One Company, Diverse Workplaces - The Social Construction of Employment Practices in Western and Eastern Europe

摘要

Kahancova's book sets out to document employment practices at the subsidiaries of a multinational company (MNC) located in different countries. It then explores how these practices are constructed. Finally, it seeks to account for the observed diversity, and thus to trace the process of the MNC's embedding into local environments. The author focuses on a major Dutch electronics firm, labelled Electra, and its four TV-manufacturing plants in Brugge (Belgium), Dreux (France), Kwidzyn (Poland) and Szekesfehervar (Hungary). The evidence testifies to a significant diversity in employment practices across the subsidiaries, including flexibility arrangements, fringe benefits and motivation schemes - however, the differences mirror neither the East-West divide nor legal and institutional setups at particular locations.