Women's Employment and Service Sector Transformation in Central Eastern Europe: Case Studies in Retail in the Czech Republic

This paper examines workplace restructuring in three department stores in the Czech Republic in early 1994. All had previously belonged to the state-owned store chain of Czechoslovakia; one which we call Shop, was a major Prague store still in state ownership at the time of research, although it was about to undergo privatization. The other two stores belonged to Supershop, a US retailing chain which had bought thirteen department stores in Czechoslovakia in 1992. One branch was in Prague, and the other in a provincial town some fifty kilometres east of the capital. The study explores and compares the Czech and the American trajectories of change, as well as including a regional dimension in the contrast between the Prague labour market and outside the metropolis. The case studies provide an insight in an already feminised, but rapidly expanding and transforming, sector of a post-communist economy. They explore how sectoral contingencies, in terms of past practices, contemporary responses to new market circumstances, and labour market pressures create similarities in restructuring practice and employment patterns, despite contrasting ownership forms. On the other hand, they also show how contrasts between the two ownership forms influence the retailing concept, styles of management and employment relations. A key question to address is the outcome of the approach of each enterprise towards legacies of the past; the case of endogenous change illustrates the attempt to adapt embedded practices to new market conditions while that of multinational take-over shows the attempt to replace these entirely. The implications for the service sector and for a major sector of women's employment are drawn out.