Steen E. Navrbjerg

Local Agreements as an Instrument for Improvement of Management—Employee Collaboration on Occupational Health and Safety

Employee participation is crucial to safe and secure workplace environments. Health and safety regulation or voluntary agreements form two different approaches to this. In Denmark, a legislative change facilitates combining the two approaches. The new flexibility of approach enables the organization of health and safety to be tailored to the needs of the workplace based on a local agreement negotiated between management and local union representatives. This new approach is explored in this article. The study finds that the system has a positive impact on employee participation, improves collaborative relations, strengthens local commitment and there is a perceived increase in organizational efficiency and flexibility; all factors that have been shown to increase safety performance.

HRM and IR in multinational corporations in Denmark: uneasy bedfellows?

As multinational corporations operate in multiple countries, headquarters must take into account differences in local settings when seeking the means to coordinate and control subsidiaries. The local system of industrial relations sets the framework for what kind of human resource management a multinational corporation can implement. Yet another question is whether the still stronger multinationals can change the existing systems of industrial relations, directly or indirectly. The paper analyzes four Danish enterprises over a 10-year period. This longitudinal study shows that none of the multinationals directly try to interfere in local industrial relations. However, by exercising their management prerogative in a way that differs from the Northern European tradition of industrial relations, they do influence the cooperation between employers and employees. In particular, the results show, that a shift from a stakeholder to a shareholder management style and an increased degree of HQ control have an effect on the whole cooperative atmosphere in each of the companies. In the long run, they may affect the collective bargaining system as such.

The labor market regimes of Denmark and Norway - One Nordic model?

The literature on the Danish and Norwegian labor market systems emphasizes the commonalities of the two systems. We challenge this perception by investigating how employers in multinational companies in Denmark and Norway communicate with employees on staffing changes. We argue that the development of ‘flexicurity’ in Denmark grants Danish employers considerably greater latitude in engaging in staffing changes than its Nordic counterpart, Norway. Institutional theory leads us to suppose that large firms located in the Danish setting will be less likely to engage in employer–employee communication on staffing plans than their Norwegian counterparts. In addition, we argue that in the Danish context indigenous firms will have a better insight into the normative and cognitive aspects to flexicurity than foreign-owned firms, meaning that they are more likely to engage in institutional entrepreneurialism than their foreign-owned counterparts. We supplement institutional theory with an actor perspective in order to take into account the role of labor unions. Our analysis is based on a survey of 203 firms in Norway and Denmark which are either indigenous multinational companies or the subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies. The differences we observe cause us to conclude that the notion of a common Nordic model is problematic.

The economic crisis: Testing employee relations

Company based bargaining during the recent economic crisis has been subject to some research, but little is known about how this affects employee relations. This article addresses this literature gap by examining the employee relations in companies highly affected, less affected and not affected by the crisis. It argues that although Danish shop stewards are involved in developing local responses to the crisis, most manage to keep their colleagues onboard, even if decisions concern reduced earnings and dismissals. However, a limit exists to the collaboration: in companies hardest hit by the crisis shop stewards are more likely to find conflicts of interests between management and colleagues stressful and fewer feel respected by colleagues. Therefore, shop stewards’ engagement in local bargaining comes at a cost and may jeopardize their relations with colleagues. The analysis also reveals that shop stewards from time to time have to cooperate and engage in conflicts with management as well as colleagues as part of local bargaining.

Advancing understanding on industrial relations in multinational companies: Key research challenges and the INTREPID contribution

This paper has three principal aims. It firstly provides some theoretical background on the key current research issues and challenges in regard to industrial relations in multinational companies. It then presents a concise review of scholarship to date on industrial relations in multinational companies using INTREPID (Investigation of Transnationals’ Employment Practices: an International Database) data. Finally, the paper identifies some of the main industrial relations issues that remain to be addressed, in effect charting a form of research agenda for future work using the INTREPID data, with particular focus on the potential contribution from ‘late joiners’ to the INTREPID project.

Bargaining for equal pay and work–life balance in Danish companies – Does gender matter?:

This article adds new insights into how equal pay and work–life balance issues are negotiated in male- and female-dominated companies, based on a survey of 3275 shop stewards, conducted in 2010. Inspired by Gregory and Milner’s concept of opportunity structures, we argue that the gender composition of the workforce affects the equal pay and work–life balance discussions and actions in Danish companies, but in a slightly different way from expected. It is often the male shop steward who exploits the opportunity structure created by more women among the staff to develop equal pay and work–life balance actions.

The effects of union mergers and internal restructuring: a bottom-up perspective by Danish shop stewards: The effects of Union mergers and Internal Restructuring

This article explores how recent union mergers and restructuring affect unions service provision, interest representation and perceived union influence. We find that Danish shop stewards are just as satisfied with their unions service provision and interest representation but report of greater influence on federal and local branch union politics in 2010 compared to 1998.

The (un)predictable factor: the role of subsidiary social capital in international takeovers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the implementation of headquarters-originated employment practices affect multinational corporation (MNC) ability to exploit the value of organizational social capital of the acquired subsidiary. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use qualitative insights collected over 16 years from a Danish company to illustrate how a foreign MNC’s interference with the balanced structure of relations, norms, and roles in a subsidiary jeopardized the value of existing social capital. Findings – The authors argue that changes in the collective perception of employment practices create the collective response, constructive or destructive, resulting respectively in the gain or loss of the performance benefits arising from organizational social capital. Practical implications – The authors suggest two guidelines and two general propositions for future research on the value of organizational social capital in international takeovers. Originality/value – The res...