April 2012

Volume 51, Issue 2
Pages 179 – 372
Special Issue: pages 373 - 626

The Extent of Occupational Segregation in the United States: Differences by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (pages 179–212)
OLGA ALONSO-VILLAR, CORAL DEL RIO and CARLOS GRADIN
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
This paper studies occupational segregation by ethnicity/race and gender by following a new approach that facilitates multigroup comparisons and econometric analyses to take into account group characteristics. The analysis shows that segregation is particularly intense in the Hispanic and Asian populations (the situation being more severe for the former given its higher concentration in low-paid jobs). A distinctive characteristic of Hispanics is that segregation is higher for men than for women although females are more concentrated in low-paid jobs. Segregation neither for women nor for African and Native Americans is reduced by taking human capital variables into account.

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Affirmative Action and the Occupational Advancement of Minorities and Women During 1973–2003 (pages 213–246)
FIDAN ANA KURTULUS
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
The share of minorities and women comprising high-paying skilled occupations such as management, professional, and technical occupations has been increasing since the 1960s, while the proportion of white men in such occupations has been declining. What has been the contribution of affirmative action to the occupational advancement of minorities and women from low-wage unskilled occupations into high-wage skilled ones in U.S. firms? I examine this by comparing the occupational position of minorities and women at firms holding federal contracts, and thereby mandated to implement affirmative action, and noncontracting firms, over the course of 31 years during 1973–2003. I use a new longitudinal dataset of over 100,000 large private-sector firms across all industries and regions uniquely suited for the exploration of this question obtained from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. My key findings show that the share of minorities and women in high-paying skilled occupations grew more at federal contractors subject to affirmative action obligation than at noncontracting firms during the three decades under study, but these advances took place primarily during the pre- and early Reagan years and during the decade following the Glass Ceiling Act of 1991.

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As Luck Would Have It: The Effect of the Vietnam Draft Lottery on Long-Term Career Outcomes (pages 247–274)
DOUGLAS H. FRANK
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
Using an original data set matching individual birthdays to Vietnam War draft lottery numbers, I study how the random lottery number assignment affects representation in a sample of top corporate executives decades after the war's end. I find that men with lottery numbers placing them at risk of induction are underrepresented among top U.S. executives in the 1990s. In contrast, I find that high draft risk is positively correlated with indicators of human capital such as earnings and speed of reaching the executive ranks. If the executives are viewed as the winners of a multi-stage elimination tournament that selected on productivity, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that draft risk led to a mean-reducing spread in the productivity distribution of draft-eligible males.

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Identity Work: Sustaining Transnational Collective Action at General Motors Europe (pages 275–299)
IAN GREER and MARCO HAUPTMEIER
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
What are the conditions under which transnational collective action is initiated and sustained? This article presents a case study of General Motors Europe, where labor leaders have mobilized the workforce and bargained with management at the transnational level repeatedly over more than a decade as a response to management whipsawing and threats of plant closures. In contrast to structuralist interest-based theories of union behavior, we identify a process of "identity work" that was necessary to sustain transnational worker cooperation.

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Flextime and Profitability (pages 298–316)
BYRON Y. LEE and SANFORD E. DeVOE
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
Despite the well-documented benefits of flexible work schedules (flextime), generalizable assessments of how flextime influences organizational profitability have proven elusive. Using a unique data set representative of organizations in Canada, we examine the effect of flextime in combination with organizational strategies to predict profitability. Using fixed effects and controlling for prior profitability, we find that flextime increases profitability when implemented within a strategy centered on employees but decreases profitability when implemented within a strategy focused on cost reduction.

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How Much Do Employers Learn from Referrals? (pages 317–341)
JOSHUA C. PINKSTON
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
This paper tests the hypothesis that referrals from various sources provide employers with more information about job applicants than they would have with-out a referral. The study uses data that contain information on two workers in the same job, allowing the differences in job and firm characteristics to be canceled out and controlling for the possibility that workers with referrals from different sources (or no referral at all) sort into jobs that put different weights on individual performance. The estimation results are consistent with referrals from current employees providing employers with more information than they would have otherwise. Additionally, it appears as though hiring through friends or relatives of the employer may involve some favoritism that results in employers either collecting less information than they would otherwise or ignoring information when setting wages. The study finds weak evidence consistent with referrals from other firms or labor unions providing useful information, and no evidence that referrals from community organizations or other sources have any effect.

