Works councils and workplace health promotion in Germany

Jirjahn, Uwe; Mohrenweiser, Jens; Smith, Stephen C.

doi:10.1177/0143831x20971051

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…Column (1) shows the key result of a probit regression. In the regression, we use the share of firms with works councils calculated for five detailed manufacturing industries, three size classes and both years as an instrumental variable (see Jirjahn & Mohrenweiser, 2021 and Jirjahn et al., 2022 for a related aggregation identification strategy) 8 . This share reflects the general propensity within a narrowly defined industry that works councils are present.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management practices and productivity: Does employee representation play a moderating role?

Jirjahn

Laible

Mohrenweiser

2023

Human Res Mgmt Journal

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Bloom and Van Reenen (2007) have suggested an index of best management practices capturing three broad areas: monitoring, targets and incentives. However, it is an open question whether the functioning of these practices depends on contextual factors. From a theoretical viewpoint, the management practices involve both productive and dysfunctional effects. We hypothesize that the relative strength of these effects depends on the industrial relations climate. Works councils help management practices live up to their potential by building long‐term employer‐employee cooperation. Our empirical analysis uses panel data from the German Management and Organizational Practices survey to examine this hypothesis. Applying a reformulated version of the Mundlak estimator, we disentangle short‐term and sustaining productivity effects of the management practices. Our results show that the incidence of a works council specifically strengthens the sustaining productivity effect of the practices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management practices and productivity: Does employee representation play a moderating role?

Jirjahn

Laible

Mohrenweiser

2023

Human Res Mgmt Journal

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“…In terms of the protective role of unions and works councils, studies show that the wages and conditions in German workplaces covered by a collective agreement are generally much better than in those devoid of collective bargaining coverage (Addison et al, 2016; Bossler, 2019; Lübker & Schulten, 2021). And while much of the research on works councils has tended to focus on economic performance outcomes (Jirjahn & Smith, 2018; Nienhüser, 2020), there is evidence to show that works councils help protect employee interests by monitoring employer compliance with labor standards and promoting workplace health (Jirjahn et al, 2021; Nienhüser, 2020). In short, the two pillars of the dual system of IR create representative environments where employees can fare better.…”

Section: Institutions and Labor Decommodification: Germany's “Dual Sy...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Delivering the goods? German industrial relations institutions during the COVID‐19 crisis

Behrens

Pekarek

2022

Industrial Relations

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The COVID‐19 pandemic has caused labor market disruptions at an unprecedented scale and is akin to a stress test for industrial relations institutions. Drawing on a large‐scale ( n = 6111) study of German employees, we empirically investigate whether and how the two institutions comprising Germany's dual system of employee representation—works councils and collective bargaining—have delivered on their protective potential and mitigated the impact of the pandemic on workers. We demonstrate that employees in representative environments fare better on a range of protective outcomes.

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“…Despite this threshold, the introduction of a works council depends on the initiative of the workforce; thus, councils are mandatory but not present in every firm crossing this threshold (e.g. Jirjahn et al., 2022).…”

Section: Empirical Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between works councils and firms’ further training provision in times of technological change

Lammers

Lukowski

Weis

2022

Brit J Industrial Rel

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Participating in further training is strategically important for employees to ensure their employability. Particularly for employees in low‐skilled jobs, works councils — firm‐level organizations that represent employees — constitute an important employee advocacy instrument in European countries, such as France and Germany. With comprehensive co‐determination rights, works councils can influence firms’ hiring policies, job design and career paths (e.g. promotions). Using German firm‐level data, we empirically investigate the influence of works councils on firms’ training provision for employees in firms below and above the industry level of technology. The results show that works councils have a positive effect on the percentage of employees in general, and of employees in low‐skilled jobs in particular, participating in training, but only for firms below the industry level of technology. These results show the importance of works councils in supporting training in such firms and enhancing the employment prospects of employees in low‐skilled jobs. In contrast, firms above the industry level of technology invest in training with or without a works council, indicating that the training interests of employers and employees are aligned.

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Works councils and workplace health promotion in Germany

Cited by 10 publications

References 101 publications

Management practices and productivity: Does employee representation play a moderating role?

Management practices and productivity: Does employee representation play a moderating role?

Delivering the goods? German industrial relations institutions during the COVID‐19 crisis

The relationship between works councils and firms’ further training provision in times of technological change

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