International human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International human resource - Essay Example The earlier concept of negotiating with a central trade union and implementing the issues agreed upon in workplace is no longer the norm nowadays. Work councils have been developed, which has similar and dissimilar functions to trade unions (Prahalad and Doz 1987). This essay discusses the functions of work councils, particularly in decision-making and employee participation. It also differentiates work councils from trade unions. This paper focuses on the German work councils and trade unions, so that a particular context will be explored in relation to the concepts of work councils and trade unions. It argues that the German work councils are supporting the social and cooperative model of work relations, which are not antagonistic with trade unions, but may soon lead to the inevitable decay of the latter. This essay discusses the modern-day background to the German system of employment relations, because it is the context of work councils. There are two major perspectives about the present German system of employment relations. The first school of thought stresses that Germany’s employment relations have become more â€Å"corporatist† because of the expansion of liberal welfare and decentralised employment policies (Brenke 2004; Seeleib-Kaiser & Fleckenstein 2007). â€Å"Corporatist† means that the employment system of Germany experiences weaker collective bargaining power, as evident in the lesser number of collective bargaining agreements (Brenke 2004). Moreover, the government also signed laws that liberalised and rationalised the employment relations system. Since the late 1960s, the Labour Promotion Law of 1969 aims to remove â€Å"substandard employment through various instruments of active labour market policy (ALMP)† (Seeleib-Kaiser & Fleckenstein 2007: 429). ALMP seek to offer social services to the unemployed, and help them find jobs. ALMP devices have lesser prevalence, after Germany’s unification, because the sta te decided to focus on making firms more cost-effective (Seeleib-Kaiser & Fleckenstein 2007: 429). The ALMP has then been changed to emphasise employment instead of training and employment standards, which is again a sign of liberalisation policies of the state (Seeleib-Kaiser & Fleckenstein 2007: 429). These articles also asserted that Germany’s state of employment relations is more decentralised and less unionised than in the 1980s (Seeleib-Kaiser & Fleckenstein 2007: 429). The school of thought of the German employment relations system argues that Germany experiments with employment relations system and is becoming more like a mixture of cooperative and social partnership system (Behrens & Jacoby 2004; Berg 2008; Marsden 2008). These sources stress that Germany is developing its own strain of employment relations with industrial relations character (Berg 2008; Brettschneider 2008; Doellgast 2009). Behrens and Jacoby (2004) studied Germany’s most globalised sectors: chemicals, metalworking and construction. Findings showed that each industry developed in relation to the experimentalist ideals and actions of trade unions, as they struggled to expand employment strategies that can progress their interests. Berg (2008) added that Germany is more flexible in many ways, and not standardised in its adaption of plant or industry agreements. These articles supply theoretical and empirical foundations for the evolution of the German employment relation system into something more simultaneously liberal and collective. The new economy