Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

with US American capital) were levers which supported the introduction of RM practices
which benefited also older workers. Some interviewees from both countries also stated that
older managers were more receptive to the needs of older workers. Good cooperation
between the management and employee representatives also fostered age management and
the prolongation of working life, except where it concerned early exit.
The impact of foreign direct investment on a firm´s personnel policy could best be
studied on the example of Polish establishments. 63 Research confirms that companies with
foreign owners usually have a more innovative attitude to HRM reflected in a longer
planning horizon, the existence of procedures regarding hiring and further training, lower
reliance of wages upon tenure, the existence of occupational pension systems, and greater
decision latitude given to the personnel department (Pocztowski et al. 2001; Pocztowski
2002: 20; Purgał 2002). Foreign acquisitions have also contributed to the aesthetic standard
of Polish firms and to occupational safety and health (Jarosz 1997). The downside to
foreign ownership or foreign shareholders in Polish companies are institutional legacies like
hostility towards trade unions in US American multinationals, while German corporations
export a corporate-governance-orientated management style (Edwards 2004: 395). Union
coverage is very low among private firms and especially among greenfield investments
(Kulpińska 2005: 2). Moreover, I learnt from some interviewees in Polish firms that
greenfield investments do not hire older people at all and have a very low average age of
the workforce.
EU regulations exert a positive impact on the standards in occupational safety. The EC
Directive of 1989 (89/391/EC) defined the framework of occupational safety and set in
motion respective legislative acts in Germany in Poland. EU laws oblige firms to conduct
regular examinations of workplaces and initial training and re-training in case of redeployment
in order to detect risks to health and prevent occupational accidents. In
Germany, the Law on Occupational Safety included the new regulations only in 1996, inter
al. by obliging employers to conduct workplace risk assessments. Health funds were
empowered to conduct health promotion measures in companies, and a more binding Law
on Prevention has been debated for years. Polish labour law has implemented that law in
1994. In Polish firms from my sample, those regulations have had repercussions only after
the accession in 2004 (e.g. change of flooring so that fluids are no longer lingering, change
63 There was also the case of a German company which established a diversity management system on the
example of its US American owner.
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