The (Not Entirely) Financialized Enterprise - A Conceptual Proposal

Abstract

Against the background of financialization being applied as a sort of catch-all category for corporate reorganization and especially the deterioration of labor and working conditions the paper presents the concept of the "multi-referential enterprise." Capital market expectations put established labor relations under a new pressure, but competing ideas remain relevant as a reference in both institutional reform processes and everyday decision making at firm level, including labor relations. Respective power positions also depend on rights anchored in labor law, collective bargaining, and labor market regulations as well as on what happens to sources of primary power of the respective workforce due to labor market conditions, technological change, and pressures from value chain reorganization and globalization. Hence, what unions and works councils eventually have to concede in negotiations is not just a matter of the degree of financialization but of a variety of other structurations of the field and respective companies.