IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v12y2022i6p167-d978819.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human Resource Management, Employee Participation and European Works Councils: The Case of Pharmaceutical Industry in Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Eleni Triantafillidou

    (Department of Economics, Democritus University of Thrace, 69100 Komotini, Greece)

  • Theodore Koutroukis

    (Department of Economics, Democritus University of Thrace, 69100 Komotini, Greece)

Abstract

Employee participation is a broad notion that encompasses sets of practices that enable employees to participate in the decision-making process on issues affecting them leading to a committed workforce. According to the 2009/38/EC Directive, a European Workers’ Council (EWC) is established in all undertakings and all community-scale groups of undertakings for the purpose of informing and consulting employees. This study investigates the impact of employee participation on employees and organizations and more specifically the potential benefits and the added value of participation for employees and organizations, the potential costs and threats of employee participation and the added value of EWCs in multinational subsidiaries in the pharmaceutical industry in Greece. The data gathering was carried out through in-depth semi-structured interviews with management, HR executives, trade union representatives and EWC representatives using a semi-structured questionnaire based on the state-of-the-art literature review. Organizations participating in the study are subsidiaries of multinational companies with an active European Works Council in the pharmaceutical industry in Greece. Findings suggest that there are potential benefits of employee participation practices for the employees and added value for the pharmaceutical companies and provide a useful perspective for managers and researchers in the field of labor relations and human resource management.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleni Triantafillidou & Theodore Koutroukis, 2022. "Human Resource Management, Employee Participation and European Works Councils: The Case of Pharmaceutical Industry in Greece," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:6:p:167-:d:978819
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/6/167/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/6/167/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ricardo Chiva & Joaquin Alegre & Rafael Lapiedra, 2007. "Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 28(1), pages 224 - 242, April.
    2. Eleni Triantafillidou & Theodore Koutroukis, 2022. "Employee Involvement and Participation as a Function of Labor Relations and Human Resource Management: Evidence from Greek Subsidiaries of Multinational Companies in the Pharmaceutical Industry," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, March.
    3. Ricardo Chiva & Joaquin Alegre & Rafael Lapiedra, 2007. "Measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(3/4), pages 224-242, June.
    4. Theodore Koutroukis & Konstantinos Terzidis, 2010. "Can European Works Councils be effective? A study of their contributing factors from an HR Management point of view," International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(3/4), pages 276-290.
    5. Addison, John T. & Teixeira, Paulino, 2018. "What Do Workers Want? The Shortfall in Employee Participation at the European Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 11506, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Cabrera, Elizabeth F. & Ortega, Jaime & Cabrera, Ángel, 2003. "An exploration of the factors that influence employee participation in Europe," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 43-54, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlos Devece & Daniel Palacios-Marqués & D. Enrique Ribeiro-Soriano, 2021. "IT-based strategy, capabilities, and practices: crowdsourcing implementation in market-oriented firms," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 15-32, January.
    2. Pruksapong, Mutarika, 2008. "Organizational Member Learning and the Influential Factors: The Empirical Study of Thailand," MPRA Paper 10946, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lucía Muñoz-Pascual & Carla Curado & Jesús Galende, 2021. "Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis on the Adoption of Environmental Practices: Exploring Technological- and Human-Resource-Based Contributions," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(13), pages 1-21, July.
    4. Jolien Grandia & Dylan Voncken, 2019. "Sustainable Public Procurement: The Impact of Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity on the Implementation of Different Types of Sustainable Public Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    5. Fadhil Rdahi Ghabash* & Jasim Mohammed Kareem & Hassan Hadi Hadaur Al_Birki, 2018. "The Interactive Role of Organizational Learning in the Relationship Between Modest Leadership and Employee Green Behavior Strategy," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 36-43:4.
    6. Mohammad Hossein Khasmafkan Nezam & Ali Attafar & Ali Nasr Isfahani & Arsh Shahin, 2013. "Human Capital and New Product Development Performance Efficiency- The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning Capability," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(6), pages 79-87, December.
    7. Curado, Carla & Muñoz-Pascual, Lucía & Galende, Jesús, 2018. "Antecedents to innovation performance in SMEs: A mixed methods approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 206-215.
    8. Andrew Thomas & Peter Dorrington & Filipa Costa & Gareth Loudon & Mark Francis & Ron Fisher, 2017. "Organisational learning capability in SMEs: An empirical development of innovation in the supply chain," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1364057-136, January.
    9. Ekene Okwechime & Peter Duncan & David Edgar, 2018. "Big data and smart cities: a public sector organizational learning perspective," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 601-625, August.
    10. Altaf Hussain & Muhammad Khan & Dilshodjon Alidjonovich Rakhmonov & Zokir Toshtemirovich Mamadiyarov & Mohichexra Turobjonovna Kurbonbekova & Muxlisa Qodirjon Kizi Mahmudova, 2023. "Nexus of Training and Development, Organizational Learning Capability, and Organizational Performance in the Service Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    11. Boris Urban & Gabriël Coenraad Daniël Stoltz Joubert, 2017. "Multidimensional and comparative study on intellectual capital and organisational performance," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 84-99, January.
    12. Lucía Muñoz-Pascual & Carla Curado & Jesús Galende, 2021. "How does the use of information technologies affect the adoption of environmental practices in SMEs? A mixed-methods approach," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 75-102, January.
    13. Eftychia Kessopoulou & Katerina Gotzamani & Styliani Xanthopoulou & George Tsiotras, 2023. "Conceptualizing and Validating a Model for Benchlearning Capability: Results from the Greek Public Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Lara, Francisco J. & Salas-Vallina, Andres, 2017. "Managerial competencies, innovation and engagement in SMEs: The mediating role of organisational learning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 152-160.
    15. Gomes, Giancarlo & Seman, Laio Oriel & De Montreuil Carmona, Linda Jessica, 2022. "Industry does matter: Analysing innovation, firm performance and organisational learning heterogeneities on Brazilian manufacturing sectors," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 544-555.
    16. Alexandra Luciana GUȚĂ, 2014. "Ways Of Managing Organizational Learning," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 4, pages 257-266, July.
    17. Esteban Lafuente & Yancy Vaillant & Juan Carlos Leiva, 2018. "Sustainable and Traditional Product Innovation without Scale and Experience, but Only for KIBS!," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    18. Nofal Razan Jamil & Bader Obeidat, 2019. "Reviewing the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning Capability on the Effect of Transformational Leadership on Entrepreneurial Orientation," Journal of Business & Management (COES&RJ-JBM), , vol. 7(2), pages 111-136, April.
    19. Bambang Bernanthos, 2018. "Employees' Performance in Islamic Banking," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 31-42.
    20. Alexandra Luciana GUTA, 2018. "Organizational Learning Capability. Model Testing In Universities," SEA - Practical Application of Science, Romanian Foundation for Business Intelligence, Editorial Department, issue 17, pages 229-240, September.

    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:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:6:p:167-:d:978819. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.