IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v57y2019i3p576-598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Collective Action, Business Cleavages and the Politics of Control: Segmentalism in the Swiss Skill Formation System

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Emmenegger
  • Lina Seitzl

Abstract

Collective skill formation systems have come under sustained pressure in recent years. Scholars observe a fragmentation process, which is the result of changing power relations, putting large training firms in a dominant position. However, so far the literature has examined neither the role of small firms and intermediary associations nor the source of power of the various business actors. In this case study, we ask: If business is pivotal, but divided, who prevails and why? We find that the availability of credible exit options and the ability to act collectively determines the degree of influence of the various business actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Emmenegger & Lina Seitzl, 2019. "Collective Action, Business Cleavages and the Politics of Control: Segmentalism in the Swiss Skill Formation System," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(3), pages 576-598, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:57:y:2019:i:3:p:576-598
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12426
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12426
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12426?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baethge, Martin & Wolter, Andrä, 2015. "The German skill formation model in transition: from dual system of VET to higher education?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 48(2), pages 97-112.
    2. Wolfgang Streeck, 1987. "The Uncertainties of Management in the Management of Uncertainty," International Journal of Political Economy, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., vol. 17(3), pages 57-87, October.
    3. Marius R. Busemeyer, 2012. "Business as a Pivotal Actor in the Politics of Training Reform: Insights from the Case of Germany," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 690-713, December.
    4. Schmitter, Philippe C. & Streeck, Wolfgang, 1999. "The organization of business interests: Studying the associative action of business in advanced industrial societies," MPIfG Discussion Paper 99/1, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Martin Baethge & Andrä Wolter, 2015. "The German skill formation model in transition: from dual system of VET to higher education? [Das deutsche Ausbildungsmodell im Umbruch: zwischen dualem Berufsbildungssystem und Hochschulstudium]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(2), pages 97-112, August.
    6. Baethge, Martin & Wolter, Andrä, 2015. "The German skill formation model in transition: from dual system of VET to higher education?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 48(2), pages 97-112.
    7. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107679566, September.
    8. Culpepper,Pepper D., 2011. "Quiet Politics and Business Power," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521118590, September.
    9. Culpepper,Pepper D., 2011. "Quiet Politics and Business Power," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521134132, September.
    10. Baethge, Martin & Wolter, Andrä, 2015. "The German skill formation model in transition: from dual system of VET to higher education?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 48(2), pages 97-112.
    11. Thelen,Kathleen, 2014. "Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107053168, September.
    12. Kathleen Thelen, 2009. "Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 471-498, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marius R Busemeyer & Martin B Carstensen & Patrick Emmenegger, 2022. "Orchestrators of coordination: Towards a new role of the state in coordinated capitalism?," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 28(2), pages 231-250, June.
    2. Benassi, Chiara & Durazzi, Niccolo & Fortwengel, Johann, 2020. "Not all firms are created equal: SMEs and vocational training in the UK, Italy, and Germany," MPIfG Discussion Paper 20/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Wilson, Anna & Bajka, Scherwin M., 2024. "Skill provision concerns in the knowledge economy: training firms’ perspective," OSF Preprints qjpz5, Center for Open Science.
    4. repec:ehl:lserod:115909 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Chiara Benassi & Niccolo Durazzi & Johann Fortwengel, 2022. "Comparative institutional disadvantage: Small firms and vocational training in the British manufacturing sector in comparative perspective," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 371-390, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niccolo Durazzi, 2023. "Engineering the expansion of higher education: High skills, advanced manufacturing, and the knowledge economy," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 121-141, January.
    2. Nils Grashof, 2020. "Sinking or swimming in the cluster labour pool? A firm-specific analysis of the effect of specialized labour," Jena Economics Research Papers 2020-006, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    3. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity convergence and firm’s training strategy," ROA Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    4. Sandra D?Agostino & Silvia Vaccaro, 2020. "La via italiana al duale: opportunit? e criticit?," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 89-104.
    5. Haverkamp Katarzyna & Seibert Holger & Wesling Mirko, 2020. "Sektorale und berufsspezifische Ausbildungsstrategien und Übergangsmuster nach der dualen Ausbildung," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 69(1), pages 44-68, May.
    6. Golo Henseke, 2019. "Against the Grain? Assessing Graduate Labour Market Trends in Germany Through a Task-Based Indicator of Graduate Jobs," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 809-840, January.
    7. Neugebauer, Martin & Weiss, Felix, 2017. "Does a Bachelor's degree pay off? Labor market outcomes of academic versus vocational education after Bologna," Discussion Papers 2017/11, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    8. Marrero-Rodríguez, Josefa-Rosa & Stendardi, David, 2023. "The implementation of dual vocational education and training in Spain: Analysis of company tutors in the tourism sector," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 10(1), pages 90-112.
    9. Woll, Cornelia, 2015. "Politics in the interest of capital: A not-so-organized combat," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 15/2, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    10. Alexandra Strebel & Patrick Emmenegger & Lukas Graf, 2021. "New Interest Associations in a Neo‐Corporatist System: Adapting the Swiss Training System to the Service Economy," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 848-873, September.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6sio9gcc4m9nr96pqt3c5at95b is not listed on IDEAS
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6sio9gcc4m9nr96pqt3c5at95b is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Wilson, Anna & Bajka, Scherwin M., 2024. "Skill provision concerns in the knowledge economy: training firms’ perspective," OSF Preprints qjpz5, Center for Open Science.
    14. Pardesi, Mantej, 2024. "Productivity Convergence and Firm’s Training Strategy," Research Memorandum 003, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    15. María Teresa Pozo-Llorente & María de Fátima Poza-Vilches, 2020. "Conditioning Factors of Sustainability of Dual Vocational Educational Training in Andalusia (Spain): Case Study of Three Educational Centres," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-35, November.
    16. Walwei, Ulrich & Deller, Jürgen, 2021. "Labor Market Participation of Older Workers in International Comparison," IAB-Discussion Paper 202116, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    17. Wotschack, Philip, 2020. "Drivers of training participation in low skilled jobs: the role of ‘voice’, technology, innovation and labor shortages in German companies," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 245-264.
    18. Philip Wotschack, 2020. "When Do Companies Train Low‐Skilled Workers? The Role of Institutional Arrangements at the Company and Sectoral Level," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(3), pages 587-616, September.
    19. Seeliger, Martin, 2017. "Die soziale Konstruktion organisierter Interessen: Gewerkschaftliche Positionsbildung auf europäischer Ebene," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 89, number 89.
    20. Martí López‐Andreu, 2019. "Employment Institutions under Liberalization Pressures: Analysing the Effects of Regulatory Change on Collective Bargaining in Spain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(2), pages 328-349, June.
    21. Caleb Goods & Bradon Ellem, 2023. "Employer associations: Climate change, power and politics," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(2), pages 481-503, May.
    22. Saskia Boumans, 2024. "Employer Discretion: The Role of Collective Agreements in the Liberalization of Industrial Relations," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(2), pages 227-250, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:57:y:2019:i:3:p:576-598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.