Production coalitions in Slovenian companies : employee participation in non-participative organizations?

According to the theory, a combination of the highly regulated external labour market and the internal rigidity would induce organisational inefficiency. Evidence suggests that theoretically unexpected results of that combination prevailed in Slovenia. Under the pressure of the competition on the international markets, Slovene companies, being trapped in the combination of the two rigidities, were determined to compete on the basis of work intensification. The surviving coalition, based on the exchange between the managers (demanding work intensification) on the one hand, and trade unions (defending employees' wage and job stability) on the other, was formed. Within the logic of the exchange, trade unions actively participated in the fight for companies' survival. As a specific entrepreneurial utilisation of the internal oppositional power, the inclusion of such trade unions enabled non-conflicting work intensification and survival of numerous, usually comparatively technologically less developed Slovene organisations.