Employment and wage effects of reorganisation of firms

Abstract

"Organizational change is characterized by different measures of business policy, work organization and personnel policy, e.g. delayering, teamwork, job-rotation, further training and education, incentive payment and flexible working time. These measures work both, alone and in combination, on employment and remuneration of employees of different skill levels. Relocation of responsibilities, team work or close customer contact call for communication skills, social competence, judgment, initiative, creativity and even the individual capacity to work in teams. If these skills are rather attributed to highly qualified workers, an enterprise may be strived to establish a higher qualification level after an organizational change. Against this background the hypothesis seems to be justified to assume, that organizational change causes adverse employment effects for low skilled workers.<br> Based on linked employer-employee data of the Institute of Employment Research (IAB) Nuremberg, built with the IAB Establishment Panel and the employment statistics register, positive effects of organizational change on labour demand can be shown. No empirical evidence could be found for a skill bias caused by organizational change in this respect. The demand functions, deducted from the generalized 'Leontief'-cost function, have been estimated for four skill levels as seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR). Our results indicate a significant influence of these variables, which measure reorganizational change. Evidence for a skill bias of reorganizational measures could not be found.<br> Moreover positive effects on wages and stabilizing effects on employment appeared more often among middle or highly educated employees. This result corroborates the hypothesis of a skill biased organizational change. Clearly destabilizing effects on employment for low skilled workers could not be found in this study, despite using alternative methodological approaches." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bellmann, L. (2011): Beschäftigungs- und Lohnwirkungen von betrieblichen Reorganisationsprozessen. In: Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung, Vol. 44, No. 1/2, p. 65-72. DOI:10.1007/s12651-011-0053-y