Interest Representation on National and Transnational Levels of Action: Restructuring of Companies and the Problem of Articulation

在跨国公司中，员工的利益代表发生在许多层面的行动中，从当地的工作委员会开始，到欧洲工作委员会等国际利益代表机构结束。事实上，有大量的文献是关于地方劳动委员会和欧洲劳动委员会的。然而，很少有研究关注像公司或团体工作委员会这样的中介机构。此外，不同层次的利益代表之间的相互作用，包括监事会和工会的共同决定，在研究中很大程度上被忽视了，它们的相互作用模式也没有被系统地概念化和分析。基于这一事实，有两个研究需求。首先，对集体利益的建构、协调和中介没有充分把握。第二，由于跨国界代表机构与当地行动者的体制距离较远，它们可能对不同国家和地点的雇员表现出的合法性问题被忽视了。因此，该项目通过分析国际公司不同层次的不同机构和行动者之间的相互作用和协调过程、衔接过程，扩展了分析视角。该项目的重点是在地方，国家和超国家层面的利益调节的整个系统。我们的研究兴趣是在理论基础的实证案例研究中分析表征水平之间的协调过程。为此，该项目旨在增加有关国际公司利益监管实践的科学知识，并为工作和组织以及劳资关系社会学的理论发展做出贡献。实证部分由三个不同行业的九家公司的案例研究组成。案例研究的重点是改组案例的例子，这些案例伴随着关于外包、解雇或降低劳工标准的谈判。一方面，重组明显影响员工的地方利益。另一方面，与此同时，协调各级利益的必要性特别高。案例研究涵盖了各自国际公司在三个国家的地点。与不同级别的雇员代表（例如劳资议会、公司及集团劳资议会、工作环境委员会及世界劳资议会）、工会及管理层代表进行专家访谈。本研究力求确定各层次之间的经验相互作用模式，使用一种理想的跨国宣传类型，并参照各种影响因素加以解释。

In multinational companies, interest representation of employees takes place on a multitude of levels of action, starting with local works councils and ending with international bodies of interest representation like European works councils. Indeed there is a huge body of literature dealing with local works councils and European works councils. However, only little research has focused on intermediary bodies like company or groups works councils. Moreover, the interplay between the different levels of interest representation, among them also codetermination on supervisory boards and unions, has been largely neglected in research, and their modes of interaction have not been conceptualized and analyzed systematically yet. There are two research desiderata that stem from this fact. Firstly, the construction, coordination and intermediation of collective interests was not captured adequately. Secondly, problems of legitimacy, which cross-border representation bodies might show towards employees of different countries and locations because of their institutional distance to local actors, were neglected. Therefore, the project extends the analytical perspective by analyzing the interplay and coordination processes, the processes of articulation, between different institutions and actors at different levels of an international corporation. The focus of the project is on the entire system of interest regulation at local, national, and supra-national level. Our research interest is to analyze the coordination processes between the representation levels in theoretically grounded empirical case studies. Doing this, the project seeks to increase scientific knowledge about interest regulation practice in international corporations and to contribute to theory development within the sociology of work and organizations as well as industrial relations. The empirical part is composed of case studies in nine companies of three different industries. The focus of the case studies is on examples of restructuring cases which are accompanied by negotiations about outsourcing, dismissals or the reduction of labour standards. On the one hand, restructuring starkly affects employees local interests. On the other hand and at the same time, the need for a coordination of interests across the levels is particularly high. The case studies cover locations in three countries of the respective international company. Expert interviews are conducted with employee representatives at different levels (e.g. works councils, company and group works councils, EWCs and world works councils), trade union and management representatives. The study seeks to identify empirical interaction patterns between the levels, using an ideal type of transnational advocacy and explaining them with reference to various influence factors.