Globalization, Work, and Production

The research group examines current changes in the industrial sector before the background of globalisation and technical-organisational innovation. The research mainly focuses on the automotive industry; key questions are:
How does the relocation of production and services to low-wage countries affect work and employment conditions in ‘old’ and ‘new’ industrial regions?
How do global innovation dynamics and regional knowledge capacities interplay, and how do these dynamics affect the ability of regions to secure employment and growth?
To what extent do corporate governance reforms affect the German system of co-determination and other forms of corporate leadership, taking into account changes on financial markets and in European regulatory structures?
Finally, how do multinational companies adapt to the challenges of human resource management in emerging market economies – the so-called BRIC countries –, and what kind of differences in personnel and production models can be observed?