This text examines the emerging developments in central and Eastern Europe, focusing on: the economic development activities of state agencies in the move from command to market economies and the attempted creation of viable firms; the changing roles of different interest groups and the forms of corporatism which are emerging; the restructuring of work systems, including the building of new forms of labour relations; and the role of foreign capital and multinationals. It aims to provide a broader understanding of international industrial and organizational transformations.
Richard Whitley is Professor of Organizational Sociology at the Manchester Business School, Manchester University. He is the author of Business Systems in East Asia: Firms, Markets and Societies (Sage, 1992).
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Europe in Flux - Gert Schmidt Change in East and West Transformation and Change in Europe - Richard Whitley Critical Themes PART TWO: PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION IN EUROPE: INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS Introduction - Gert Schmidt The Elegance of Incoherence - Gernot Grabher Economic Transformation in East Germany and Hungary From Privatization to Capitalization - Christian von Hirschhausen Industrial Restructuring in Post-Socialist Central and Eastern Europe Contention and Confusion in Industrial Transformation - Jeffrey Henderson, Richard Whitley, Gyorgy Lengyel and Laszlo Czaban Dilemmas of State Economic Management Organizing Markets in Central and Eastern Europe - Hugo Radice Competition, Governance and the Role of Foreign Capital PART THREE: REGULATION OF INTERESTS: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE Introduction - Gert Schmidt Labour Relations in the Making - Eckhard J Dittrich and Michael Haferkemper Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic Towards Corporatism? The Transformation of Interest Policy and Interest Regulation in Eastern Europe - Melanie Tatur PART FOUR: WORK RESTRUCTURING IN EAST AND WEST: LIMITS AND DIRECTIONS Introduction - Gert Schmidt Skilled Work in Contemporary Europe - Roger Penn and David Sleightholme A Journey into the Dark The Region of Baden-W[um]urttemberg - Hans-Joachim Braczyk, Gerd Schienstock and Bernard Steffensen A Post Fordist Success Story? Enterprise Transformation and the Redefinition of Organizational Realities in Poland - Krzysztof Konecki and Jolanta Kulpi[ac]nska Employment Relations in Multinational Companies - Csaba Mak[ac]o and P[ac]eter Novosz[ac]ath The Hungarian Case
`The papers in this book make a notable contribution to our understanding of the transformation porblems faced b;y East European economies. They also offer a convicing critique of ht goals and methods pursued by many Western experts who have rushed in to leave their mark on the transformation proces' - Economic and Industrial Democracy `The range and extent of the empirical material on which these chapters draw is impressive, as are the analyses offered by the contributors. There is no doubt that the book fills a gap in a field where there has been a relative lack of cross-country comparative studies.... The most important point is that the book demonstrates both the significance of institutional legacies and the variety and diversity of transformational processes andtheir contingent nature' - Europe - Asia Studies
