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Trust and the Flexible Firm: International Comparisons
Author(s) -
LORENZ EDWARD H.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
industrial relations: a journal of economy and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1468-232X
pISSN - 0019-8676
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-232x.1992.tb00320.x
Subject(s) - institutionalisation , flexibility (engineering) , german , power (physics) , business , social dialogue , first world war , social trust , public relations , labour economics , political science , economics , management , social capital , law , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , history , philosophy , humanities
Japanese and German manufacturers are more successful than their counterparts in Britain and France in achieving organizational flexibility, which depends on labor‐management trust and cooperation. This trust developed in Germany and Japan over the post‐World War II decades through the institutionalization of a system of labor‐management consultation. This paper examines the role of power and social norms to explain why trust‐building systems of joint consultation take hold in one place and not in another.