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Author: Aris Martinelli

A heterodox economic approach to study firm restructuring

In recent years, corporates restructuring are succeeding with different intensity across sectors and countries. Recent studies show an increase in the intensity of offshoring (Milberg & Winkler, 2013), in the national and international subcontracting practices (Drahokoupil, 2015) and in the merger an acquisition process (F&A) in different countries and economic sectors (Morin, 2015 Mouhoud, 2013). In Switzerland different studies confirm a high level of corporate restructuring practices (Baldegger, 2013; BNS, 2011; Waser & Hanisch, 2011) and underline the high participation’s level of the Swiss firms in global value chains, especially in industries such chemical, the machinery and electrical equipment (Shepherd, 2013). The economic crisis of 2008 is having a significant impact over the corporate restructuring, particularly in sectors that are confronted with strong international competition. This is the case of Swiss machinery (McKinsey&Company, 2013) and, more generally, Swiss manufacturing (von Radowitz, Pöllen, & Merkofer, 2015). In every crisis, there is a process of concentration and centralization of capital (Marx, 2009), which reflects the management strategies and the different forms that take the corporate restructuring. In the Swiss machinery industry the macroeconomic data show a trend of an employment growth of the micro- enterprises and an employment concentration in an ever-smaller number of large enterprises, which expresses the importance of the use of outsourcing strategies. The result is a high fragmentation level of production in this sector (Martinelli, 2014).

In this context, the flexibility of work still remains a pillar strategy in the Swiss machinery industry. This is guaranteed by a minimalist Swiss labor law (Bonvin & Cianferoni, 2013) and by an almost absolute power of the management in implementing the corporate restructuring (Bonvin & Badan, 2007). The impact on working conditions is related to time and wage flexibilities at the firm level. At the same time, traditional industrial relations patterns are knowing a transformation. In fact, the paternalistic management model is replaced by the shareholder's value model (Mach, David, Lüpold, & Schnyder, 2015; Stéphanie Ginalsky, 2012). The corporate restructuring creates pressure over all workers in the chain, including the employees of the subcontracting companies. The intensity of work is central in the Swiss machinery industry (Bonvin, Cianferoni, & Martinelli, 2016), both in its quantitative aspect (increasing the work tasks per unit of time) and qualitative (increasing the complexity of the tasks) (Hatzfeld, 2004). This involves an effort of adaptation for the workers to the new exigencies in terms of skills, polyvalence, working time management, etc. (Gollac, Volkoff, & Wolff, 2014).

Considering the complexity of the corporate restructuring forms and the lack of available statistical data about this phenomenon, especially in Switzerland, we are going to use a mixed approach based on the economic statistical data, qualitative methods and historical research in order to respond to the following questions: How the corporate restructuring affects the labour process in the Swiss machinery industry? What is the role of the intensification of work in these corporate restructuring? How the number and complexity of work tasks is changing in the corporate restructuring?

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