Human Relations special issue call for papers
The modular corporation: Implications for work, occupations, and employment relations
**with apologies for cross posting**
The editors of Human Relations intend to publish a special issue of the journal on the subject of the modular corporation: Implications for work, occupations, and employment relations
Guest Editors:
Mari Sako Saϊd Business School, University of Oxford
Rosemary Batt Cornell University, USA
Recent research in the fields of management and organizations has paid considerable attention to the rise of networked forms of organization, including analyses of the role of information technologies in facilitating change, the performance advantages of outsourcing and off-shoring, the mechanics of supply chain management, and the factors that influence make or buy decisions. Scholars have paid much less attention, however, to the implications of the hollowing out of the corporation for work and employment relations.
In this special issue of Human Relations, we examine the rise of the modular corporation and its implications for work, occupations, and employment relations. The fundamental restructuring of corporations includes not only the growth of global supply chains in manufacturing, but also the externalization of service activities from accounting and legal work to human resource departments and sales and marketing. The concept of the modular corporation captures the idea that corporations are not necessarily integrated organizational structures, but rather a set of building blocks that may be reconfigured in response to strategic initiatives or external pressures.
The purpose of this special issue of Human Relations is to advance our understanding of how the rise of the modular corporation is affecting the nature of work and employment relations across a wide range of occupational groups and industries in both advanced and developing economies. We seek empirical studies of the nature of change in manufacturing as well as service activities, among non-managerial, technical, professional, and managerial employees, and across different national contexts. We are interested in how and why corporations adopt alternative restructuring strategies, and how these differences shape employment and welfare outcomes for employees.
Deadline for submissions: 15 October 2007
For the full call for papers, please visit the Human Relations website:
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/modular_corp.html
About Human Relations – Celebrating 60 years of research excellence!
Human Relations is a key forum for innovative ideas in the social sciences and is one of the world's leading journals for the analysis of work, organizations and management. It has stimulated advances in research and practice for over half a century, pioneering publication of multidisciplinary research in the fields of work and organizational relations. Human Relations has had a long tradition of bringing social science disciplines together in order to understand the character and complexity of human problems. We publish incisive investigations from an international network of leading scholars in management, psychology, sociology, politics, anthropology and economics. Further information is available at:
http://www.humanrelationsjournal.org