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Файл:Сравнение социальных моделей Европы. Социальная и трудовая политика в Европе. Монография
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the issue of belonging to a group and citizenship. The reality of global migration flows and networks that transcend the borders of the host countries
is calling into question the role of the nation state as a closed unit or space
within which economic, social and political processes take place (see Pries,
in this issue). In the age of globalisation, immigrants are undermining the
foundations of the nation state as a political unit (Beck 1999). This suggests
the need to redefine citizenship as having multiple levels, i.e. belonging to
several superimposed compatible political communities (Baubòck 2002),
both in terms of the rights and duties of immigrants as citizens or permanent
residents and with regard to the relationship between citizenship and collective identity, or as a tool that can be used to achieve the sociocultural integration of immigrants into a given society (Solé 2002). The key issue continues to be the connection between the existence of transnational migrants
and the concept of citizenship that has existed until the present day as meaning belonging to a nation state - in other words the connection between multiple levels of belonging and the strategies of immigrants (and their families) to achieve integration in a specific geopolitical space.
Translation from the Spanish by Joaquin Blasco
References
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de Europa y su inserción en la economia informal, in C. Solé (coord.) El
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Castells, M. (1997) La era de la información, vol.1: La sociedad red,
Madrid: Alianza Ed.
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Theory, Context and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Criado, Ma. J. (2001) La linea quebrada. Historias de vida de migrantes,
Madrid: Consejo Económico y Social.
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Geddes, A. (2000) Immigration and European integration. Towards fortress Europe?, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
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and Citizens in a World of International Migration, Avebury: Aldershot.
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the labour market. Final report of the unemployment network, Oxford: Nuffield College.
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políticas en el contexto de la UE’, in J. F. Tezanos (ed.) Clase, estatus y
poder en las sociedades emeigentes, Madrid: Editorial Sistema.
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Solé, C. (2001) 'Ciudadanía y racismo' in VVAA. Estructura y cambio
social, Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas.
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Sociedad receptora, Barcelona: Ed. Anthropos.
Solé, C. and S. Parella (2001) 'La inserción de los inmigrantes en el
mercado de trabajo. El caso espanol' in C. Solé (coord.) (2001) El impacto
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Anthropos.
Sole, C. et al. (2002) 'El concepto de integracion en la sociologia de las
migraciones', Migraciones, 12, Madrid.
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emergentes, Madrid: Editorial Sistema.
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Migration Studies, 27 (4)
Human resource policies, training and qualifications
Antonio M.A., Faustino M., Andreu L.
Spain, Barcelona, UAB
Summary
The article focuses on the argument that human resource policies set out
to develop a twofold approach to management of the workforce which
thereby becomes divided between a core of highly qualified and skilled employees and a peripheral compont consisting of workers with less or no
skills. This split is reflected in company training policies which, furthermore, exhibit an anti-trade union bias.
Introduction
During the last decade, changes in the organisation of work have been
generating new techniques of managing the workforce. Technological and
organisational innovation appear to be especially associated with company
training and retraining programmes. Research has been conducted in various
European countries on this aspect of human resource and training policies.
This has taken place within the context of the so-called post-Fordist rationalisation of work organisation. But post-Fordism, the new production methods and the retraining of the workforce have also been fashionable topics
and, at times, nothing more than an ideology for modernisation. Despite the
propagandist and modernising tone, the actual adoption of these new company management policies has been limited, as demonstrated by numerous
comparative studies7.
The Spanish magazine Sociologia del Trabajo recently published a bibliography entitled
"Diez Anos de sociologia del trabajo" ("Ten Years of Labour Sociology"). The research
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With different nuances, depending on the country, the new concepts of
production and labour management seem to be limited to the large innovative companies, where human resource policies are also coloured by antitrade union feelings. Anti-trade union polices have been most aggressive in
Great Britain and the United States, probably because the industrial relations of these countries are characterised by free collective bargaining, less
state intervention and the greater importance of company-level agreements.
It could be that the characteristics of this industrial relations model have
reinforced the development of company-level industrial relations. This tendency is also apparent in the Latin countries but not with the same intensity
nor with the same characteristics.
In any case, growing importance is being given to so-called human resource policies and to the direct participation and involvement of the workforce. An emphasis on training and retraining, associated with the rationalisation of work, has also been acquiring importance, as we will briefly show
in the following sections.