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Salary Distribution and Collective Bargaining Agreements: A Case Study of the NBA (pages 342–363)
JAMES R. HILL and NICHOLAS A. JOLLY
Article first published online: 19 APR 2012

Abstract
Traditional non-sports unions attempt to institutionalize pay between workers by reducing productivity-related differences in wages and increasing pay differences based on seniority and other non-productivity-related characteristics. Recent changes made to the collective bargaining agreements of the NBA have mirrored those of unions that are more traditional. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the changes made in the bargaining agreements of the NBA affect the salary distributions of players over time.

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Special Issue
Institutions and Employment Relations: The State of the Art (pages 373–388)
ADRIAN WILKINSON and GEOFFREY WOOD
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
While the marginalization of unions and the hegemony of neo-liberalism in many of the advanced societies challenged the raison d'etre of industrial relations (IR), the revival of institutional approaches to political economy has underscored the relevance of a field of study where institutions have always been central. While generated through failures in market regulation, the recent economic crisis has ironically led to both pressures for a further paring back of governmental capabilities for regulation and enforcement, and a renewed interest in the possibilities for meaningful institutional redesign. This paper highlights main currents in contemporary institutionalist thinking and their relevance for the study of IR. It locates the subsequent articles in this collection in the context of broader debates, and the relevance of their differing perspectives for advancing institutional analysis within and beyond IR.

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Special Issue
Employment, Consumption, Debt, and European Industrial Relations Systems (pages 389–412)
COLIN CROUCH
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
Comparisons between British and German employment performance in recent years have characterized the two countries as, respectively, finding a formula of high employment based on high-consumption expenditure financed by household debt, and remaining tied to an external trade and low-consumption model that no longer creates jobs. Placing these two countries in a wider perspective of all European Union member states and the United States reveals a different picture. Two different patterns seem associated with high employment levels: a northern European one of low-consumption expenditure and high household debt, and an Anglophone one of high-consumption expenditure and high household debt. Links for these contrasting models are sought in their very different social policy and industrial relations systems. Questions are raised concerning the role of household debt in the northern European cases, and the lack of any clear patterns differentiating much of western, southern and central Europe.

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Special Issue
From Institutional Change to Experimentalist Institutions (pages 413–437)
PEER HULL. KRISTENSEN and GLENN MORGAN
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
Institutionalist theory has shown how work and employment relations are shaped by national contexts. Recent developments in these theories have been increasingly concerned with the issue of institutional change. This reflects a shift in the nature of the competitive environment of firms from the stable and planned and predominantly national models of economic organization supported by the Keynesian state, which dominated in the 30 years after 1945, to the uncertain and high-risk environment of the current period in which globalization has opened up the possibility of new forms of firms and institutions. In this paper, we emphasize that in the current context of globalization, firms and actors within firms are continuously developing the way in which they organize work and employment to produce goods and services that are competitive in global markets. The paper argues that new market conditions lead firms to constant experimentation in work organization as they seek to position themselves within systems of production and innovation that are global in nature. This creates a pressure for institutional change to facilitate the process of firm-level experimentation; it also tends to create a pressure for new experimental forms of institutions that are themselves searching for ways to improve their relevance. This change calls for extending the study of industrial relations and employment systems in the current era to investigate how new dynamic complementarities among employees, managers, institutions, and markets are created (or not) and what the effects of these processes are on: employment growth, income inequalities, inequalities between groups, rights at work, and the distribution of skills and autonomy in the workplace. The paper therefore proposes a framework and conceptual language for identifying forms of institutional change in the current period. These developments are illustrated through an analysis of the way in which actors in the Danish context have responded to the challenges of the last few decades. It is the capacity of actors within firms to use and develop institutions in ways that enable them to restructure work and employment and gain a more effective position in the market that is crucial to institutional change. However, these micro-level processes may be unseen and unappreciated by actors at the macro level such as political parties, employers' associations, and unions, who are generally perceived as being most influential in processes of redesigning institutions and complementarities at societal levels. This creates a tension between micro and macro changes that we examine in the Danish case, arguing that it is possible to reconcile this dilemma under certain circumstances. The final section suggests that while Denmark is distinctive in terms of how these processes of experimentalism relate to firms and institutions, similar issues can be seen at work in other national contexts where the results are very different. This suggests the need for a comparative study of institutions, work, and employment that places change and the dynamics of firms and markets at the center of the analysis and searches for how systemic change can itself be institutionalized. The current paper offers a framework for such analytical work.

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Special Issue
An Institutional Economic Analysis of Labor Unions (pages 438–471)
BRUCE E. KAUFMAN
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
This paper uses institutional economic theory in the line of Commons and Coase to examine the purposes, economic effects, and social welfare consequences of labor unions. Cross-discipline and cross-national principles of the institutional paradigm are described, the American and European literatures are briefly juxtaposed, and the subject of unions is placed in a larger paradigm context. Relative to previous studies, this paper presents the most formal and analytically developed application of institutional theory to the subject of unions. A number of new or revisionist implications are developed, as are contrasts with neoclassical-based models.

