structure at European level, which provides a direct counterpart to the EWC,
exists. Where there was ‘fit’ (Hoffmann et al., 2001) between the management
structure and the EWC at European level, the EWC was more likely to be active
and more likely to have an impact on management decisions, than where there
was not. And EWCs were more likely to be active than symbolic where man-
agement’s approach to the EWC was pro-active, seeing it as a mechanism that
could be utilized for management purposes – such as improving employee
understanding of the rationale for business decisions and hence the legitimacy
of management actions – than where management’s approach was minimalist,
primarily concerned to comply with its legal obligations but strictly circum-
scribing the activity and influence of the EWC. The existence of an industrial
relations platform, in the shape of national group-level industrial relations
structures, is a further influence. Where such structures exist at national level
within companies they can provide a platform from which EWC activity can
develop. In their absence, employee representatives find it difficult to develop
their own organization and activity at European level. In this instance only
country considerations are relevant, since national group-level industrial rela-
tions structures are more widespread in some European countries, such as
France and Germany, than they are in others, such as Britain.
Overall, the findings from these studies strongly suggest that company-
specific considerations which cut across borders weigh at least as heavily in
determining the character of EWCs as do nationally specific features of the
industrial relations systems of the countries in which companies are head-
quartered. Again this is at odds with the proposition that EWCs will be pri-
marily ‘national’ rather than ‘European’ in character. From the perspective of
practice, EWCs represent an intersectionof country-specific and transnational,
company-specific, influences.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The extent and dynamic of European economic integration, and the develop-
ment of political institutions to regulate this process, set developments in the
European Union apart from wider global trends and from those in other global
regions. This chapter has established that a European dimension is evident in
the international organization of production and market servicing in MNCs
and the management structures which coordinate them. This has given rise to
the Eurocompany. At the same time, it has argued that the Eurocompany is not
reducible to a set of international organizations which are essentially ethno-
centric, shaped by the national institutional environments in which they are
based. In their structure and behaviour, MNCs within Europe also cohere
around elements which transcend national borders: forms of ownership, types
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