Synopses & Reviews
The balance of economic power in Europe is shifting eastwards. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania have all seen increases in their contributions to international trade and in the rate of GDP growth, whilst other countries have seen declines, and firms in these Central and Eastern European economies are becoming increasingly influential participants in international production systems, centred largely on Germany. This book presents an up-to-date, theoretically informed analysis of how these four countries have developed distinctive business systems since the political revolutions that transformed this region in 1989, combining the structures of liberal market capitalism established in the 1990s with practices established earlier. Influenced by the socialist inheritance of communism and increasingly diverse sources of capital, different forms of capitalism developed, less responsive to shareholder interests, and more responsive to managerial and national strategic interests
This book concentrates on changing patterns of ownership and control, means of capital accumulation, the relations among multinationals, regional enterprises, and governments, and the role of the state. Whilst recognizing the role of multinationals in generating export-led growth, the book emphasizes the central role of government at national and international level. The forms of capitalism under construction differ from expectations common in the 1990s, uniting elements from both US/UK and continental European models of capitalism.
Review
"In this ambitious book, Roderick Martin follows a comparative institutionalist approach in describing how the major institutions governing capitalist economies were constructed and key features of their business systems changed. He discusses four CEE countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania, in the roughly 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Constructing Capitalisms focuses on four major features, or axes, of structural change, in these political economies: property ownership, means of capital allocation and accumulation, conditions governing access to and mode of involvement in local, national, and international markets and production systems, and the differentiation of economic activities from the state." --American Journal of Sociology
Synopsis
This book examines the balance of power between management and trade unions--showing why some managements and unions are more powerful than others. Bargaining power has long been recognized as central to industrial relations, but no previous work has taken the issue of its central focus. Using both sociological and economic evidence Martin shows how managements and unions approach negotiations and use power to achieve their bargaining objectives. He analyzes various aspects of power, negotiations, the industrial relations context, and human resources management.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [184]-193) and index.
About the Author
Roderick Martin was formerly Professor of Management at the Business School and Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. Previously, at the University of Oxford, he served as a Fellow (Politics and Sociology) at Trinity College, a Senior Proctor, and a Fellow (Information Management) at Templeton College. He has also been Professor and Director at the Glasgow Business School, University of Glasgow, and at the School of Management, University of Southampton, and a Professor of Industrial Sociology at Imperial College, London. He has authored over 10 books in business management, organizational behaviour, industrial relations, and industrial sociology, and has published over 60 research papers in international journals. He has undertaken extensive consultancy work for private and public sector organizations, including, in the UK, the National Health Service, the Scottish Police College, and the Atomic Energy Authority.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Definitions, measurement, and model
2. The development of bargaining theory, with Philip Beaumont
3. Environmental influences on bargaining power, with Andrew Thomson
4. Values, beliefs, objectives, and bargaining power
5. Bargaining power inaction
6. The influence of bargaining power on the outcomes of collective bargaining
7. Bargaining power in changing contexts: hotels and catering, motor vehicles, and local government
8. Trade Union power at the beginning of the 1990s: secular decline or terminal collapse?
Bibliography
Index