Patterns, ideologies and strategies of non‐statutory employee representation in German private sector companies

Abstract

Non-statutory firm level employee representation (NSR), which in contrast to legally based works councils is composed of voluntary patterns, is by now only rarely recognised in German labour relations debate and research. Based on case studies, the article analyses the establishment, modes of operation and participation outcome of NSRs in German private sector companies. While previous NSR research in countries such as Britain and the United States mainly focused on employer-initiated representation plans, the array of NSRs in German companies appears to be broader: Four types of NSRs are introduced, and a theoretical account is developed, which emphasises cultural-institutional arguments and actors strategies. Hence, it is argued that while NSRs appear to be instruments of management seeking to effectively organise company interest regulation, they strongly reflect cultural conditions and ideologies of non-statutory employee representation.i rj_645 530..546

Collective employee representation in German companies

“…Qualitative case studies, on the other hand, have emphasized the importance of "firm cultures of capital-labour interchange" (Bosch et al, 1999) and "firmspecific social orders" (Kotthoff, 1994) in explaining specific types of firm-related labour regulation [5]. Since these factors have been proven to be important by qualitative research on the conditions which explain the establishment of either a works council or an NSR (see Boes and Trinks, 2006;Hertwig, 2011b;Ittermann, 2009;Hilbert and Sperling, 1993), we considered it appropriate that they be included in our survey design.…”

“…The cultural characteristics of a company have been found to play a highly significant role for the establishment of works councils and NSRs (Kotthoff, 1994;Bosch et al, 1999;Hertwig, 2011b) which, however, have been widely neglected in quantitative studies so far. Company cultures comprise unique systems of specific collective values, norms, interpretation schemes and expectations (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005).…”

“…However, while there are various strong effects for the prediction of the existence of works councils, this appears to be less the case for NSRs. One explanation might be that there are different types of non-statutory forms of representation (Hertwig, 2011b) which may pull the coefficients in opposite directions, thereby eliminating effects. Yet, those we cannot model those types with the quantitative data used here.…”

“…Basically, NSRs are voluntary bodies which fulfil a variety of functions and are sometimes installed by management. It has been argued that such NSRs in German companies have similar characteristics to non-union employee representation bodies (NERs) in English-speaking countries which often serve as employer-driven HRM instruments (Hertwig, 2011b). However, concerning NSRs in Germany some important questions arise which have not been covered in previous research, like: under what company-related conditions do NSR patterns exist?…”

Kampf um Mitbestimmung

“…Schließlich kann konstatiert werden, dass »Anti-Unionism« globale Ausmaße besitzt (vgl. Gall/Dundon 2013;Hertwig 2011b). Neben der Erforschung dieser spezifischen Maßnahmen, die von Unternehmensseite ergriffen werden, um Gewerkschaften aus den Betrieben fernzuhalten, wird in der angloamerikanischen Debatte zunehmend das Handeln von Gewerkschaften in den Blick genommen, um erfolgreiche Strategien gegen die Gewerkschaftsverhinderung identifizieren zu können.…”