Corporate governance and labour management : an international comparison

Corporate governance has long been a subject of considerable interest and controversy, but debates on this topic have become much more Primarily, these debates have concerned relationships between shareholders, corporate boards, and managers. For the most part and in most countries, the role of labour m corporate governance has been less of a focus of interest. However, at the present time, with pressures and changes in both corporate governance and in employment and labour relations systems, there is a growing need to bring the two together, both theoretically and empirically, and to understand their interaction in historical perspective. The Political Economy and Industrial Relations literatures are beginning to do this, and this book contributes to this important development. One of the main factors in recent years driving changes in corporate governance and labour systems has been the opening up and liberalization of product, financial, and labour markets. These trends have accelerated recently, especially in continental Europe and Japan. As a result, national socio-economic systems have become more exposed tomarket pressures emanating from: outside national boundaries. On top of these developments, privatization programmes and social welfare reforms are shifting the boundaries between markets, states, and business corporations. Together these trends have affected the ownership of firms and the relations between owners, managers, and employees. These developments have put pressures on companies and sectors which in the past have acted as leaders in providing extensive social benefits. They have also raised serious questions about labour inclusiveness and participation in governance. A deeper issue still concerns the extent to which distinctive national patterns of economic and social organization can be sustained. For example, in a context of growing liberalization and marketization, can Germany sustain its system of 'Rhineland' capitalism? Can Japan maintain those aspects of its system that have long prized employment security and seniority within the enterprise community? Or will the so-called `Anglo-Saxon' marketized systems of governance and employment, with their reduced voice for labour, prevail?