New management techniques
The rationalisation of the organisation of work in large companies is
closely linked to the introduction of new techniques of managing the workforce. The use of such techniques is often aimed at marginalising trade unions by focusing on individuals or small groups and increasing the motivation, participation and involvement of the workforce. Recent research also
reveals the emergence of new criteria for the selection and recruitment of
the workforce and for the management of in-house training and retraining.
Management and academic literature has given increasing attention to socalled human resource policies and there has been a corresponding growth
in the human resource departments of big companies (Prieto 1991).
Employee participation and involvement
Direct participation of the workforce is a key concept that sums up the
basic ideas that underlie the new management and work organisation techniques. The jungle of concepts - which are often only euphemisms - that
looks at the situation in Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain and Spain and covers, with
different emphases and nuances, the development of industrial relations and continuous training in companies. Other comparative studies which allow us to evaluate the situation in the
"four motor" regions include the work of Marino Regini and R. Bahnnmüller (1997), Best
practice oder funktionale Àquivalenz?, Munich, Rainer Hampp Verlag. Also the research
carried out with the direct and indirect participation of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Working Conditions which we will look at later.
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emerged in the management literature of the 1980s, such as Quality Circles,
Total Quality Management, Semi-Autonomous Groups, Flexible Cells, Lean
Production, etc. all at least agree on one question: that the workforce should
be involved more directly in the work and in the company. What is new is
that management are pursuing this objective more earnestly than previously.
Participation is certainly not a new concept. But it is new in the sense in
which it has been used in recent years. There are two aspects of it that
should be emphasised, as indicated by Fröhlich and Pekruhl (1995). First,
participation is encouraged by management within the framework of the
restructuring and reorganisation of the production line. Management aims to
give employees a greater capacity to intervene and greater responsibility and
autonomy in carrying out their work. Second, participation is now conceived of in a broader way. It goes beyond employee involvement in their
workshop, section or department and extends to employee input into the
whole organisation. Whereas participation was previously conceived of as
aiming to promote greater reliability and the resolution of specific problems
(e.g. the "Solving-Groups"), there is now a tendency for it to be thought of
in a more general way.
Participation also derives from attempts to copy the (past) successes of
the Japanese economy, its high efficiency, the motivation of its workforce,
the high quality of its products and the flexibility of its work organisation.
Attempts are made to adapt these "technical" elements to the characteristics
of western companies, which, of course, is not so simple. Taking everything
into consideration, management wants to use participation to achieve greater
efficiency, an intensification of work and greater control over work. However, we must not omit to say that participation can also represent an opportunity to humanise work and introduce certain elements of democracy into
the workplace.
In an attempt to systematise the concept of employee participation,
Geary and Sisson (1994) define it with reference to four criteria - consultation, delegation, individual and group. In addition, participation can be temporary or permanent. The combination of these criteria in different ways
produces six types of participation:
1. Individual/consultation. This form of minimal participation consists
merely in the consultation of individual employees or in encouraging employees to make suggestions. Management reserves the right
to act on the results of any consultation or to take up any suggestions.
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2. Individual/delegation. This second formula consists in the transfer
of certain levels of responsibility to individual workers. This could
consist of giving the worker autonomy to organise his or her work
station, take on responsibility for preventive maintenance, or even
broadening the range of tasks.
3. Temporary group/consultation. In this case, the character of the
group is consultative and temporary and is established to develop a
project or contribute suggestions as to how to solve a particular
problem. The group is dissolved once it has made its suggestions.
An example of this type are the "project groups'" described in management literature.
4. Temporary group/delegation. This type of participation also has a
limited duration, with tasks delegated in order to resolve problems
or make proposals. The difference is that the group's solutions are
binding. Examples are "working groups", "continuous improvement
groups", etc.
5. Permanent group/consultation. This is where groups are stable but
their function is limited to consultation. For example, the Quality
Circles of Japanese inspiration, whose main task is to examine
product quality and make suggestions about how to improve the
production process.
6. Permanent group/delegation. This is the organisational formula that
best reflects participation in the sense of economic democracy. The
groups have rights and duties and work in an autonomous way and
have responsibility for the organisation of work. This kind of group
has its origin in the so-called "socio-technical focus" tradition of the
Tavistock Institute and is associated with the Industrial Democracy
experiences of the Scandinavian countries.
