NCJ Number
198324
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 15 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2002 Pages: 245-270
Date Published
September 2002
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This article examines variations in the effectiveness of works councils across various metal and electronic industries in southwest Germany.
Abstract
Discussing a study of four metal and electronics industry firms in southwest Germany, this article addresses variation in the effectiveness of works councils. After arguing that one of the fundamental tasks of industrial relations research is to describe and explain the behavior of collective actors in firm-level bargaining relations, the authors describe two competing models for explaining why the effectiveness of works councils vary across firms. Explaining the effectiveness of codetermination by discussing macro and micro theories of industrial relations, the authors maintain that workers attitudes towards justice in organizations determines the effectiveness of different groups’ works councils. Through linking social conditions and primary and secondary justice ideologies, the authors rank bureaucratism, individualism, ascriptivism, and collectivism determining that primary justice ideologies are a necessary condition for codetermination and secondary ideologies are a sufficient condition for codetermination. Conducting a pilot study with four German metal and electronics industry firms in 1997 in order to test the validity of justice-based explanations of codetermination, the authors found that the type of primary justice ideology provided the background for determining the effectiveness of codetermination. The authors conclude that future research should address the extent to which individuals are willing to become dependent on a worker’s stated position within a firm. Tables, references