Marta Kahancová   One Company, Diverse Workplaces The Social Construction of Employment Practices in Western and Eastern Europe     Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 280 pages | ISBN 978-0-2305-7977-4 | £ 60.00   Order book directly from Palgrave Macmillan.

 

 

Abstract | Contents | Author

 

 

Abstract

 
In the complex world of corporate and host-country influences, social interaction between multinational and local actors, including employees, trade unions and the local society, is the underlying social mechanism through which employment practices are constructed. This focus is a conceptual amendment to the comparative institutionalist perspective on multina-tionals, integrating actors’ values, interests, behavior, and social interaction within the broader framework of the comparative institutional approach.
 
This book provides an inquiry into the process through which multinational companies establish and reinforce their position in host-country labor markets. A particular focus is on the construction of employment practices in multinationals’ subsid-iaries across Western European and post-socialist Central and Eastern European host countries, and the assessment of their diversity across the subsidiaries of the same company.
 
Presenting original empirical evidence gathered in five countries, it is a direct response to recent literature’s call for syste-matic comparative analyses of processes and outcomes of politics inside multinational firms and the relationship between management and employees in a cross-national perspective.
 

 

Contents

 
Introduction: Multinationals and Employment Practices Across Europe
 
Constructing Employment Practices in MNCs: A Framework for Analysis
 
One Multinational, Four Host Countries: On Diversity in Subsidiary Employment Practices
 
Channelling Corporate Values and Interests: Social Interaction within the Multinational Company
 
Building a Local Corporate Presence: Social Interaction Between the MNC and Local Societies
 
From Bargaining to Dancing: Social Interaction Between the Multinational Company and Local Trade Unions
 
The Social Foundations of Trade Union Influence: Cross-Border Interaction of Trade Unions and the European Works Council
 
Accounting for Diversity: Company Interests, Host-Country Effects and Social Interaction
 
Conclusions: Multinationals, Employment Practices and Institutional Change from Below
 

 

Author

 
Marta Kahancová is Managing director and a research Fellow at the Central European Labour Studies Institute in Bratislava, Slovakia and a visiting assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. In 2006 and 2008, Marta was a doctoral and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. Her dissertation received the 2009 award of the Dutch Sociological Association.