Fragmenting Work or Divergent Capitalisms

Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies

Author: Mick Marchington

This major new book examines the way in which employment is managed across organizational boundaries. It analyses how public-private partnerships, franchises, agencies and other forms of inter-firm contractual relations impact on work and employment and the experiences of those working in these increasingly significant forms of organization. it draws upon research undertaken in eight separate networks comprising over 50 organizations to explore the fragmentating effects of contemporary changes in the organization of work and employment relationships. It considers the consequences of increased eliance upon inter-organizational mechanisms for producing goods and especially for delivering services. It argues that established analyses continue to rely too heavily upon a mocel of the single employing organization whereas today the situation is often more complex and confused.
Public-private 'partnerships' are one high profile example of this phenomenon but private enterprises are also developing new relations with their clients and customers that impinge upon the nature of the employment relationship. Established hierarchical forms are becoming disordered, with consequences for career patterns, training and skills, pay structures, disciplinary practice, worker voice, and the gendered division of labor. The findings of the study raise questions about the governance of such complex organizational forms, the appropriateness of current institutions for addressing this complexity, and the challenge of harnessing of employee commitment in circumstances where human resource practices are shaped by organizations other than the legal employer. Using an analytical schema of three dimensions(institutional, organizational, employment) and four themes (power, risk, identity, trust), the authors adopt an inter-disciplinary perspective to address these complex and critically important practical, policy and theoretical concerns. Fragmenting Work will be vital reading for all those wishing to understand the contemporary realities of work and employment.

Book about: Scenarios in Public Policy or New State Spaces

Divergent Capitalisms: The Social Structuring and Change of Business Systems

Author: Richard Whitley

The late twentieth century has witnessed the establishment of new forms of capitalism in East Asia as well as new market economies in Eastern Europe. Despite the rhetoric of globalization, they are continuing to diverge because of significant differences in dominant institutions. This book presents the comparative business systems framework for describing and explaining the major differences in economic organization between market economies.

Table of Contents:

	List of Figures
	List of Tables
	Abbreviations
1	Varieties of Capitalism	3
2	The Nature of Business Systems and their Institutional Structuring	31
3	The Social Structuring of Firms' Governance Systems and Organizational Capabilities	65
4	The Social Structuring of Work Systems	88
5	Globalization and Business Systems	117
6	Divergent Capitalisms in East Asia: The Post-War Business Systems of South Korea and Taiwan	139
7	Continuity and Change in East Asian Capitalisms	182
8	Path Dependence and Emergent Capitalisms in Eastern Europe: Hungary and Slovenia Compared	209
9	Enterprise Change and Continuity in a Transforming Society: The Case of Hungary	242
	References	275
	Index	295