or will divergence persist forever?’, in Crouch, C. and Streeck, W. (eds) Political economy of modern capitalism. Mapping convergence and diversity, London: Sage, pp. 182–91.
Streeck, W. (1987) ‘The uncertainties of management in the management of uncertainty: employers, labor relations and industrial adjustment in the 1980s’, Work, Employment and Society, 1, 3, pp. 281–308.
Tempel, A. (2001) The cross-national transfer of human resource management practices in German and British multinational companies, Mering: Hampp.
Towers, B. (1997) The representation gap: change and reform in the British and American workplace, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
TUC Press Release (2000) ‘The media shouldn’t learn of job losses before workers, says TUC’, www.tuc.org.uk, 19th December 2000.
Tüselmann, H-J. (1998) ‘Deutsche Auslandsinvestitionen in den neunziger Jahren: Abwanderung der deutschen Industrie und Abbau von Arbeitsplätzen?’ WSI-Mitteilungen, 5, pp. 292–302.
Tüselmann, H. J., McDonald, F. and Heise, A. (2001) Die Globalisierung der deutschen Wirtschaft: Deutsche Direktinviestitionen in Nordwestengland, WSI Mitteilungen, 1, pp. 13–19.
Wächter, H. (1983) Mitbestimmung, Politische Forderung und betriebliche Reaktion. München: Verlag Vahlen.
Weiss, M. (ed.) (1992) European employment and industrial relations glossary: Germany, London: Sweet and Maxwell.
Whitley, R. (1992) ‘Societies, firms and markets: the social structuring of business systems’ in Whitley, R. (ed.) European business systems. Firms and markets in their national contexts, London: Sage, pp. 5–45.
Whitley, R. (1994) ‘Dominant forms of economic organization in market economies’, Organization Studies, 15, 2, pp. 153–82.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2002 Mike Geppert, Dirk Matten and Karen Williams
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tempel, A. (2002). Multinational Companies, Institutional Environments and the Diffusion of Industrial Relations Practices. In: Geppert, M., Matten, D., Williams, K. (eds) Challenges for European Management in a Global Context — Experiences from Britain and Germany. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230510180_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230510180_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43118-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-51018-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)