In brief, these six types of participation appear in management literature
under a profusion of names that are very often no more than fashionable and
confusing jargon. The different formulae of participation have contributed
to the modification of certain aspects of the traditional organisation of work.
However, it is only the sixth formula - permanent group with delegated
functions - which constitutes a radically different alternative to the "scientific" organisation of work. This formula inspires vanguard management
proposals such as the humanisation of work and trade union demands such
as set out by the Movement for Improvement in the Quality of Life and
Work, which has put down institutional roots in the Scandinavian countries.
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So, management policies on participation are based on two distinct sets
8
of ideas. First, since the 1980s, the Japanese (Toyotist) model has had a
growing influence in western countries because of the international success
of the Japanese economy. In the Japanese model, participation does not necessarily signify questioning or eradicating Taylorist organisation, as Coriat
(1993) and Bonazzi (1993) have warned. In any case, participation is compatible with slight modifications of Taylorism, or with a combination of old
and new forms of work organisation. The Japanese model allows a limited
degree of autonomy to groups of workers; the functions of the group are
often closely defined and the management hierarchy is more pronounced
than in the Scandinavian model. In addition, the trade unions have a subordinate role and industrial relations have a paternalist character. As a result,
social and economic democracy is very weak in this model and it may have
an openly anti-union stance, as most clearly shown by the North American
experience (AA.VV., 1997).
On the contrary, the origins of the Scandinavian model of Industrial Democracy are associated with an innovative focus on harmonising technology
and social factors; the trends to humanise work that emerged in the 1970s;
and the ideas of direct and indirect worker participation put forward by trade
unions. In this model, the groups have greater autonomy, responsibility and
decision-making capacity. Participation is also indirect, operating through
the company's decision-making and administrative structure. Participation
in this sense is definitely linked to the idea of social and economic democracy8.
Management and promotion policies
The transformations to which we have alluded, such as new technologies
and forms of work organisation, have caused certain transformations in the
management of the workforce. In many cases, changes in management
methods are associated with new and emerging professions. But they do not
affect all occupational groups within companies in the same way. Various
studies show that the effects of human resources management policies appear to be polarised. The "winners", those that benefit most from the process
In Spain, interest in the various types of employee participation at work is relatively recent.
This is largely because it is also only recently that management practice has advanced in this
direction. In general, and with few exceptions, the issue began to acquire some relevance at
the beginning of the 1980s and interest has intensified since the middle of the 1980s. See,
among others, Lope, Martin, Varella (1994).
117
of innovation and retraining, are executives, technicians, middle management, qualified professionals and marketing department personnel. They
tend to be managed in pro-organisation terms and with reference to the logic
of internal work markets. The "losers" are the production workers who are
not so well educated. There is a tendency to require the latter to be flexible
and multi-skilled and to give them instruction when and where necessary
(not precisely the same as professional retraining). They tend to be managed
with reference to external labour markets. In other words, there is a tendency to retrain staff who have already been trained and who have formal professional qualifications, while the lesser qualified sectors can expect only
on-the-job instruction.
Technicians and skilled blue-collar workers are the professional groups
that companies prefer, though not exclusively, to promote from within the
company. Some groups of unskilled administrative staff and workers also
form part of that section of the workforce which is likely to be seen as a
source of internal recruitment and promotion. This pattern also applies to all
types and sizes of company, including small companies, probably because
in-house promotion represents a saving in the costs of replacing staff, recruitment, selection and training. These preferences give clues about the
selective and hierarchical criteria followed by company training policies. In
other words, investment in "human capital", career plans and promotion has
to fit into a highly pronounced hierarchical structure (Grup d'Estudis QUIT
1997).
Each occupational group is treated differently when it comes to in-house
promotion or external recruitment. Executives and other positions of responsibility are recruited from existing staff and the external labour market.
In the case of technical and administrative staff, in-house promotion predominates. Blue-collar workers tend to be recruited from outside the company, possibly because relatively few of them have recognised qualifications, which makes it difficult to retrain them. In other words, companies
make use of some groups of their employees more than others. They tend to
retain and promote the most qualified workers or those in whom they have
invested most training resources.
