What is it about?
The authors first introduce the typical Belgian industrial relations system, discussing the similarities and differences with neighboring countries. This is followed by a brief overview of the relevant literature. Subsequently, the impact of Belgian employee representation on firm performance is estimated by means of OLS, using a newly developed questionnaire administered among Belgian CEOs. Special attention is given to moderating and mediating effects. The authors find that Belgian WCs have a small (direct) significantly positive effect on labor productivity, but not on profitability. The additional results of the mediation test show tentatively that WCs might affect profitability indirectly, through their impact on productivity. Despite trade unions’ dominance in practice, the findings reveal that their impact is insignificant.
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Why is it important?
The data set is unique, and combines subjective CEO with objective performance data. The data offer the opportunity to do a first study into the special case of Belgium, which has a distinct uniondominated IR regime. In this study, the focus is furthermore on the rarely studied WC-trade union interaction. In addition, subtle moderation and mediation effects are estimated.
Perspectives
In this study we only estimate the effect of the mere presence of WCs on performance. The underlying mechanisms that we described in our theory section are simply assumed to work properly, but they are not really measured. This neglects the fact that, in practice, many employee representation bodies do not function optimally – for instance, due to disinterest or inexperience at the side of the workers, or due to obstructive managers frustrating employee voice. With the current data set, we can further explore the effect of parties’ attitudes and mutual relations in determining the influence of representative employee participation. The follow-up study on this theme has been accepted for publication in Personnel Review (forthcoming in 2018).
Annette van den Berg
Universiteit Utrecht
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Employee workplace representation in Belgium: effects on firm performance, International Journal of Manpower, May 2017, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/ijm-06-2015-0094.
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