Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

wages, jubilee awards, or a longer protection against dismissals than that set by the
legislator (Firm PL-9, Firm PL-14, Firm PL-15). An example of youth-orientated personnel
policy is, according to the shop steward, the utility Firm PL-17, with preferential treatment
of younger workers with regard to promotion, and demotion and subsequent pushing out of
older workers. In contrast, the general tendency of personnel policy in Firm PL-1 and Firm
PL-8 is to protect and support older workers. Persons in pre-retirement age receive higher
wages and have priority in promotion to higher positions in order to ensure a higher pension
level for them (which is assessed in the old system based on earnings from ten consecutive
years). Younger workers are assigned strenuous tasks in order to relieve the older ones, and
workers with long tenure are entitled to treatments in a health resort.
A HRM strategy could be discerned only in a utility (see Box 6). Personnel managers in
Firm PL-8, Firm PL-14, Firm PL-15 and Firm PL-17 also reported that they plan a HRM
strategy but upon closer inspection, I learnt that the strategy was limited to only a few fields
(e.g., in Firm PL-15 and Firm PL-17, the main focus were personnel reductions).
Box 6: Holistic HRM strategy in Firm PL-9
The HRM strategy in Firm PL-9 is planned by the personnel manager who is subordinate to the Director of
Financial and Personnel Matters. Large changes have occurred since the acquisition of the firm by a foreign
owner in 1998, inter al. in the procedure of recruitment, in occupational safety and in personnel deployment.
Before the acquisition, there had been no planning of training demand and no personnel planning. The
personnel manager conducted an analysis and extrapolation of the age structure for the first time in 2004. It
showed that several problem areas will emerge in the future:
“We perceive several problems which will emerge in a few years in some areas, and in ten-odd years in some
other areas. That is, there will be a gap – most people will leave and we will, in fact, have a problem with
ensuring the proper functioning of those areas. There will be problems with know-how transfer in those areas,
therefore we have to take action… to rejuvenate [those areas].” (Firm PL-9_HRM)
Up until the date of the first interview, there had been no planning of competences held by employees, and of
competences required for the future. Where know-how gaps have been identified, the firms wants to focus
further training. Moreover, the newly identified ´know-how carriers´ will be deployed in conveying this
knowledge onto others.
Another trend in the company is the training of versatile and polyvalent workers – or, as I have named it in the
section on German firm case studies, ´dual careers´. Blue-collar workers are trained in order to perform many
tasks. E.g., electricians have to be able to supervise the dumping of coal, and to operate several machines. That
innovation is sharply criticised by the chairman of the biggest trade union in the firm (unionisation ratio of
30%): “For the employer, it is very convenient to have a universal worker. (…) As all employment gaps will be
neatly, cleanly closed and I [=the employer] do not see any need of employing more people” (Firm PL-9_TU-
1). The shop steward also perceives a risen work intensity and a higher risk of occupational accidents due to
insufficient preparation for the broad range of tasks.
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