The paper analyzes the contemporary organizational restructuring of production and work within firms. We emphasize the shift from a "Tayloristic" organization of work (characterized by significant specialization by tasks) to a "holistic" organization (featuring job rotation, integration of tasks...

Die Artikel des Schwerpunktheftes setzen an verschiedenen inhaltlichen Dimensionen und Ebenen dieser Fragmentierung an: Auf der Arbeitsebene ist der Beitrag von Gabriele Fassauer und Silke Geithner angesiedelt, der die inner-organisatorische Bewaeltigung von Co-Konfiguration durch...

Standard screening and core-periphery theories claim that temporary employment does not undermine the quality of permanent jobs. In contrast, organizational approaches suggest that firms use temporary contracts to pursue low-road employment strategies, which involve the creation of cheap and low...

The article examines the drivers of migrant atypical employment in the manufacturing sector of the Emilia-Romagna region. By drawing on administrative data based on mandatory communications we document that, even in an industry characterized by high quality of productions and occupations,...

This research presents evidence on how the impact of industry concentration and unionism affect the Portuguese wage levels. The influence of employer association is also considered. We use sector information - two-digit level disaggregation of "Classificação das Actividades Económicas" -, and...

This paper investigates the effects of organizational and technological changes on jobstability of different occupational categories in France. We conduct an empirical analysis inwhich we make extensive use of a unique data set on a representative sample of Frenchestablishments...

We examine how agency problems in the workplace interact with compensation policies by taking advantage of the structure of the hotel industry, in which many chains have both company managed and franchised properties. As residual claimants on their properties' profits, franchisees have stronger...

We analyze how the work ethic of managers impacts a firm's employment contracts, riskiness, growth potential, and organizational structure. Flat contracts are optimal for diligent managers because they reduce risk-sharing costs, but they attract egoistic agents who shirk and unskilled agents who...

An economic theory of the firm must explain both when firms supplant markets and when markets supplant firms. While theories of when markets fail are well developed, the extant literature provides a less than adequate explanation of why and when hierarchies fail. In this paper, we seek to...

Under traditional agency law doctrine, employees are agents of their employers and owe an agent's concomitant fiduciary duties. Employers, in turn, are merely principals and have no corresponding fiduciary duties. A new wave of thinking has unsettled this approach by concluding that only...