Abstract
In an incredibly comprehensive international comparative study of the United States and Germany, Doellgast charts how increasing liberalization of telecommunications markets led to the reorganization of call center work in both countries. Based on nearly 300 interviews of managers, employees, and union and works council representatives in four matched-pair firms, Doellgast documents the subsequent reorganization of service work in the industry, the approaches adopted by unions and works councils in attempts to influence management decisions, and how organizational restructuring through firm consolidation, creation of subsidiaries, and outsourcing to third-party contractors undermined institutions aimed at ensuring workplace democracy.
The two primary questions are articulated clearly in the introductory chapter, which also situates the theoretical contribution in the broader industrial relations literature: (a) Under what conditions will employers adopt “high-road” employment models in workplaces where there are strong pressures to cut labor costs? (b) Are there cross-national differences in the employment models adopted, and if so, what national and workplace institutions explain the difference? Chapter 2 sets the background context by providing an overview of the industry restructuring, as well as collective bargaining institutions in the respective countries. Chapter 3 focuses on management strategies adopted in the reorganization of work and how approaches and resources used by unions and works councils in negotiations constrained or enabled these strategies. Chapter 4 shifts the level of analysis to examine how organizational restructuring can undermine worker representation. Chapter 5 broadens the comparison to include other countries, with a particularly detailed emphasis on France as an example of a country with low-road employment models yet low wage inequality across workplaces. Chapter 5 also reports the descriptive quantitative results of a Global Call Center survey project that corroborates most of the book’s reported qualitative findings. The main chapters are organized by first examining the United States and Germany separately, and then performing a comparison of the major similarities and differences. Summary tables are consistently used to highlight key comparisons, which is greatly appreciated as the host of abbreviations representing the different organizations and unions is slightly overwhelming to keep straight for those not as familiar with the industry.
Doellgast finds that worker representatives in Germany were able to use their codetermination rights and bargaining power to avoid the rationalization and deskilling of service jobs that was more commonplace in the United States, with its comparatively low union bargaining power and virtually nonexistent participation rights. However, within Germany, subcontractors and workplaces without collective bargaining were also more likely to adopt a low-road model with high monitoring and low discretion in response to increasing competitive pressure. Due to opportunities to avoid or exit collective bargaining agreements through organizational restructuring, both countries have seen an increase in wage inequality for similar jobs across different organizational forms (e.g., in-house call centers vs. subcontractors).
Doellgast recommends that two facets of national institutions are critical to ensuring the development and continuation of good jobs in peripheral workplaces. The first is strong participation rights to ensure that employee interests are represented where management has a clear incentive to reduce labor costs and faces intense competitive pressure to do so. The second is encompassing collective bargaining institutions to avoid erosion of worker access to participation rights and representation in networked organizations where managers can find ways to weaken existing collective bargaining institutions.
Germany was an interesting comparative case to select from the coordinated market economies in juxtaposition to the USA, the ultimate liberal market economy. Germany has suffered from relatively greater erosion of workplace democracy than other coordinated economies over time, providing a unique opportunity to find variance in outcomes within and across countries. However, in broadening the comparison, Doellgast proposes that Denmark may provide the best-case example of encompassing national institutions that support democracy in the workplace. As such, it may have been helpful to include a more detailed description of the situation in Denmark to further strengthen the arguments and to provide policy makers with more concrete recommendations. Doellgast is careful to acknowledge the limitations of national institutions and regulation as a complete solution to downward pressure on wages and working conditions across networked organizations in an increasingly globalized world.
There is something for everyone to take away from this book, academics, managers, union leaders, and policy makers alike. Doellgast also leaves the reader with some hope. Convergence on poor working conditions and low pay is not the inevitable outcome for noncore service workers. Differences in national industrial relations institutions and strategies adopted by worker representatives to pursue dignity in the workplace can reduce economic inequality and fundamentally alter management strategic choice in adoption of high- versus low-road employment models.