A Theory of Employment Systems: Micro-Foundations of Societal Diversity

Contents......Page 10
List of Figures......Page 15
List of Tables......Page 16
Part I: A Theory of Employment Systems......Page 18
Employment Systems......Page 20
Incompleteness of the Employment Contract......Page 25
Defining the 'Acceptable Set' of Tasks......Page 30
Use of Classification Criteria to Assign Tasks to Jobs......Page 33
The Function of Job Classification Systems......Page 35
Two Potential Objections to the Argument......Page 38
Insights from the Historical Rise of the Employment Relationship......Page 40
Conclusion......Page 44
Introduction......Page 48
Transaction Rules and the Employment Relation......Page 49
Examples of Each Type of Task Allocation Rule......Page 58
How each Rule Deals with Different Kinds of Opportunism......Page 63
Conclusion......Page 74
Introduction......Page 78
Task Allocation Rules as Partial 'Evolutionarily Stable Strategies'......Page 79
Predominance of Individual Transaction Rules......Page 84
The Need for Inter-firm Institutions......Page 89
Conclusion: Evolutionarily Stable Strategies and Labour Institutions......Page 100
Introduction......Page 103
A Theory of Job Classification......Page 104
Some Lessons from Occupational Classifications used in Earnings Statistics......Page 109
Labour Market Conventions and Job Classifications......Page 114
Some Comparative Evidence on Classifications and their Diffusion......Page 120
The Role of Institutions in Diffusing Classification Rules......Page 124
Employment Systems: Integrating Transaction Rules and Inter-firm Institutions......Page 126
Part II: Evidence and Personnel Management Implications......Page 132
Some Evidence of Inter-country Differences in Employment Systems......Page 134
Production Versus Training Approach: Key Indicators......Page 136
Task-oriented versus Function-oriented Approach: Key Indicators......Page 145
Diffusion of Main Employment Systems......Page 150
Conclusion......Page 156
Introduction......Page 165
The Inherent Difficulties of Performance Measurement......Page 167
Mutual Distrust and Performance Management......Page 170
Some Conventionally Used Performance Criteria......Page 171
How the Contractual Constraints Shape Performance Criteria......Page 173
Moral Hazard, Transaction Rules and Performance Criteria......Page 181
Conclusion: Societal Influences on Performance Criteria......Page 186
Appendix 1 Some Examples of Criteria Used in Performance Appraisal......Page 188
Appendix 2 Transaction Rules and Performance Standards......Page 190
A Theory of Pay and Classifications......Page 194
Price as a Rule and 'Rate for the Job'......Page 201
Rate-for-the-Job Classification and Pay for Performance......Page 207
Hierarchical versus Occupational Classifications and Pay Structures......Page 215
Conclusion......Page 226
Introduction......Page 230
Effects of the Production and Training Approaches on Labour Market Structure......Page 231
Approaches to Enforceability and Functional Flexibility......Page 236
Institutionalization of Transaction rules by OLMs and ILMs......Page 238
Monopsony and Secondary Labour Markets......Page 248
Employment and Self-employment......Page 250
Conclusions......Page 259
Part III: Conclusions......Page 262
Introduction......Page 264
Transaction Costs, Opportunism and Knowledge......Page 266
Flexibility, Productivity and Skills......Page 269
The Quality of Trust and Cooperation within the Firm......Page 271
The Role of Inter-firm Institutions......Page 274
Societal Diversity of Employment Systems......Page 286
References......Page 291
C......Page 308
F......Page 309
J......Page 310
M......Page 311
P......Page 312
T......Page 313
W......Page 314
Z......Page 315