IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iab/iabmit/v33i4p594-608.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unternehmenspolitik, Managerkontrolle und Personalabbau in Deutschland : theoretische Ansätze und empirische Analyse mit Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels (Corporate policy, manager control and staff reduction in Germany : theoretical approaches and empirical analysis using data from the IAB establishment panel)

Author

Listed:
  • Beckmann, Michael

Abstract

"Since the 1980s drastic staff reductions have been observed in many German firms which are lasting until today and have rather gained in intensity. Previous theoretical and empirical studies put this down in particular to unfavourable demand conditions on the goods market, wages that are too high and rigid, or also innovations in process technology. The focus of the analysis in this paper on the other hand is placed firstly on the consequences of certain corporate policy strategies. In detail, in this context the paper examines the personnel-related consequences of organisational adjustment measures as well as changes in the company boundaries as a result of splitting off or integrating parts of the firm. Secondly, staff reduction measures are analysed against the background of the corporate governance debate. Here the paper goes into the question as to whether staff cuts can also be the result of a pattern of manager behaviour that has changed under the influence of mechanisms of manager control. It is possible that influences of the capital or manager market induce patterns of behaviour in managers which are expressed in job cuts. The empirical results can be summarised as follows: firstly no significant connection can be proven between organisational changes and staff cuts in a firm. Secondly both outsourcing and integration decisions taken by the firms result in job cuts. Thirdly public limited companies in western Germany and in Germany as a whole carry out clear staff reductions. This result can be explained firstly by the fact that the management orientates itself towards the concept of shareholder value. Secondly a manager behaviour pattern based on reputation effects can play a role here." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Suggested Citation

