Michael Wortmann

The internationalization of corporate research and development

Foreign direct investment has grown rapidly in recent decades and, along with it, foreign research and development activities. The following article analyzes the reasons for the internationalization of R&D, examines its patterns in relationship to Germany and discusses the implications for future policy.

National Industrial Relations Systems and Cross-Border Restructuring: Evidence From a Merger in the Pharmaceuticals Sector

This article examines the restructuring process following a cross-border merger in the pharmaceuticals sector. We show how national industrial relations systems account for some aspects of cross-national differences in the process and outcomes of restructuring. However, we also argue that institutionalist approaches to comparative analysis must be complemented by a focus on the material interests of organizational actors and the resources that they can deploy.

Micro-political game playing in Lidl: A comparison of store-level employment relations

This article examines how the rules of micro-political game playing, based on the global standardization and cost leadership approach of a European ‘hard discounter’, are interpreted in practice in Finland, Germany, Ireland, Spain and the UK. We find that small store size, together with centralized authority relations and power structures, make it difficult for actors to engage effectively in coalition-building and political strategies to influence work and employment. Our comparison also reveals that the interpretation of employment-related rules of the game is country-specific. In Finland, and to some extent in Spain, national employment systems enabled employees to build more robust toolkits for playing micro-political games than in the other countries investigated.

Industrial relations in European hypermarkets: Home and host country influences

In this article we examine the industrial relations practices of three large European food retailers when they transfer the hypermarket format to other countries. We ask, first, how industrial relations in hypermarkets differ from those in other food retailing outlets. Second, we examine how far the approach characteristic of each company’s country-of-origin (Germany, France and the UK) shapes the practices adopted elsewhere. Third, we ask how they respond to the specific industrial relations systems of each host country (Turkey, Poland, Ireland and Spain).

Patterns of Employee Relations Governance in a Large British Multinational Food Retailer: An Unusual Case of a Longstanding Partnership?

This article investigates an example of variance from the Varieties of Capitalism literature in the case of a longstanding partnership between a major British food retail multinational company and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW). We argue that it can be seen as a corporate attempt to institutionalize conflict and engage the energies of the employees in achieving corporate goals in a situation of high union membership density and recognition in the UK retail industry. The findings underline the importance of sectoral diversity within national capitalist economies in the context of increased internationalization and the significant role still played by labour even in a liberal market economy such as the UK.

Relaciones laborales en fusiones y adquisiciones transnacionales. Una aproximación política (Labour Relations in International Mergers and Takeovers. A Political Approach)

Este articulo estudia la reestructuracion que siguio a la fusion de dos multinacionales del sector farmaceutico. Los procesos de fusion y adquisicion constituyen un buen escenario para la investigacion de la capacidad de las multinacionales para difundir sus politicas y practicas mas alla de las fronteras de sus paises de origen. Se seleccionaron cuatro plantas comparables en cuatro paises suficientemente diversos por lo que se refiere a sus marcos institucionales de regulacion de las relaciones de empleo: Reino Unido, Estados Unidos, Alemania y Espana. Tambien se seleccionaron diversas politicas puestas en practica globalmente por la central corporativa. Los resultados de la investigacion demuestran que los marcos institucionales nacionales solo constituyen una constriccion relativa para la accion de la central corporativa. Incluso en paises altamente regulados, como Alemania o (en menor grado) Espana, la compania multinacional demostro su capacidad para difundir las politicas que queria implantar. Mas alla de los factores institucionales tradicionales, la investigacion demuestra la importancia de los factores politicos(en el plano corporativo, nacional e incluso de planta) para entender el exito o el fracaso de la central corporativa en la difusion de ciertas practicas.

Multinational companies in the EU and European Works Councils

In June the EU Council of Ministers (excluding the UK) took up a common position concerning European Works Councils. The establishment of such Councils would grant certain information and consultation rights to the workers of multinational companies. The following paper looks at the importance of MNCs in the EU and tries to assess the extent to which European Works Councils could cope with the social problems arising in these MNCs.

Technical Developments and Internationalisation of the German Clothing and Knitwear Industry

This paper highlights the central role that computer-aided technology plays in shaping the internationalisation of Germany’s clothing manufacturing industry. In the emerging international division of labour, German manufacturers specialise in high-tech, high-value items at home, sourcing the rest from other parts of the world. This strategy may be commercially sound but, as the author argues, leaves little space for the immediate needs of women workers employed in the depressed regions of Germany.