Institutions, unionization and voice: The relative impact of context and actors on firm level practice

Abstract

Trade unions provide a voice in the way firms are run, an input into reward systems and increased security of employment. But these vary with national context. Using transnational survey evidence, we explore the relative impact of setting, and of unions and collective bargaining, on these issues. We find that, irrespective of context organisations are significantly more likely to make usage of compulsory redundancies in the absence of unions and collective bargaining. However, in other areas, the impact of unions appeared less pronounced than that of the wider context. We explore the reasons behind this, and the broader policy implications thereof.Key words: context, varieties of capitalism, trade unions, collective bargaining, nonunionism, reward systems, redundancies Acknowledgements: We thank the members of the Cranet network who collected the data, Cranfield School of Management who co-ordinate the network, and the helpful comments and insights of the anonymous referees.

Establishments’ use of temporary agency workers: the influence of institutions and establishments’ employment strategies

“…Indeed, despite increasing levels of internationalization and attendant pressures to de-regulate economies, in general, and employment regulations, in particular, comparative institutional analysis (CIA) has shown how patterns of economic coordination continue to differ between countries (Hotho, 2014;Psychogios and Wood, 2010;Szamosi et al, 2010), supporting the view that contrasting institutional settings lead to different kinds of advantages to firms (Allen and Whitely, 2012;Schneider and Paunescu, 2012). More specifically, CIA analyses have shown how employment legislation can shape employers' investments in particular employee skills (Harcourt and Wood, 2007), how institutionalized forms of worker voice can lower employee turnover rates (Croucher et al, 2012) and collective redundancies (Brewster et al, 2015), and how institutions shape organizations' use of external training providers (Walker et al, 2014).…”

Context and HRM: Theory, Evidence, and Proposals

“…It is expected that employees will have least voice in the owner-focused LMEs and more in the stakeholder-focused CMEs. There is now considerable evidence that these predictions are broadly correct Brewster et al 2014;Brewster, Wood, and Goergen 2015). Brewster et al (2014) found that, although the picture was complex, both direct and indirect participation varied with setting, being much more likely to occur in CMEs.…”

The meaning and value of comparative human resource management: an introduction

“…The comparative capitalisms literature argues that there is a limited range of institutional factors that shape the choices of rational actors, creating path dependency (Goergen et al, 2012), and that these institutional factors, such as law and political systems, interact with each other to have a combined effect on HRM (Psychogios & Wood, 2010). Empirical examples include the use of non-standard working time across market economies (Richbell et al, 2011), levels of voluntary and involuntary employee turnover (Croucher et al, 2012), use of a broad range of HRM practices (Farndale et al, 2008), and extent of union recognition (Brewster et al, 2015b). The notion of complementarities is again key here, whereby complex patterns of institutional factors combine to create similar HRM outcomes (Croucher et al, 2012;Walker et al, 2014).…”