Liberté, égalité, and fraternité at work : changing French employment relations and management / Steve Jefferys.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jefferys, Steve.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Industrial relations--France--History.

Industrial relations.

Labor unions--France--History.

Labor unions.

Social policy.

Industrial policy.

History.

France.

Industrial policy--France--History.

France--Social policy--19th century.

France--Social policy--20th century.

Physical Description:

xix, 261 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Summary:

This book is a study of contemporary changes in French employment relations and management. It includes an overview of the origins of the present employment institutions and practices as well as a critical appreciation of French work sociology, but its main focus is on the evolution of the French political economy of work at the start of the 21st century. Based on a combination of original research and findings from recent studies into French employment relations and the working practice of French firms, it provides both an essential source for comparative purposes and an original approach to understanding change.

Contents:

1 Theorising French Employment Relations 11

1.1 Academic approaches to employment relations 12

Legal 12

Sociological 13

Historical 16

1.2 Selected theories 17

Regulation theory 19

Social movement theory 22

Societal effect theory 25

2 Social and Political Roots to 1980 28

2.1 French society and population 29

Migration and immigration 30

2.2 Political evolution 33

The Fifth Republic 37

2.3 Industrialising France 40

Four forms of rural industry 42

Factory industrialisation 44

The emergence of a French working class 45

2.4 Social classes in France, 1870-1970 48

Social classes around 1870 48

Occupational divisions in the 1970s 52

2.5 The origins and evolution of trade unions 56

Direct action, revolutionary syndicalism and reformism 57

Catholic, reformist and Communist unions 60

CGT-FO 64

CFDT 66

Managerial and teacher trade unionism 67

3 Management, Work and the State before the 1980s 70

3.1 The evolution of French management 71

The military model 73

Social Catholicism 75

New influences after 1945 78

Changing cultures 80

Employers' associations 83

3.2 The transformation of work 87

Post-Second World War transformations 88

Conflicts at work 90

3.3 State intervention from the ancien regime to the 1970s 92

Welfare after the French Revolution 93

State-imposed dual representation 95

4 Values, Class and Politics since 1981 103

4.1 Changing lives and values 105

4.2 Class divisions around 2000 108

The 200 families 108

The managerial class 110

The working class 111

Social mobility and social fragmentation 113

4.3 Political change since 1981 115

The emergence of the National Front 116

The Gaullist inheritance 119

Socialist rise and fall 121

5 State Intervention since 1981 128

5.1 The weight of the state 129

5.2 Regulating the business environment 130

5.3 Regulating employment relations 132

Employee representation 132

Modernisation of labour regulation 139

Working time 141

5.4 Welfare responding to pressures 144

Welfare and the labour market 145

Individually and collectively focused welfare 148

6 Contemporary Capitalism and Management: Change Amid Continuity 152

6.1 Industrial-finance capital 153

Network capitalism 154

Financial deregulation 161

6.2 Medium and small capitalism 164

6.3 Changing management behaviour 167

6.4 Making managers 174

Change among lower management layers 176

Educating French managers 179

7 Liberte: Employers on the Move 186

7.1 The making of the Medef 187

The Medef 190

7.2 Other employer associations 193

Chambers of Commerce and Industry 194

7.3 The Medef challenges the state and paritarisme 196

Opposition to the 35-hour week 197

Rolling back paritarisme and the state 199

Why attack welfare? 200

Trying to write new rules 202

Political pressure 205

8 Egalite: Trade Unions on the Defensive 209

8.1 Representation, membership and union audience 211

Union structure and financing 212

Union membership 215

New fragmentation or new horizons? FEN and SUD 217

Union audience 220

8.2 The trade union 'crisis' 223

'Crisis' or new challenge? 225

State re-regulation of pensions: 1995 227

State regulation of working time: the 35-hour laws 230

Employer re-regulation of welfare 232

9 Changing French Employment Relations and Management 236.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-253) and index.

ISBN:

0333741374

OCLC:

50643583