External Flexibility in Sweden and Canada: A Three Industry Comparison

Smith, Michael R.; Masi, Anthony C.; Berg, Axel van den; Smucker, Joseph D.

doi:10.1177/0950017095009004005

Cited by 5 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…is that it stipulates that redundancies are to occur strictly according to reverse seniority unless the unions agree otherwise. 11 For more detailed comparisons of the mdustry's layoff experiences and employment histories in the two countries, see Smith et al (1995) and Johansson (1990). 12 Not the least of these institutions is the incorporation of Unemployment Insurance support during penods of temporary layoffs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing Change: A Two-Country, Three- Industry Comparison

et al. 2000

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There are three broad explanations for why workers adapt, or fail to adapt, to technological change in the workplace. The adversarial perspective holds that employment security produces resistant workers, and conversely that insecurity assures efficiency in adapting a workforce to technological and organizational changes. Institutionalists argue the opposite, emphasizing that secure workers have little to fear from change. Finally, a neo-corporatist variant sees managers and powerful trade-union leaders as capable of successfully negotiating industrial changes, independently of rank and file preferences. In this paper we explore these explanations via interview data collected from managers and trade unionists (or labour representatives) from Canada and Sweden. Our focus is on three industries -pulp and paper, steel and telecommunications equipment. Analyses deal with specific questions associated with the introduction of new equipment and technology, attempts to introduce organizational restructuring, and experiences with layoffs. We further examine respondents' comments on obstacles encountered during the change process, including the reactions, conflicts and grievances of the rank and file workers at their plants, mills and factories. On the whole, the results of our interviews with respondents at seventy-three plants in our three-industry two-country comparison seem to contradict the strict adversarial theory. While our data provide some evidence in favour of the institutionalist perspective, the neo-corporatist arguments found the most support. Swedish trade union leaders were viewed by managers, and viewed themselves, as more positively disposed to change than either their Canadian counterparts or workers in either country

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing Change: A Two-Country, Three- Industry Comparison

et al. 2000

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“…In Canada, this was marked by lay-offs followed by short periods of retention or even short spurts of growth, and then lay-offs again. Sweden, by contrast, had relatively steady, even orderly, rates of decline (Smith et al 1995).…”

Section: The Researchmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Because our focus is on labour deployment strategies within plants, we exclude from direct consideration the use of strategies which draw on "external" labour markets: strategies such as hiring and firing, the use of sub-contracting and the use of part-time and contract labour. These strategies are considered in another paper (Smith et al 1995;see also Streeck 1992b). …”

Section: Support For This Research Was Provided By the Social Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Under these conditions, managers are restricted in selecting those workers they wish to lay off or hire, in altering work assignments within plants and in altering wage levels and schemes of remuneration. Finally, Canadian managers assume, at least implicitly, that there are benefits to be derived from providing employment security to regain costs of skills training, and to ensure at least some minimal levels of trust in the employment contract (Smith et al 1995;Wells 1986;Mangum, Mayall and Nelson 1985;see also Osterman 1988: 64-65).…”

Section: Government Labour Market Policies: Canada and Swedenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Labour Deployment in Plants in Canada and Sweden

Smucker¹,

Berg²,

Smith³

et al. 1998

Relations industrielles

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“…This is unfortunate, as cross-national comparisons are needed to examine the role of the state and cultural differences in shaping employers' labour utilization strategies. Moreover, the few explicitly comparative studies of organizations' use of nonstandard work arrangements that have been published in WES and elsewhere are limited with regard to their coverage of establishment size or industrial sector: for example, Gooderham and Nordhaug (1997) only study establishments with more than 200 employees, whereas Walsh (1997), O'Reilly (1992) and Smith et al (1995) only include certain industries. Yet organizational-level comparisons are needed because the employer is the key actor who chooses which types of work arrangements to use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-Standard Work in Two Different Employment Regimes

Olsen¹,

Kalleberg

2004

Work, Employment and Society

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This article examines organizations' use of non-standard work arrangementsfixed-term employees hired directly by the organization, workers from temporary help agencies (THA), and contractors -in the United States and Norway. Our analysis is based on information obtained from surveys of 802 establishments in the US and 2130 in Norway.We find that Norwegian establishments make greater use of non-standard arrangements than the US establishments; we argue that this is due in part to the greater overall restrictive labour market regulations on hiring and firing regular workers, and greater demand for temporary labour resulting from generous access to leaves of absence, in Norway. We also find that certain institutional factors have a similar impact in both countries. First, establishments in the public sector are more likely to use direct-hired temporary workers and less apt to use contractors and THAs; this pattern is particularly striking in Norway, but is also evident in the United States. Second, highly unionized establishments tend to have the lowest use of non-standard arrangements in both countries. KEY WORDS

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External Flexibility in Sweden and Canada: A Three Industry Comparison

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Manufacturing Change: A Two-Country, Three- Industry Comparison

Manufacturing Change: A Two-Country, Three- Industry Comparison

Labour Deployment in Plants in Canada and Sweden

Non-Standard Work in Two Different Employment Regimes

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