Title: New Social Inequality in Work Organisations: Challenges for the Eastern EU Member States
Abstract: Eastern European Economies after Affiliation After their formal affiliation to the EU, Eastern European economies face the challenge to create a dynamic labour market in order to redress still substantial misallocation and at the same time to grant basic worker protection against the risks of a market economy. Generally, real wages declined and wage inequality increased while at the same time there was a re-allocation of jobs between the economic sectors as well as the growth of the informal sector, due to increased self-employment (as an alternative to unemployment). The reduction of employment was somewhat cushioned by social protection programs. But there are great regional differences. While in Estonia labour legislation imposes low termination costs for labour contracts with the result of higher labour flows and possibly higher job creation rates, in Poland and Slovenia labour market institutions are much more restrictive. New forms of inequality accompany a still incomplete post-socialist transformation. They are aggravated by shortcomings in setting up modern industrial relations systems and advanced human resource management practices. The transformation of work organisations has been largely a top-down development marked by massive governmental interference, guidelines by imported managerial staff and widespread fragmented worker representation. But though the lack of market power is a collective phenomenon for large segments of the labour force, it is mainly perceived in terms of individual challenge within organisational bonds and not in terms of class antagonism. Up to date, no formation of new mass movements or at least the strengthening of collectively operating mass organisations such as trade unions is in view. Instead, co-operative patterns of crisis-management and private attempts prevail to counterbalance loss of control through informal network-building. In such a situation, research focussing upon social inequality in work organisations is concerned with two problems: First, which are the mechanisms in working life, especially the changes of work organisations to bring about new types of social inequality? Second, which groups are affected and which patterns of actions answer the challenges they meet in pursuing goals related to work? This topic shall be treated against the background of German experience which still serves in many ways as a guideline for ongoing modernisation of work organisations. New Types of Work-related Social Inequality There is a general consensus about the factors and trends challenging the social organisation of work: * Technological factors: Ongoing mechanisation, automation and informatisation with the effect of substantially increasing labour productivity and establishing globally operating communication networks. * Economic factors: Within the context of increasing global competition the ratio between capital and labour input has been deeply affected by continuous rationalisation. Drastically diminishing transaction costs have contributed to a flexible allocation of economic activities, responding to market pressures. * Socio-cultural factors: The growth of high-tech industries has increased the necessary qualification of input and the need for continuous adaptation through learning. Consumerism as a consequence of increased labour productivity has raised individual demand levels and at the same time has fostered the awareness of personal risks. * Socio-political consequences: We witness the emergence and flexibility of individualised work preferences, especially among female employees. They support the introduction of flexible work arrangements while traditional, standardised forms of industrial and employment relations loosen their general validity. Though all European societies are affected by these general trends, their actual state reflects different phases in societal modernisation, marked by market integration, democratisation and individualisation as well as different levels of prosperity. …
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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