This article examines companies’ and public sector organisations’ external restructuring processes, with consideration of emerging or lengthening value chains and network relationships in the service sector. Focusing on two business functions — software development in the IT industry and IT services for public sector organisations — the article describes the types of inter-organisational relations that emerge and analyses the impact of restructuring on employment conditions and work organisation. The business functions clearly differ according to the form that restructuring takes and with regard to the impact of restructuring on work and employment. Common trends include increased insecurity, growing flexibility demands and higher levels of standardisation and formalisation of work.
Altmann, N., Deiss, M., Doehl, V. and Sauer, D. ( 1986) ‘Ein „neuer Rationalisierungstyp" - Neue Anforderungen and die Industriesoziologie’, Soziale Welt37(2/3): 191-206.
2.
Alvesson, M. and Thompson, P. ( 2005) ‘Post-Bureaucracy?’, in S. Ackroyd et al. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization, pp. 485-507. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3.
Atkinson, J. ( 1984) ‘Manpower Strategies for Flexible Organisations’ , Personnel Management16(8): 28-31.
4.
Braczyk, H.J. ( 1993) ‘Das Paradox technisierter Kommunikation in Arbeitsorganisationen’ , in H.J. Weissback and A. Poy (eds), Risiken informatisierter Produktion. Theoretische und empirische Ansätze, pp. 311-27. Opladen : Westdeutscher Verlag.
5.
Dicken, P. ( 2005) Tangled Webs: Transnational Production Networks and Regional Integration, Discussion Paper SPACES2005-04 , Marburg, Germany.
6.
Doellgast, V. and Greer, I. ( 2007) ‘Vertical Disintegration and the Disorganisation of German Industrial Relations’, British Journal of Industrial Relations45(1): 55-76.
7.
Dossani, R. and Kenney, M. ( 2006) ‘The Relocation of Service Provision to Developing Nations: The Case of India’, in J. Zysman and A. Newman (eds), How Revolutionary Was the Digital Revolution? pp. 193-216. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
8.
Elger, T. and Smith, C. (eds) (1994) Global Japanization: The Transnational Transformation of the Labour Process. London: Routledge.
9.
Flecker, J. ( 2007) ‘Network Economy or Just a New Breed of Multinationals? Relocation of eWork as a Window to the Restructuring of Value Chains’ , Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation1(2): 36-51.
10.
Flecker, J., Holtgrewe, U., Schönauer, A., Dunkel, W. and Meil, P. ( 2008) Restructuring across Value Chains and Changes in Work and Employment: Case Study Evidence from the Clothing, Food, IT and Public Sector. Leuven: HIVA.
11.
Frade, C. and Darmon, I. ( 2005) ‘New Modes of Business Organization and Precarious Employment: Towards a Recommodification of Labour?’, Journal of European Social Policy15(2): 107-21.
12.
Gereffi, G. ( 2006) The New Offshoring of Jobs and Global Development. [ILO Social Policy Lectures] Geneva: ILO.
13.
Gereffi, G. and Korzeniewicz, M. (eds) (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism, p. 18. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
14.
Gereffi, G., Humphrey, J. and Sturgeon, T. ( 2005) ‘The Governance of Global Value Chains’, Review of International Political Economy12(1): 78-104.
15.
Grimshaw, D., Miozzo M., Berry, D.M. and Lallement, M. ( 2007) Institutional Frameworks and the Development of IT Services: Different European Models? [DYNAMO project report]Manchester : University of Manchester Press.
16.
Henderson, J., Dicken P., Hess M., Coe N. and Yeung, H.W.-C. (2002) ‘Global production networks and the analysis of economic development’, Review of International Political Economy9(3): 436-64.
17.
Holtgrewe, U. and Meil, P. ( 2008): ‘Not "One Best Way" of Offshoring - Software Development’ , in J. Flecker et al. (eds), Restructuring across Value Chains and Changes in Work and Employment: Case Study Evidence from the Clothing, Food, IT and Public Sectors, pp. 45-61. Leuven: HIVA.
18.
Huws, U. (ed.) (2003) When Work Takes Flight: Research Results from the EMERGENCE Project, PIES Report 397. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies.
19.
Huws, U. (ed.) (2006) The Transformation of Work in a Global Knowledge Economy: Towards a Conceptual Framework. Leuven: HIVA.
20.
Huws, U., Dahlmann, S., Flecker, J., Holtgrewe, U., Schönauer, A., Ramioul, M. and Geurts, K. ( 2009) Value Chain Restructuring in Europe in a Global Economy . Leuven: HIVA.
21.
Lynn, L. and Salzman, H. ( 2006) ‘Collaborative Advantage’, Issues in Science and Technology, National Academy of Sciences, Winter: 74-82. URL (consulted 24 July 2010): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=894348
22.
Marchington, M., Grimshaw D., Rubery, J. and Willmott, H. (eds) (2005) Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23.
Miozzo, M. and Grimshaw, D. ( 2005) ‘Does EDS Add Value? The Expansion of IT Outsourcing and the Nature and Role of Computer Service Firms’, paper presented at the DRUID Conference, Copenhagen, June 2005 .
24.
Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio, P.J. (eds) (1991) The New Institutionalism in Institutional Analysis. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.
25.
Ramioul, M., Huws, U. and Kirschenhofer, S. ( 2005) Offshore Outsourcing of Business Services. Dublin: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
26.
Rubery, J. ( 2006) Segmentation Theory Thirty Years On, Discussion paper, European Work and Employment Research Centre, University of Manchester.
27.
Rubery, J., Earnshaw, J. and Marchington, M. ( 2005) ‘Blurring the Boundaries to the Employment Relationship: From Single to Multi-Employer Relationships’, in M. Marchington et al. (eds), Fragmenting Work, Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies, pp. 63-88. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
28.
Smith, A., Rainnie, A., Dunford, M., Hardy, J., Hudson, R. and Sadler, D. ( 2002) ‘Networks of Value, Commodities and Regions: Reworking Divisions of Labour in Macro-Regional Economies’, Progress in Human Geography26(1): 41-63.
29.
Sturgeon, T.J. ( 2000) How Do We Define Value Chains and Production Networks?MIT IPC Globalization Working Paper00-010, Cambridge, MA, USA.
30.
Thompson, P. ( 1993) ‘Postmodernism: Fatal Distraction’, in J. Hassard and M. Parker (eds), Postmodernism and Organizations, pp. 183-203. London: Sage.
31.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2004) World Investment Report 2004: The Shift towards Services. New York, NY and Geneva: United Nations.
32.
Willcocks, L.P. and Lacity, M.C. ( 2006) Global Sourcing of Business and IT Services. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
