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Strategic co-determination in the ecological and digital transformation. Are new institutions of economic democracy transcending the dual system of German industrial relations?
Industrielle Beziehungen, 31 (1): 11–34 (2024)
DOI: 10.5771/0943-2779-2024-1-11
Аннотация
The ecological and digital transformation presents companies with the challenge of changing business models and innovation paths. The dual system of industrial relations in Germany has so far offered few opportunities for trade unions and works councils to have a say in these processes of corporate strategic change. In recent years, however, approaches to strategic co-determination have developed that enable works councils to influence business models and production strategies. This article examines the potential of these approaches to steer the ecological and digital transformation in the interest of workers. Based on 15 interviews with 25 experts in 7 companies, it uses three cases in the automotive supply industry and the retail sector to reconstruct the organisation of strategic co-determination and the conflicts surrounding its direction in the companies. The article concludes that the cases analysed indicate a local reconfiguration of industrial relations, because ecological and digital upheaval situations are used by works councils to expand economic democratic participation. The orientation of these institutions is contested above all along the lines of whether they are bodies of corporatist co-management or employee-driven interest politics.
тэги
- betriebsräte
- digitalisation
- digitalisierung
- ecological_transition
- economic_democracy
- hbs-2021-299-2
- sozial-ökologische_transformation
- strategic_codetermination
- strategische_mitbestimmung
- technikpolitik
- technology_politics
- wirtschaftsdemokratie
- works_councils
