Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PMG who wrote (114053)	7/23/2001 5:56:40 PM
From: Don Lloyd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

PMG - Well, part of my studies of economics here in Germany was human resource management... there are just other ways beeing persued here. You do not need the right to 'hire&fire' if you want to have a flexible labor market. Companies here have developed very sophisticated models of flexibilisation. BMW, for example, uses working time-accounts that make it possible to distribute working time over years (in sync with model cycles). So they do not need to lay off workers at the end of the production cycles when output slowly declines. This it not just a work-around but secures also that investment on training is not in vain. If the next cycle starts they avoid cost of recruiting. On the other hand for the employees you can get much more identification and loyalty if you "care" a little more for your staff. In addition to that, the internal labor markets of organisations get more and more important and much of adaption happens here. One could say that the most simple solutions are not always the best... Internal labor flexibility synchronized with cycles is only going to work if the cycles are not in fact death spirals. Only governments and government subsidized companies can maintain employment levels over decades, and the price paid will always be stagnation, protectionism and a lower standard of living. Increasingly, small and moderate sized, highly focused companies are going to run rings around the industrial dinosaurs feeding from the public trough. Regards, Don