Co-managed versus management-dominated globalisation – The implications of the globalisation of assembly and production in the German and French automobile industry on industrial relations with particular reference to the cases of Volkswagen and Renault

[Introduction]. The following essay analyses how the industrial relations actors of the German and French automotive industry, exemplified with particular reference to Volkswagen and Renault, mediate the pressure which has been induced through the increasing globalisation of production structures. The point of departure is the question whether globalisation might lead to institutional and procedural convergence or whether national and company specific modes of mediation, which encourage diverging modes of dealing with globalisation, persist. This question seems justified and plausible against the background of increasingly converging collective agreements on employment and competitiveness in virtually all major European car companies. Taking seriously this tendency of functional convergence the key question of the essay is whether more market-driven regulation modes under the impact of globalisation (e.g. agreements on securing employment and production) have the same implications for the industrial relations at Volkswagen and Renault.