Competitiveness and the employment relationship in Europe: Is there a global missing link in HRM?

Abstract

Competitiveness is an often ill-defined concept that is key to economic success. This chapter focuses on the links between competitiveness and the employment relationship (ER). It ranks European countries by their specialization in high-technology, skilled labor sectors to yield a competitiveness ranking and examines workers’ values and attitudes to identify common ER features of the “competitive” countries. Results show that workers in competitive countries enjoy greater flexibility and autonomy. Some conclusions are raised regarding what companies can do from the HRM perspective to optimize employee capabilities, leading to more productive and competitive working environments.

Citation

Simón, C. and Allard, G. (2008), "Competitiveness and the employment relationship in Europe: Is there a global missing link in HRM?", Lawler, J.J. and Hundley, G. (Ed.) The Global Diffusion of Human Resource Practices: Institutional and Cultural Limits (Advances in International Management, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 9-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1571-5027(08)00001-6