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Project

Multinationals in Europe between flexibility and security. A comparative study on the implementation and the impact of 'flexicurity' practices at the company level.

In this project the concept of 'flexicurity' is studied empirically at the level of the company. This is an important gap in the current flexicurity literature, which is highly normative and mainly focuses on the macro level. In particular, the project examines the introduction and coordination (if any) of flexibility and security practices and policies at the level of the company in Belgium and in the Netherlands in a comparative cross national and sectoral perspective while assessing the extent to which macro-level institutional settings have an impact on the implementation of these practices. With this regard, the comparative analysis will take intro account the capacity of social actors (management, trade unions and employees representatives) at the company level to be engaged in the creation and coordination of flexicurity practices. Three research questions are investigated: (1) Which flexicurity practices can be observed at the company level? (2) What are the processes enhancing or hindering such implementation and how they are created? (3) What are the consequences for different groups of employees in terms of their working conditions? These questions will be addressed using qualitative case studies and a survey questionnaire among the employees. The cases that are studied are local subsidiaries of multinational companies in Europe.
Date:1 Jan 2011 →  31 Dec 2014
Keywords:Comparative European employment relation, Labour market flexibility, Management policies, Trade unions, Collective bargaining, Employment practices, Flexicurity, Multinationals
Disciplines:Sociology of organisations and occupations