The in-house promotion of executives seems to be more pronounced in
transnational companies than in national companies. But this trend also applies to large service sector companies. They have formal career structures
and Human Resource Departments with functions separate to those of the
Personnel Department. This is generally the pattern in large financial insti-
118
tutions and in public administration, where trade unions play an important
9
role in such matters. However, in industry, workers' representative institutions have less influence over promotion of middle to high technical professional categories of workers. Promotion within this occupational group usually takes place through individual selection mechanisms9 which take into
consideration formal professional qualifications and the specific experience
acquired while working for the company itself.
This strategy is used in practically all sectors of the economy, apart from
construction. The differences between sectors are explained more by the
size of the workforce. The greater the number of workers employed, the
greater the likelihood of the employer recruiting from existing staff to fill
technical positions. Meanwhile, small companies place a greater emphasis
on external recruitment. Companies experiencing a more intense degree of
change in work organisation rely most on in-house promotion, irrespective
of size.
In the case of skilled white and blue-collar workers, career development
and promotion is taken forward on a more individual and selective basis
(Miguélez et al. 1991). This is due to the fact that there are only a small
number of such workers. In industry, this applies to maintenance personnel,
operators of centralised and computerised quality control systems and certain staff with specific medium-high qualifications. However, in some cases,
promotion is not possible because of the unavailability of the required personnel in-house and companies have to resort to external institutions such as
vocational training schools, or even appoint by selecting the most competent
of currently employed staff.
There are differences and nuances between industry and the service sectors in the way they manage administrative workers. Employees in the finance sector have better trade union organisation than those in industry and
this makes for different practices. Finance sector workers are accustomed to
putting pressure on their employer using company committees and their
trade unions to negotiate formal agreements making promotion dependent
From a survey of Workers Commissions (CC.OO.) members (Rebollo, Martín Artiles, Miguélez 1993 : 81); the medium to high categories of technicians, administrative heads and
officers wanted trade union control over promotion. The absence of collective control and the
rarity of any negotiation on these issues is a source of dissatisfaction for members with higher levels of professional qualification and training. The age group which most wants trade
union control over this issue is the over 40s. This fits in with the theory that the need social
and symbolic recognition increases with age.
119
on relevant training. In some cases, the unions fight for recognition of the
10
relevance of the "discreet" or informal10 training acquired in the course of
the performance of the job. This criterion is generally called "seniority", a
vague and diffuse concept (in a certain way, it is also a synonym for informal qualification), but it is often used as a criterion for promotion.
This does not happen in industry, where administrative workers are not
used to taking collective action. Training and promotion are subject to
markedly more individual and informal mechanisms, especially in small and
medium-sized companies.
Finally, vacancies for unskilled blue-collar workers tend to be filled externally rather than in-house. But there is one aspect worth noting about
companies which have gone through profound changes in work organisation. In these cases, in-house promotion is much more likely, possibly due
to the pressures from and negotiations with workers' representatives and the
protection afforded by the trade unions.
Recruitment and selection of the workforce
The criteria for recruitment, the selection of personnel and training depends on the requirements of the position in question. Some studies (Lope
1996; Martín Artiles and Rebollo, 1997) indicate that companies tend to
recruit both highly and poorly qualified staff, i.e. at both ends of the scale,
especially in Latin countries like France, Italy and Spain (Regini and
Bahnmüller, 1997). In other words, there is demand for both skilled and unskilled staff, which, when all is said and done, reflects the dominant model
of the division and organisation of work.
To a certain extent, the organisation of work in the service sector seems
to follow traditional lines (McDonalised, to use Ritzer's term, 1996): rapid
production based on automation and a reduction in unit costs; the emphasis
on saving time; the primacy of quantity over quality; the standardisation of
product and processes. As a result, the demand for training and initial qualifications is low. So we find that in activities like hotels, restaurants and
commerce there are few demands for qualifications. However, attitude and
behaviour seem be of increasing importance. Company psycho-technical
The term “discreet” was coined by Phillipe Meahut and Jacques Delcourt (1993) and aims
to emphasise the informal kind of training that goes on unnoticed at work; professional qualification to do the job is not formally recognised if the worker has no formal professional
certificate or title. Despite this, informal training (learning by doing) is of crucial importance
to companies and the way in which competence at the job is acquired. See also Lope and
Martín Artiles (1993).
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