Career Advancement in a Family-Owned French Construction Firm Under Changing Labor Legislation and Market Demand,1946-1985

Abstract

Personnel data from a small French construction firm’s archives were followed up for 1946-1985 to examine family firm employment practices in historical perspective. The firm had limited scope to favor national origin, seniority, or kinship; kin of management were not paid more than nonkin. Event history analysis reveals macroeconomic context and individual qualification as the main variables explaining wage-level changes. The need to respond to market conditions and maintain good labor relations favored skill over seniority and kinship. Ultimately, however, family-style managerial practices failed to link wages to performance, compromising financial stability and contributing to the firm’s demise.

Keywords

internal labor market kinship seniority career advancement event history analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abowd

J. M.

Kramarz

Roux

(2006). Wage, mobility and firm performance: Advantages and insights from using matched worker-firm data. Economic Journal, 116, 245-285.

Aronoff

(2004). Self-perpetuation family organization built on values: Necessary condition for long-term family business survival. Family Business Review, 17, 55-59.

Baker

Gibbs

Holstrom

(1994a). The internal economics of the firm: Evidence from personnel data. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109, 881-919.

Baker

Gibbs

Holstrom

(1994b). The wage policy of a firm. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109, 921-955.

Baker

Holstrom

(1995). Internal labor markets: Too many theories, too few facts. American Economic Review, 85, 255-259.

Barjot

(1991). La grande entreprise française de travaux publics (1883-1974) : Contraintes et stratégies [The French big construction firm (1883-1974): constraints and strategies]. Vingtième siècle, 29, 45-55.

Block

J. H.

(2010) Family management, family ownership and downsizing: Evidence from S&P 500 firms. Family Business Review, 23, 108-130.

Bloom

S. H.

(2003). Using “short” interrupted time-series analysis to measure the impacts of whole-school reforms. Evaluation Review, 27, 3-49.

Bloom

Van Reenen

(2007). Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122, 1351-1408.

10.

Blumen

Kogan

McCarthy

P. J.

(1955). The industrial mobility of labor as a probability process. Cornell Studies in Industrial and Labor Relations: Vol. 6. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

11.

Brock

W. A.

Evans

D. S.

(1989). Small business economics. Small Business Economics, 1, 7-20.

12.

Brüderl

Diekman

Preisendörfer

(1991). Patterns of intraorganizational mobility: Tournament models, path dependency and early promotion effects. Social Science Research, 20, 197-216.

13.

Bruno

A.-S.

(2010). Les chemins de la mobilité. Migrants de Tunisie et marché du travail parisien depuis 1956 [Paths of mobility. Migrants from Tunisia and Parisian labor market since 1956]. Paris, France: Editions de l’Éhess.

14.

Buchinski

Fougère

Kramarz

(1998). La mobilité salariale en France : 1967-1987 [Wage mobility in France: 1967-1987]. Revue économique, 49, 879-890.

15.

Campinos-Dubernet

(1984). Emploi et gestion de la main-d’œuvre dans le BTP. Mutations de l’après-guerre à la crise [Employment and labor management in the construction sector. Transformations from post World War II to the crisis] (File No. 34). Paris, France: Centre d’études et de recherches sur les qualifications.

16.

Caroli

È.

Gautié

(Eds.). (2009). Bas salaires et qualité de l’emploi [Low wages and labor quality]. Paris, France: Éditions de la rue d’Ulm/presses de l’École normale supérieure.

17.

Colli

(2003). The history of family business, 1850-2000. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

18.

Cox

D. R.

Oakes

(1984). Analysis of survival data. New York, NY: Chapman & Hall.

19.

Desrosières

(2000). La politique des grands nombres. Histoire de la raison statistique [The policy of large numbers. History of statistical reason]. Paris, France: La découverte.

20.

Doeringer

(1986). Internal labor markets and noncompeting groups. American Economic Review, 76, 48-52.

21.

Doeringer

Piore

(1985). Internal labor market and manpower analysis. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

22.

Fourastié

(1979). Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible de 1946 à 1975. Paris, France: Fayard.

23.

Gueslin

(1989). L’économie ouverte 1948-1990. In La nouvelle histoire économique de la France Tome 4 [The open economy 1948-1990. In The New Economic History of France, Volume 4] (pp. 43-60). Paris, France: La découverte.

24.

Harvey

(1999). Owner as manager, extended horizons and the family firm. International Journal of the Economics of Business, 6, 41-56.

25.

