IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-01811784.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Successfully mobilizing for employee board representation

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre-Yves Gomez

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Peter Wirtz

    (Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon)

Abstract

Purpose The equal representation of employees on codetermined supervisory boards is one of the distinctive features of the German corporate governance system. This study aims to examine the relevance of the frequent assumption according to which this system is rooted in a typically "German culture". Design/methodology/approach This research applies Davis and Thompson's (1994) mobilization theory as an interpretive grid to historical sources to reveal the determinants of the institutionalization of equal board representation in post-war Germany. Findings The present contribution reveals that the supposedly "German tradition" of board representation is a myth. The specific regime of codetermined supervisory boards is instead the outcome of the dramatic political and institutional circumstances of the late 1940s, which saw fierce struggles and the mobilization of various actors ranging from politicians and industrialists to trade unionists. Originality/value The German Catholic Church is shown to have played a significant, albeit seldom recognized, role in this search for institutional consensus. It acted as a broad-based "supporting institution", positively influencing mobilization efforts in favor of board codetermination and ultimately enabling an agreement to be reached.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre-Yves Gomez & Peter Wirtz, 2018. "Successfully mobilizing for employee board representation," Post-Print hal-01811784, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01811784
    DOI: 10.1108/JMH-08-2017-0039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xavier Hollandts & Nicolas Aubert, 2019. "La gouvernance salariale : contribution de la représentation des salariés à la gouvernance d’entreprise," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 22(1), pages 63-88, March.
    2. Nicolas Aubert & Philippe Bernheim, 2021. "What the PACTE law changes for employee savings and participation?," Post-Print hal-02532708, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01811784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.