Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations - 63
Globalization and Employment Relations in Retail Banking
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes on Contributors
Preface
1. Globalization, Varieties of Capitalism and Employment Relations in Retail Banking
Nick Wailes
2. Australia: Connecting the Global and the Local: Changing Employment Practices in Retail Banking
Jim Kitay and Leanne Cutcher
3. China: Employment Relations in Commercial Banks
Shuming Zhao, Wei Zhao, Jim Kitay and Jie Zhang
4. Germany: From Stability to Change: The Banking Industry in Transition
Thomas Haipeter and Karin Wagner
5. Hong Kong: Changing Institutional Context and Market Forces: Impact on Employment Practices in the Banking Sector
Teresa Shuk-ching Poon and Olivia K.M. Ip
6. Korea: Globalization and the Changing Structure of Employment Relations in the Banking Industry
Joohee Lee and Funkoo Park
7. Singapore: Liberalization of Commercial Banking and its Impact on Work and Labour
Hing Ai Yun
8. USA: Employment Relations Practices. Retail Banking
Larry W. Hunter
Notes on Contributors
Leanne Cutcher is the Sesqui Centenary Lecturer in Strategic Management at the School of Business, University of Sydney, Australia. l.cutcher@econ.usyd.edu.au
Thomas Haipeter is Researcher at the Working Time and Work Organisation Department at the Institute Work and Qualification, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. haipeter@iatge.de
Larry W. Hunter is Associate Professor of Management and Human Resources at the School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. lhunter@bus.wisc.edu
Olivia K.M. Ip is Associate Professor at the School of Management, City University of Hong Kong. mgolivia@cityu.edu.hk
Jim Kitay is Associate Professor and Chair of Work and Organisational Studies at the School of Business, University of Sydney, Australia. j.kitay@econ.usyd.edu.au
Joohee Lee is Professor in the Division of Social Sciences at Ewha University, Korea. j.lee@ewha.ac.kr
Funkoo Park, former President of the Korean Labor Institute, sadly passed away in July 2005. He made a significant intellectual contribution to the Korean banking research included in this issue and the framing of the broader research project of which it is a part.
Teresa Shuk-ching Poon is Assistant Professor at the School of Business and Administration, Open University of Hong Kong. tpoon@ouhk.edu.hk
Karin Wagner is Professor of Business Administration at the University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany. k.wagner@fhtw-berlin.de
Nick Wailes is Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at the School of Business, University of Sydney, Australia. n.wailes@econ.usyd.edu.au
Hing Ai Yun is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. sochay@nus.edu.sg
Jie Zhang is a Ph.D. Candidate and Lecturer at the College of Economics and Business, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, P.R. China. jiezhang@nuaa.edu.cn
Shuming Zhao is Professor and Dean at the School of Business, Nanjing University, P.R. China. zhaosm@nju.edu.cn
Wei Zhao is Associate Professor at the School of Business, Nanjing University, P.R. China. wzhao@nju.edu.cn
Preface
Guest editors: Jim Kitay, Nick Wailes and Leanne Cutcher
For more than a decade there has been considerable debate about the impact of globalization on employment relations. Labour relations scholars have traditionally sought to examine whether changes in the external environment create pressures for either convergence or divergence in employment relations. While it seems clear that globalization does not impose a universal logic on labour standards and employment relations, the pressures associated with globalization are not unimportant. There is evidence that, in at least some areas, international economic change is creating common pressures and promoting similar changes in countries with different forms of labour law and regulation. Overall, the traditional distinction between convergence and divergence seems too limited to capture contemporary patterns of continuity and change in national patterns of employment relations.
The articles contained in this special issue of the Bulletin are the first empirical findings from the Globalization and Employment Relations in Auto-assemblies and Banking (GERAB) project. By focussing on changes in employment relations in two very different industries (both of which are significantly affected by globalization) across a number of countries, the GERAB project attempts to go beyond treating globalization as a source of either convergence or divergence and to gain insight into the range of factors that shape the relationship between international economic change and patterns of employment relations. The GERAB project is informed by recent theories of capitalist diversity which suggest that it is possible to identify varieties of capitalism. Building on these theories, the project aims to assess whether there is evidence that the impact of globalization on employment relations varies systematically across varieties of capitalism. The introductory article reviews this theoretical literature and outlines the logic behind the research project.
A particularly significant characteristic of the GERAB project is its focus on developments in the Asian region. This reflects the belief of the project coordinators that theories of globalization and employment relations need to be able to explain not just the European and North American context. They also need to be able to account for developments in other market economies. The focus on Asia also indicates an acknowledgement of the growing significance of this region in political and economic terms. While of growing significance, the nature of relations between employee and employers in Asia and the impact of globalization on these relations continue to be much under-researched.
The articles in this special issue provide assessments of changes in employment relations in the retail banking sector in seven countries. A second issue of the Bulletin will contain papers on employment relations changes in the auto assembly industry across seven countries. The first four empirical articles contain studies of employment relations developments in four Asian economies – the People’s Republic of China (PR China), the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Singapore and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). They provide insight into a region which is profoundly affected by and implicated in recent changes in the international economy, not least by the dramatic events of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and its aftermath. The studies all provide evidence of dramatic and rapid change in retail banking and its employment relations. They also provide evidence of considerable diversity both across the region and within countries. In doing so they provide rich empirical insights in the complex range of factors that shape how globalization impacts employment relations. We think that the article on banking in PR China, which is to our knowledge the first English language study of the emerging pattern of industry-level employment relations in this most important of economies, will be of particular interest. The special issue also contains studies of changes in employment relations in retail banking in the United States, Australia and Germany. Again these studies reveal a complex pattern of continued change and diversity across and within countries.
We would like to thank a number of people who assisted in the production of this special issue. Hing Ai Yun organized the original workshop, which made it possible for the banking research team to meet. Anja Kirsch has provided invaluable support preparing the articles for submission. We would also like to thank the production staff at Kluwer Law for their professionalism. Finally, we would like to make special mention of the contribution that Dr Funkoo Park made to the development of both this issue and the GERAB project as a whole. Until his untimely death in 2005, Dr Park was a leading scholar of Korean employment relations and actively supported this research project. In acknowledgement of his scholarship and support, the editors and contributors would like to dedicate this special issue to him.
Jim Kitay, Nick Wailes and Leanne Cutcher
January 2007