Value Chain Restructuring – the challenges of international case study research

1. COST Expert Meeting Methods for Studying Firm Restructuring and the Impact on Workers Leuven, 28-29 April 2011 Value Chain Restructuring – the challenges of international case study research Jörg Flecker | FORBA, Vienna

2. Vertical Disintegration Networks Outsourcing Offshoring Restructuring: Changes in Company Organisation • Dynamic Value Chain Analysis • Labour Market Segmentation • Industrial Relations Research

3. Direct Effects on Employment Conditions Indirect Effects on Employment Conditions and Work Organisation Decomposition and recomposition of sectors, companies, workplaces and jobs  differentials in terms of basic employment conditions  direct effects on quality of work life Deregulation and decentralisatsion of bargaining; Impacts on the bargaining position of labour because of potential restructuring; job insecurity; new career opportunities etc Impacts on Workers

4. Qualitative Research • General Research Design • Unit of analysis:business function in sector, (segment of) value chain, occupational group • Case study approach:to analyse complex cause and effect relationships, ‚how‘ and ‚why‘ questions … • Approach to comparative research: • comparable units (business function, sector, restructuring) • common guidelines • focused research agenda • dynamics of institutions, agency

5. Qualitative Research ORGANISATIONAL CASE STUDIES Restructuring of global value chains Policies and institutions Changes in work organisation Quality of work

6. Recomposition of global value chains Business functions or activities Research and development, design Manufacturing, assembly, logistics Business service provision, in particular IT services Customer service in public services Main themes:networked organisation, drivers of change, work organisation, control, time-use, learning, personnel policies, flexibility, social dialogue and participation Qualitative Research ORGANISATIONAL CASE STUDIES

7. Analytical dimensions: Legal/organisational dimension(company boundaries, organisation of networks and value chains, labour regulation etc) Spatial dimension(location of units and workplaces, distributed work, relocation of work) Functional dimension(products/services, workflow, tasks, communication, skills, knowledge etc) Social dimension(power relations, employment relations, gender relations, social relations between occupational groups etc) Temporal dimension(time-line of restructuring, working hours, temporal flexibility etc) ORGANISATIONAL CASE STUDIES Research Questions

8. Qualitative Research OCCUPATIONAL CASE STUDIES • Occupational groups/individuals in organisations • Households of individuals • Main themes:time-use, flexibility, work-life-balance, mobility, employability, learning and skills, occupational identity, autonomy at work, working conditions, health and safety

9. ORGANISATIONAL CASE STUDIES: Sampling • Selection criteria: • business function in sector • value chain restructuring • relations between units in the value chain • matching of cases in different countries • occupational groups, size

10. Sampling / Case selection Identify organisations that recently underwent a restructuring process across a value chain o The restructuring process should include inter-firm links or externalization of services o Variation in sector, business function, country and: Transnational research links along the value chain IT R&D / Design Production Logistics Customer Service Textiles / Clothing BE;FR;DE;PT;IT BE;IT;PT;HU;GR FR;DE;NL;PT;HU GR;BG;IT;NO; DK;UK BE;NO;BG;GR; NL;UK Food DE;AT;UK;BE; FR;NO IT DE;AT;HU;BG;SW Public Sector Administration AT;BE;BG;HU;IT;UK;SW BE;NL;UK;FR;DE;NO;SW;PT Services of General Interest: Post and Rail DE;AT;SW;NL;GR 58 Case Studies | 14 European Countries Austria Belgium Bulgaria Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Netherlands Norway Portugal Sweden UK

11. 3 Forms of IT Service Provider Relationships Outsourcing to central IT organization in public ownership Public-private partnership for joint technology development and applications Private-public service provision or purchaser-supplier relationship IT Service Provision

12. Qualitative Research ORGANISATIONAL CASE STUDIES Procedures • Centralised decision on case selection • Standardised case study guidelines • Individual (‚house style‘) qualitative analysis • Standardised report structure Selection: Matrix Case study guidelines - - - Case study report structure - - -

13. Fragmentation of employment Employer Place

14. Subsidiary of National Post(Gavroglou 2007) Employees by employment contract: 15 management 98 workers under National Post collective agreement 120 workers under subsidiary company collective agreement 80 seasonal workers – national minimum wage 250 - 300 temporary agency workers

15. IT Service Provision ‘Citycouncil’: ’For example, software developers who were used to building software or designing a website from scratch are now supposed to use templates and systems that PROF has installed. Two staff interviewed for this case felt they have become more ICT system administrators rather than creative software designers and they feel frustrated having to work in this more structured way.’ (Dahlmann 2007: 13)

16. IT Service Provision ‘Citycouncil’: ‘For example someone has a problem with their PC in the finance department, they ring up explaining that they have a problem with the system. Before, we would come to an agreement between us when I will come and take a look at it; now the central help desk, they pass on the query to me and then I have a certain number of days to solve the problem; if I have a fail rate of 10% over the month then the CITY COUNCIL gets service credits.’(ibid.:14)

17. Lessonslearned / pointsfordiscussion • attributing impacts; causalrelationships • indirect effects: bargaining power; working time; job insecurity… • multitude of contexts: firm/public organisation; valuechain; region; country… • business function vs. fullvaluechain • valuechain vs. network: vertical (sequential) and horizontal links • (public) services valuechains? • complexity – standardisation in comparative research

18. Thank you!www.worksproject.bewww.forba.at