What happened when the Americans took over Britain's electricity industry? Exploring trans-national sector effects on employment relations

T Colling, Ian Clark

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Pressures stemming from the country of origin are seen increasingly as the single most important influence on multinational companies, and American managements are famed particularly for their marked preferences for non-unionism and for pay systems linked to performance. The dramatic inflow of American investment into the British electricity industry from 1996 onwards provides an opportunity to observe the development of these influences. In fact, employment relations reform was not driven by the concerns of American owners to any significant degree, but tended to follow patterns already very well established in the utilities sector in the UK. This can only be understood in the context of similar developments in sector-level governance in both countries, and the processes through which this drove international strategies at higher levels, affecting investment and organizational structure.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1625-1644
    Number of pages20
    JournalInternational Journal of Human Resource Management
    Volume17
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2006

    Keywords

    • sector
    • industrial relations
    • multinationals
    • regulation
    • country-of-origin
    • privatization

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