International Competition, Inward Investment and the Restructuring of European Work and Industrial Relations

Abstract

This article addresses the interplay between international competition and national institutional patterns. It discusses the involvement of Japanese transnational corporations (TNCs) in the contemporary restructuring of work organization and industrial relations in three European countries with historically disparate `systems', Britain, Germany and France. There are three main arguments. First, the operations and influence of such firms have been significantly mediated by existing national institutional configurations; second, such institutional complexes are marked not only by external pressures but also by internal tensions and contestation; and third, while Japanese TNCs have made a direct or indirect contribution to important shifts in work and employment relations, these have not produced a simple convergence towards a new production paradigm.