Pay and working time: Towards organization-based systems?

The decentralization of pay and working-time determination has widely been seen as marking a shift to organization-based arrangements. Empirical investigation has been limited, however. This paper examines the process and outcomes of pay and working time through a survey of over three hundred workplaces in four important sectors:printing, engineering, retail and health. It finds that a strong sector effect is demonstrated whether or not there are national arrangements in place, and that employers tend to move like ships in a convoy when managing change. It is argued that the convergence and durability of existing arrangements is associated first with the structural boundaries provided by markets, technology and labour; second with the increased importance of legitimacy in a context of growing uncertainty; and third as a result of shared information sources and networks. The strength of the sectoral reference raises significant questions for much of current organizational research, notably its focus on levels of pay and the relevance of the analytical distinction between the internal and external labour markets. The research also has a number of important policy implications, drawing attention to the pros as well as cons of co-ordination in pay and working-time arrangements.