Zumbansen, Peer --- "Varieties of Capitalism and the Learning Firm: Corporate Governance and labour in the Context of Contemporary Developments in European and German Company Law" [2008] ELECD 291; in Boeger, Nina; Murray, Rachel; Villiers, Charlotte (eds), "Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

Editor(s): Boeger, Nina; Murray, Rachel; Villiers, Charlotte

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847205612

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Varieties of Capitalism and the Learning Firm: Corporate Governance and labour in the Context of Contemporary Developments in European and German Company Law

Author(s): Zumbansen, Peer

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

6. Varieties of capitalism and the learning
firm: corporate governance and labour
in the context of contemporary
developments in European and
German company law*
Peer Zumbansen

INTRODUCTION
The role of the employee in the corporation is manifold. Starting with their
carrying out of various functions, determined by the superiors, employees
often play a much more differentiated role in the functioning of an organiza-
tion. It is obvious then that the form of the organization ­ a small, middlesized
firm, or a large, publicly traded corporation with operations around the world
­ has a direct impact on the role of the employee. This first observation is
important if we want to avoid pursuing the question `what role for employees
in the corporation' in a one-size-fits-all manner. The size, structure, and
embeddedness1 of the corporation, as recently highlighted again by Sanford
Jacoby (2004), are directly related to our assessment of the role and involve-
ment of employees in the organization. In turn, the shape of the organization
is driven by developments in the political economy, of which a corporate,
labour law and industrial relations regime each forms a part. This regulatory
framework is increasingly less a domestic affair. The increased liquidity of
funds available for the financing of corporate operations worldwide has been
undercutting, informing, and pushing domestic policy developments. It is thus
no surprise that our view on who are the `leading political economies' shifts
with the particular regimes' aptness and capacity to adapt to the changing
structures of world ...