CRIMT's SSHRC-MCRI Project

CRIMT’s SSHRC-MCRI project entails an interdisciplinary, interuniversity and international research program on the theoretical and practical challenges of institutional renewal for work and employment in a global era. The central research question is how to achieve both organizational efficiency and economic well-being for workers in an increasingly international age. In order to answer this general question, we have organized the project into three streams of questions. First, what kind of institutions and institutionalization for the new workplace? Second, what is the impact of globalization on international, national and local institutions for work and employment? Third, is there and can there be a citizenship at work in the new workplace?

Each of these questions entails a set of theoretical propositions subject to interdisciplinary debate and empirical enquiry. Each is organized in distinct subprojects at different levels of analysis (workplace and firm; forms of collective representation and negotiation within and beyond the firm; public policy). Each involves significant dialogue between the subprojects. Each theme and the project as a whole seek to respond to three types of preoccupation. Empirically, what are the significant trends? Theoretically, what are the appropriate theories and paradigms that allow us to understand these trends? Normatively, what are the paths for institutional renewal that are likely to result in better outcomes for workers and organizations? These questions run through this MCRI project and our challenge is to organize and harvest the potential synergies in such a large-scale, interdisciplinary and international research program.

The research is structured as a three-by-three matrix, consisting of three research domains and three cross-cutting research themes. The distinction between research domains and research themes informs the overall architecture of the proposal. The research domains cover identifiable empirical objects that may be seen as different institutional levels of analysis for work and employment: (A) the way that production and work are organized; (B) collective representation about work, that is the way that actors are structured in that representation and the institutional understandings that may or may not underlie the interactions of these collective actors; and (C) public policies concerned with work, be they in terms of employment policy, social policy, or labour law or some other dimension of state policy. The research themes are cross-cutting, interdisciplinary and analytical: (I) the understanding and emergence of institutions for work in the new production models; (II) the interface between national and transnational sources of work regulation in the global economy; and (III) citizenship at work in a global era.

The combination of the research domains and research themes results in a matrix that structures the research activities and output along both horizontal and vertical axes. The horizontal axes are designed to promote disciplinary exchange on comparable research objects and give rise to more focused forums, notably involving practitioners and other stakeholders, on questions such as trends in the new workplace, the state of collective representation for workers and public policies on work and employment. The vertical axes favour interdisciplinary exchange and theoretical innovation on our core research themes.

The research themes and domains yield 22 distinct subprojects. The project leaders are the first name or names identified for each project and the names that follow in alphabetical order are those of the coresearchers. The domain and theme coordinators are also specified in the matrix presentation.


Sub-Projects

1. The Multiple Meanings of the High Performance Workplace
2. Firm Restructuring & Supply Chains
3. Institutional Environments, Employer Practices & Worker Outcomes
4. Organizational Efficiency & Economic Security: Do Institutions Matter?
5. Strategies for Union Renewal: International and Sectoral Comparisons
6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Codes of Conduct
7. State Restructuring & New Forms of Labour Regulation
8. Institutional Architectures for the New Labour Market: A Comparative Analysis of Innovations in Training and Skills
9. Structure, Control & Efficiency in Transnational Firms
10. International Strategies & the Alignment of HRM
11. Globalization, Organizational Restructuring & Change in Management Practices
12. Internationalization of Worker Representation & Processes of Work Regulation
13. National v. Transnational?: Territoriality and the Inter-nationalization of Labour Law
14. Transnational Institutions for Regional Economic Integration
15. 21st Century Corporate Citizenship & New Employment Relationships
16. Innovation and Work in the Knowledge Organization
17. Comparative Social and Union Movements: New Identities and Worker Voice in Comparative Perspective
18. Transformation of Labour Law: Equality, Human and Collective Rights
19. Women, Self-Employment and Public Policy in Canada
20. Global Governance , Worker Voice and Democracy
21. Rethinking Citizenship at Work
22. Vulnerable Work and New Forms of Wrokplace and State Organization: Challenges for Labour Law and Social Security


Research Matrix