Heckman

J. J.

Lochner

L. J.

Todd

P. E.

(2006). Earnings functions, rates of return and treatment effects: The Mincer equation and beyond. In Hanushek

Welch

(Eds.), Handbook of education economics (Vol. 1, pp. 310-451). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier.

26.

Hollander

Elman

(1988). Family-owned businesses: An emerging field of inquiry. Family Business Review, 1, 145-164.

27.

Howorth

C. A.

Rose

M. B.

Hamilton

E. E.

(2006). Definitions, diversity and development: Key debates in family business research. In Casson

Yeung

Basu

Wadeson

(Eds.), Oxford handbook of entrepreneurship (pp. 225-247). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.

28.

Jobert

Mosse

(1990). The birth and death of companies. An historical perspective. Carnforth, England: Partenon.

29.

Kramarz

(2003). Mobilité et salaires : une longue tradition de recherche [Mobility and wages: a long research tradition]. Économie et Statistique, 369-370, 113-118.

30.

Lazear

E. P.

Oyer

(2004). The structure of wages and internal mobility. American Economic Review, 94, 212-216.

31.

Le Goff

(2004). Du silence à la parole. Une histoire du droit du travail [From silence to wording. A History of labor law]. Rennes, France: Presses universitaires de Rennes.

32.

Lemenorel

(1998). L’économie libérale à l’épreuve, 1914-1948. In La nouvelle histoire économique de la France [Liberal economy to the test, 1914-1948. In The new economic History of France] (tome 3, pp. 30-39). Paris, France: La découverte.

33.

Lescure

(1983). Immobilier et bâtiment en France : 1820-1980, histoire d’une filière [Real estate and construction in France: 1820-1980, History of an industry]. Paris, France: Hatier.

34.

Lillard

L. A.

Panis

C. W. A.

Upchurch

D. W.

(1996). Interdependencies over the life course: Women’s fertility, marital, and educational experiences. Econometrics, 56, 189-217.

35.

Lipset

S. M.

Bendix

(1952). Social mobility and occupational career patterns: II. Social mobility. American Journal of Sociology, 57, 494-504.

36.

Martini

(2000). Ajustement des effectifs et migrations dans une petite entreprise du bâtiment (région parisienne, milieu du XXe siècle) [Labor force adjustment and migrations in a small construction firm (Parisian region, mid-20th century]. Entreprises et histoire, 26, 89-105.

37.

McDowall

McCleary

Meidinger

E. E.

Hay

R. A.

Jr. (1980). Interrupted time series analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

38.

Mincer

(1974). Schooling, experience, and earnings. New York, NY: National Bureau of Economic Research.

39.

Odaka

Sawai

(Eds.). (1999). Small firms, large concerns: The development of small business in comparative perspective. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.

40.

Petersen

Spilerman

(1990). Job quits from an internal labor market. In Mayer

K. U.

Tuna

N. B.

(Eds.), Event history analysis in life course research (pp. 69-95). Madison: Wisconsin Press.

41.

Reynolds

L. G.

(1951). The structure of labor markets: Wages and labor mobility in theory and practice. New York, NY: Harper.

42.

Rosenbaum

J. E.

(1979). Tournament mobility: Career patterns in a corporation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 220-241.

43.

Rosenbaum

J. E.

(1984). Career mobility in a corporate hierarchy. New York, NY: Academic Press.

44.

Rosenfeld

R. A.

(1992). Job mobility and career processes. American Review of Sociology, 18, 39-61.

45.

Seltzer

A. J.

Simons

K. L.

(2001). Salaries and career opportunities in the banking industry: Evidence from the personnel records of the Union Bank of Australia. Explorations in Economic History, 38, 195-224.

46.

Sharma

(2004). An overview of the field of family business studies: Current status and directions for future. Family Business Review, 17, 1-36.

47.

Sirot

(2002). La grève en France. Une histoire sociale (XIXe-XXe siècle) [Strike in France. A social history (19th-20th century)]. Paris, France: Odile Jacob.

48.

Spilerman

(1977). Careers, labor market structure, and socio-economic achievement. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 551-593.

49.

Stewman

Konda

S. L.

(1983). Careers and organizational labor markets: Demographic models of organizational behavior. American Journal of Sociology, 88, 637-685.

50.

Stewman

Konda

S. L.

(1988). Organizational demography. Annual Review of Sociology, 14, 173-202.

51.

Vonyó

(2008). Post-war reconstruction and the golden age of economic growth. European Review of Economic History, 12, 221-241.

52.

Winch

(Ed.). (2000). Construction business systems in the European Union. London, England: Routledge.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB