New Worlds of Work: Varieties of Work in Car Factories in the BRIC Countries by Ulrich Jürgens and Martin Krzywdzinski. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016, 368 pp., ISBN: 9780198722670, £55.00, hardback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12262 |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Author | Marco Hauptmeier |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
Book Reviews 883
begs the question whether a closer relationship could stem the tide of union decline
and voter disenfranchisement from left-of-centre parties.
MARK BERGFELD
Queen Mary University of London
New Worlds of Work: Varieties of Work in Car Factories in the BRIC Countries by
Ulrich J¨
urgens and Martin Krzywdzinski. OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford, 2016,
368 pp., ISBN: 9780198722670, £55.00, hardback.
New Worlds of Work examines the organisation of work in auto companies in Brazil,
Russia, India and China (the so-called BRIC countries), refreshingly moving beyond
previous research on employment relations and work in the auto industry that
predominantly focused on Western countries and Japan. However, production and
employment levels have stagnated or declined in these old industrial centres in the
21st century, while they have strongly grown in the BRIC countries, and China has
become the largest auto producing country, making this book a timely contribution to
understanding contemporary employment relationsand work organisation in the auto
industry.
The empirical research undertaken for this book is superb. The authors and
their collaborators in each of the countries conducted 353 interviews, focusing
on Toyota and Volkswagen, as well as one home-grown car producer respectively.
The core empirical chapters focus on a number of substantive aspects of work
– recruitment and vocational training, employee development, pay systems,
work organisationand industrial relations – and compare developments and outcomes
between companies within and across countries. Each of these chapters consists of
four country case studies, which are based on the research across the companies.
These empirical chapters are clearly structured and easily accessible. The country
case studies have succinct summaries and the overall conclusion delivers the main
findings and comparative lessons. The five empirical chapters are independently
suitable for teaching in comparative employment relations, international
HRM and international management at both undergraduate and postgraduate
level.
Theoretically, the book returns to the convergence debate that has been
considered in the literatures on employmentrelations, international management, lean
production, high performance work systems and work organisation. It inquires as to
what extent global production and manufacturing systems can be implemented in
dierent countries and examines constraining factors such as national institutions,
historical legacies and culture. The convergence and divergence arguments have come
in ebbs and flows and early seminal accounts emphasized industrialization as a
driving force for the convergence of management and work organisation (Kerr et al.
1962). However, detailed country studies by institutionalists pointed to continuing
diversity across countries (Dore 1973; Streeck 1992). These institutionalist accounts
were challenged though by sweeping globalisation and lean production convergence
arguments (Womack et al. 1991; ¯
Omae 1999). More dierentiated arguments were
developed subsequently, whereby the French research group GERPISA (Groupe
d’Etude et de Recherche Permanent sur l’Industrie et les Salari´
es de l’Automobile)
argued that new hybrids emerged when production systems met foreign conditions
(Boyer 1998); while Katz and Derbyshire (2000) observed a ‘converging divergence’,
C
2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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