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Special Issue
Understanding the Role of Institutions in Industrial Relations: Perspectives from Classical Sociological Theory (pages 472–500)
GREGORY JACKSON and TIM MUELLENBORN
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
Theories of industrial relations have called for a stronger integration of the economic and social. Whereas economists have studied economic functions of institutions, neo-institutional approaches in sociology have strongly rejected economic explanation in favor of seeing institutions as taken-for-granted cognitive assumptions. To further dialogue among these perspectives, this study reconstructs the concept of institutions in the classical sociological theory of Durkheim and Weber. Both classical perspectives place the dynamic tensions between the economic and social at the center of their theories, but develop these in distinct ways. The study illustrates the potential and limits of these four theoretical perspectives on institutions with regard to the empirical case of codetermination in Germany.

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Special Issue
Varieties of Capitalism and Investments in Human Capital (pages 501–527)
MARC GOERGEN, CHRIS BREWSTER, GEOFFREY WOOD and ADRIAN WILKINSON
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between national institutional archetypes and investments in training and development. A recent trend within the literature on comparative capitalism has been to explore the nature and extent of heterogeneity within the coordinated market economies (CMEs) of Europe. Based on a review of the existing comparative literature on training and development, and comparative firm-level survey evidence of differences in training and development practices, we both support and critique existing country clusters and argue for a more nuanced and flexible categorization.

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Special Issue
Gender, Race, and the New (Merit-Based) Employment Relationship (pages 528–562)
EMILIO J. CASTILLA
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
Recent research has focused attention on the ways institutions and work practices have transformed the employment relationship. While there has been growing interest in how key employer practices have changed the organization of work, the gender and racial implications of such practices remain less well understood. Using unique longitudinal personnel data from one large organization, this study takes a comprehensive sequential approach to identify at which stages of a widespread contemporary practice—the use of merit-based reward programs to evaluate and reward workers—gender and racial disparities may exist. The analyses show that there are significant gender and racial differences at the performance evaluation, salary, and career setting stages, even after implementing these merit-based work practices. I conclude by discussing the implications for how and where current organizational practices and work arrangements may affect the careers of women and racial minorities in the contemporary workplace.

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Special Issue
Varieties of Capitalism and Employment Relations: Informally Dominated Market Economies (pages 563–582)
PAULINE DIBBEN and COLIN C. WILLIAMS
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
The varieties of capitalism and employment relations literature have largely focused on formally regulated market economies, with a general neglect of the informal economy and of emerging markets where this work arrangement is dominant. In this article, however, the intention is to propose the Informally Dominated Market Economy as a form of capitalism that could be usefully incorporated into the industrial relations literature. To start to unpack this variety of capitalism, this article explores institutions and employment relations practices in the African economy of Mozambique. The outcome is a conceptual framework that includes both formal and informal institutions and considers the implications for work and employment relations.

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Special Issue
Management, Worker Responses, and an Enterprise Trade Union in Transition (pages 583–604)
RICHARD CROUCHER and CLAUDIO MORRISON
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
We examine management and labor process changes in a Moldovan factory to examine their impact on the trade union as institution. Changes in management structures and work organization have hollowed out key legacies, notably the "labor collective" and informal bargaining, and evoked resistance from workers. The union is disconnected from worker resistance and is faced with major issues concerning its role. We conceptualize it as a "suspended institution."

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Special Issue
The Impact of Private Equity on Management Practices in European Buy-outs: Short-termism, Anglo-Saxon, or Host Country Effects? (pages 605–626)
NICK BACON, MIKE WRIGHT, MIGUEL MEULEMAN and LOUISE SCHOLES
Article first published online: 23 APR 2012

Abstract
This article explores the impact of private equity (PE) firms on human resource management practices in buy-outs using data drawn from the first representative pan-European survey into this issue. The findings suggest the overall impact of PE on high-performance work practices (HPWP) is affected more by length of the investment relationship than the countries where PE is going to or is coming from. PE investment results in the increased use of HPWP in buy-outs the longer the anticipated time to exit. With respect to the PE firms' country of origin, buy-outs backed by Anglo-Saxon PE firms are as likely to introduce new HPWP (and are specifically more likely to extend performance-related pay schemes) as those backed by non-Anglo-Saxon PE firms, suggesting some adaptation to the local host country contexts of buy-outs.