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Inter-firm power relations and working conditions under new production models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

María J Paz Open the ORCID record for María J Paz [Opens in a new window] ,
Mario Rísquez  and
María E Ruiz-Gálvez
María J Paz*
Affiliation:
Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Mario Rísquez
Affiliation:
Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
María E Ruiz-Gálvez
Affiliation:
Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
*
María J Paz, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain. Email: mjpazant@ucm.es
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Abstract

In investigating recent changes to the automotive industry production process, such as modularisation, our work emphasises the process of fragmentation of production as a configuring element of inter-firm power relationships, and as an explanatory element in working conditions. From a theoretical framework focused on power relations, we analyse by way of a selected case study how the capabilities of companies and their network positions, together with the agency of labour, shape the power relations that influence the evolution of working conditions. The study does indeed find relevant changes to inter-firm relationships, for example, within networks of assemblers and suppliers, but without a consequent re-balancing of power. This finding serves to explain differences in the evolution of working conditions between distinct companies, these conditions being fully functional to a strategy for profitability and thus difficult to reverse.

Keywords

Automotive sectorindustrial organisationsindustrial relationsinter-firm relationsproduction networksworking conditionsJ31L14L62
Type
Original Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 138 - 157
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021

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