Comparative impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on work and employment—Why industrial relations institutions matter

Abstract

This introduction assesses the international impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on work and employment. It outlines conceptually why industrial relations institutions matter for shaping policy choices across different countries. This includes countries in the Global South that are not covered by conventional varieties of capitalism theories. An important focus is what IR institutions and policies played a protective role in the decommodification of labor during the pandemic, notably short‐time working (furlough) schemes, tripartite cooperative pacts, works councils, collective bargaining, and active labor market policies. IR institutions continue to matter, and the contributions in this Special Issue can inform future research.

Employee voice in times of crisis: A conceptual framework exploring the role of Human Resource practices and Human Resource system strength

“…Macroturbulence can be mediated by a myriad of institutional factors. Organizational action may be embedded in regional or country-specific institutional variations and thus, national institutions, cultures, politics, and demographics may partially account for employer responses, as seen with the COVID-19 pandemic (Dobbins et al, 2023). Hence, for example, more liberal market economies, such as the United States, may be less likely to buffer an external crisis than coordinated market economies with stronger institutional bases, such as Germany.…”

An Empirical Analysis of Race and Political Partisanship Effects on Workplace Mobility Patterns During Lockdown, Reopening, and Endemic COVID-19

“…An emerging literature also uncovered substantial heterogeneity in the pandemic's labor market impacts, including across US states (e.g., Forsythe, Kahn, Lange, and Wiczer 2020), in cross-national comparisons (e.g., Dobbins et al 2023), and across racial and ethnic groups. For instance, Cortes and Forsythe (2023) reported higher rates of job displacement among non-white workers, including relative to white workers in the same occupation and industry.…”

Human resource management in recession: Restructuring and alternatives to downsizing in times of crisis

“…In just over a decade two global crises have created significant economic, social and political instability across the world, and plunged many national economies into recession, with important consequences for work, employment and HRM (ILO, 2021). While the management of HR during recessions has tended to receive modest attention in mainstream HRM scholarship (Johnstone et al., 2019; Teague & Roche, 2014), ongoing economic uncertainty compounded by the global impact of COVID‐19 on employment adds impetus to the debate (Dobbins et al, 2023).…”