  • Beckmann, Michael, 2000. "Unternehmenspolitik, Managerkontrolle und Personalabbau in Deutschland : theoretische Ansätze und empirische Analyse mit Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels (Corporate policy, manager control and staff reduc," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 33(4), pages 594-608.
    • Handle: RePEc:iab:iabmit:v:33:i:4:p:594-608
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doku.iab.de/mittab/2000/2000_4_MittAB_Beckmann.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ulrich Kaiser, 2000. "New Technologies And The Demand For Heterogeneous Labor: Firm-Level Evidence For The German Business-Related Service Sector," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(5), pages 465-486.
    2. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 1996. "Reorganization of Firms and Labor-Market Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 315-321, May.
    3. John T. Addison & Douglas A. Fox & Christopher J. Ruhm, 1996. "Trade Sensitivity, Technology, and Labor Displacement," NBER Working Papers 5621, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Narayanan, M P, 1985. "Managerial Incentives for Short-term Results," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1469-1484, December.
    5. Peter Cappelli, 2000. "Examining the Incidence of Downsizing and Its Effect on Establishment Performance," NBER Working Papers 7742, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    7. Alfred D. Chandler, 1969. "Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262530090, April.
    8. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    9. Zimmermann, Klaus F, 1991. "The Employment Consequences of Technological Advance, Demand and Labor Costs in 16 German Industries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 253-266.
    10. Eli Bekman & John Bound & Stephen Machin, 1998. "Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1245-1279.
    11. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from Seven OECD Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244.
    12. Borland, Jeff, 1992. "Career Concerns: Incentives and Endogenous Learning in Labour Markets," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 251-270.
    13. Scharfstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1990. "Herd Behavior and Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 465-479, June.
    14. Falk, Martin & Koebel, Bertrand M., 1997. "The Demand of Heterogeneous Labour in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-28, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Krugman, Paul R., 2000. "Technology, trade and factor prices," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 51-71, February.
    16. Blechinger Doris & Pfeiffer Friedhelm, 1999. "Qualifikation, Beschäftigung und technischer Fortschritt / Skill Structure, Employment and Technological Progress: Empirische Evidenz mit den Daten des Mannheimer Innovationspanels / Empirical Evidenc," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 218(1-2), pages 128-146, February.
    17. Kleinert, Jörn & Klodt, Henning, 2000. "Megafusionen: Trends, Ursachen und Implikationen," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 2358, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    18. Blechinger, Doris & Kleinknecht, Alfred & Licht, Georg & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 1998. "The impact of innovation on employment in Europe: An analysis using CIS data," ZEW Dokumentationen 98-02, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Christopher L. Foote, 1997. "The Surprising Symmetry of Gross Job Flows," NBER Working Papers 6226, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1985. "Credit Markets and the Control of Capital," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 133-152, May.
    21. Mehran, Hamid & Nogler, George E. & Schwartz, Kenneth B., 1998. "CEO incentive plans and corporate liquidation policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 319-349, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Beckmann, Michael, 2000. "Unternehmenspolitik, Managerkontrolle und Personalabbau in Deutschland : theoretische Ansätze und empirische Analyse mit Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels (Corporate policy, manager control and staff reduc," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 33(4), pages 594-608.
    2. Piva, Mariacristina & Santarelli, Enrico & Vivarelli, Marco, 2005. "The skill bias effect of technological and organisational change: Evidence and policy implications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 141-157, March.
    3. Lanouar Charfeddine & Zouhair Mrabet, 2015. "Trade liberalization and relative employment: further evidence from Tunisia," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(1), pages 173-202, June.
    4. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    5. Manasse, Paolo & Stanca, Luca & Turrini, Alessandro, 2004. "Wage premia and skill upgrading in Italy: why didn't the hound bark?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 59-83, February.
    6. Paolo Manasse & Luca Stanca, 2002. "Working on the Train: Technology, Trade and Wages in Italian Manufacturing," Working Papers 61, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2002.
    7. Gerlach, Knut & Jirjahn, Uwe, 1998. "Technischer Fortschritt, Arbeitsorganisation und Qualifikation : eine empirische Analyse für das Verarbeitende Gewerbe Niedersachsens (Technological progress, organisation of labour, and qualification," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 31(3), pages 426-437.
    8. Bernhard Heitger & Jürgen Stehn, 2003. "Trade, Technical Change, and Labour Market Adjustment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(10), pages 1481-1502, November.
    9. repec:ilo:ilowps:365055 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Gerlach, Knut & Jirjahn, Uwe, 1998. "Technischer Fortschritt, Arbeitsorganisation und Qualifikation : eine empirische Analyse für das Verarbeitende Gewerbe Niedersachsens (Technological progress, organisation of labour, and qualification," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 31(3), pages 426-437.
    11. Jonathan E. Haskel, 2000. "Trade and Labor Approaches to Wage Inequality," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 397-408, August.
    12. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    13. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-504 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Rosario Crinò, 2009. "Offshoring, Multinationals And Labour Market: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 197-249, April.
    15. Edward Wolff, 2006. "The growth of information workers in the US economy, 1950-2000: the role of technological change, computerization, and structural change," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 221-255.
    16. Robbins, Donald J., 2003. "The impact of trade liberalization upon inequality in developing countries : a review of theory and evidence," ILO Working Papers 993650553402676, International Labour Organization.
    17. Sunil Mithas & Jonathan Whitaker, 2007. "Is the World Flat or Spiky? Information Intensity, Skills, and Global Service Disaggregation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 237-259, September.
    18. Josef Falkinger & Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Workplaces in the Primary Economy and Wage Pressure in the Secondary Labor Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(3), pages 523-544, September.
    19. Hamid Boustanifar & Everett Grant & Ariell Reshef, 2018. "Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970–2011 [Financial reform: what shakes it? What shapes it?]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 699-745.
    20. Pascal Petit, 2010. "Innovation and Services: On Biases and Beyond," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Julien Martin & Isabelle Méjean, 2011. "Low-wage countries' competition, reallocation across firms and the quality content of exports," PSE - G-MOND WORKING PAPERS halshs-00962485, HAL.
    22. William F. Blankenau & Steven P. Cassou, 2009. "Industrial Dynamics And The Neoclassical Growth Model," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 815-837, October.

    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:iab:iabmit:v:33:i:4:p:594-608. 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: IAB, Geschäftsbereich Wissenschaftliche Fachinformation und Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iabbbde.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.