Globalization and National Employment Systems

Globalization and National Employment Systems

In the current global economy, employment regimes have the ability of influencing job quality. This is because the regimes are coupled with different operational mechanisms. The driving force and objectives in each regime tend to differ. Employee motivational aspects used tend to be different.  Performing under different regimes also brings a lot of diversity in terms of results. As a result, the quality of work produced might not be similar. One regime can result to high quality output while the other results to poor results. On some occasions, the quality of the results obtained might define whether the job being offered is of high or low quality.

Ways through which different employment regimes affect job quality include the differences involved in the remuneration process of these regimes. For example, the liberal market has relaxed regulations in the labor market. This means that government supervision is minimal. The interaction of demand and supply curves in the market determines employees wage rate. If such systems are followed to the letter, employees are likely to have favorable remuneration. This factor will determine how the employees will operate in their respective areas. Favorable remuneration is a good indication that an individual is working in a quality job. However, a different scenario is experienced with the recently industrialized employment regimes.  In most occasions, market forces of supply and demand cannot be used to determine the wage rate. This is because supply of labor outstrips the demand in these markets. Employers take this advantage to exploit the employees. Remuneration is very low compared to other markets in the global economy. Low remuneration is associated with low quality jobs. If the benefits enjoyed by an employee are few, then the value of the job is regarded to be low.

There is also presence of different working environment experienced in different employment regimes. Coordinated and liberal markets tend to have better working environments compared to the recently industrialized. Favorable working environment encompasses numerous things that revolve around the employees. This means that job quality in liberal and coordinated markets is high compared to recently developed markets. High quality jobs usually provide favorable working environment to the employees. Nature of employees involved also tells a lot regarding the quality of the job. If there is a requirement of certain high-end skills, then the job quality is high too.

Different employment regimes present different employment character in the call centre industry. When it comes to training, coordinated markets performs best in this sector. This is due to the presence of enormous market regulation. There are various guidelines that have been provided for training purposes. Various market institutions have been put in place to ensure that all the regulations are followed to the letter. There are 14 days involved for coordinated countries and 17 days for liberal countries (Holman, Holtgrewe & Batt, 2007). There is a different case scenario when it comes to recently industrialized employment regimes. Training is viewed as a very cost incentive activity. As a result, organizations involved tend to reduce on the training levels in order to reduce the expenses. When it comes to part-time contracts, recently industrialized companies tend to be leading too. This is because the labor market has surplus supply of labor compared to the demand. Employers in the call centers involved in these markets are quite aware of this situation. Adopting such mechanisms helps them in exploiting the employees involved. Anyone that tries to raise issues regarding their welfare, they might end up been fired due to the nature of their employment. This helps in keeping employees on check since each one of them wants his or her contract renewed upon expiration. However, in coordinated and liberal markets the case is different. In these markets, there is competition for competent employees in the labor market. As a result, call centers prefer having many of their employees on permanent contracts. This prevents poaching from other call centers.

Performance monitoring also differs in the employment regimes.  For recently developed countries, it is done on a weekly basis. Liberal markets are on a two weeks basis while in coordinated markets, the activity takes place on a monthly basis. Job discretion on the other hand, is relatively low in all regimes. The proportion of job discretion for call centers in coordinated economies is 29%, 49% in liberal markets and 34% in recently industrialized. When it comes to collective representation, almost 50% of the call centers are covered by collective representation. Coordinated markets have 71% while liberal markets have the lowest with 22%. Industrializing countries on the other hand have 36% (Holman, Holtgrewe & Batt, 2007).  As a result of these figures, coordinated countries tend to have lower wage differences compared to countries in the other markets. However, union wage premium tend to vary depending on the country involved. Overall Job quality is higher in coordinated and liberal markets compared to the recently industrialized economies. This is due to the structures that have been put up in the call centers involved. Enhancing better employee welfare tends to make the difference.

Country institutions are not the only factors that influence job quality and employment conditions. Another factor that determines this is the presence of unions. From the report it is apparent that call centers with union coverage experience 40% less employee turnover compared to those that do not have union coverage (Holman, Holtgrewe & Batt, 2007). Presence of unions helps in improving the employment conditions. This is because the unions are there to safeguard employees against any form of exploitation. Their presence comes along with favorable working conditions which results to high job quality. Job quality improves since employees are motivated.

Market segmentation also determines the job quality to some extent. Call center industry is very difficult to segment. However, experts tend to find their way in doing this part of business. Consumer segmentation is based on whether the client is high-end or low-end. Employees that have been allocated those positions that deal with high end consumers, experience more job quality compared to the others. This is because of the type of consumers that are dealing with. They need to be motivated in order to establish favorable relations with the consumers. Poor remuneration would lead to poor service delivery.

Age of the employees would determine job quality and employment conditions too. Majority of the older individuals found at the workplace, tend to have worked in this institutions for some time. During this time, they have gathered favorable experience. They tend to be proficient when dealing with consumers on all aspects. In addition, they do not cost the company a lot of funds when it comes to training. For this reason, such employees would enjoy better employment conditions. The value they bring to the organization would prompt this occurrence. Organizations do not like losing such employees. Providing favorable working environment would be a favorable move for retaining them.

 

Reference

Holman., Holtgrewe., & Batt., 2007. International Perspectives on Management and        Employment. The Global Call Center Report, 5(3), 63.

 

 
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