An interdisciplinary research project on the negotiation and implementation of standards for good work

What does good work actually mean — and who gets to decide?
This project explores how global standards for good work are legitimized and implemented in organizational and workplace practice. At the heart of our research is the growing tension between traditional actors such as trade unions and state institutions, and new players like management consultancies and standardization agencies.

Background
For decades, the idea of good work has been subject to complex and often contentious negotiations. These debates have led to the development of national and international norms, laws, and standards. In recent years, economically driven actors have taken a more prominent role — especially where good work is tied to climate protection goals. As calls for a social-ecological transformation grow louder, the resulting regulations have become a lucrative field for global consultancies and certification bodies.

Our Approach
We focus on how these dynamics unfold in the automotive supply industry — a key sector both ecologically and economically, shaped by global supply chains, diverse organizational structures, and shifting power relations. This field brings together national and international influences from business, government, and labor organizations.
The project aims to shed light on the conflictual negotiation processes between traditional social partnership actors and newer, market-oriented forces. We ask:
Who defines what good work means today?
What role do supranational regulations play?
How do new standards reshape existing power relations?
And how much influence do traditional actors still have — or stand to regain?
By analyzing these developments, the project contributes to a better understanding of current transformations in the world of work — and to the question of how good work can be shaped under changing conditions.

 

Objectives & Practical Relevance

 Research Goals and Guiding Questions
This project aims to uncover the conflict-ridden negotiation processes between traditional social partnership actors and new profit-oriented players in the implementation and legitimization of standards and guiding principles for good work. The focus lies on the automotive supply industry — a key sector with a complex global labor organization that is particularly exposed to socio-economic transformation pressures. Here, national and international economic, regulatory, and labor-related influences converge.

We address the following core research questions:
Which legal frameworks, norms, and guiding principles for good work can be identified in the context of the socio-ecological transformation of the automotive (supply) industry?
How — and with what outcomes — do new and established labor policy actors participate in implementing these standards at sectoral, organizational, and workplace levels?
How do the conflicts over defining and practicing good work shape cooperation, power dynamics, and meaning-making among the involved, established and emerging actors?

Practice Orientation
This research project offers significant value to workplace, cross-organizational, and state-level actors by identifying concrete strategic levers for shaping work during the socio-ecological transformation of an industrial core sector. The findings are especially relevant to social partnership actors at all levels, as the project investigates the scope of their influence and authority compared to actors driven by market-based logics and professional norms.
Because the analysis identifies generalizable categories of conditions, actors, and perspectives, its findings can be transferred beyond the automotive sector to other industries. For trade unions and related bodies already engaged in the standardization of good work, the project provides insights into which consultancies and standardization agencies are attempting to influence existing co-determination structures and practices — and how. This enables better-informed strategies to counteract the erosion of social partnership influence. For others less familiar with these developments, the project raises awareness of the multidimensional nature of these transformations.

Knowledge Transfer
Two dedicated workshops will support direct exchange with practitioners:
A first workshop will bring together works council members and HR managers from companies under study, as well as from “Hidden Champions” of the German and Austrian automotive supply sectors — often highly internationalized but outside large corporate structures like voestalpine.
A second, broader workshop will engage experts and practitioners from various industries (e.g., union representatives, business associations, corporate actors) to jointly reflect on the findings and discuss future scenarios.

 

Project Team & Project Details

Project Title
Who Defines Good Work?
Implementing Standards of Good Work in Organizational Practice

Project Duration
18 months, from October 2024 to March 2026

Research Focus
Co-determination and Transformation of the World of Work

Funding
Hans Böckler Foundation

Principal Investigator
Univ.-Prof. Mag.a Dr.in Astrid Reichel
Paris Lodron University of Salzburg
Department of Business Administration
Human Resource Management Group
Kapitelgasse 5, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 8044 3704

Project Researchers
Univ.-Prof. Mag.a Dr.in Susanne Pernicka
Johannes Kepler University Linz
Economic and Organisational SociologyInstitute of Sociology
Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
Phone: +43 732 2468 7724

Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Elias Felten
Paris Lodron University of Salzburg
Department of Labor and Business Law
Churfürststraße 1, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
Phone: +43 662 8044 3201

Projektteam
Marilyn Poon, PhD
Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
Department of Business Administration
Kapitelgasse 5, 5020 Salzburg, Österreich

Dr. Ilias Naji
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
Economic and Organisational Sociology
Institute of Sociology
Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Österreich
Phone: +43 732 2468 7722

Thomas Mayer, MSSc
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
Economic and Organisational Sociology
Institute of Sociology
Altenberger Straße 69, 4040 Linz, Österreich
Phone: +43 732 2468 7722

Stefan Wallmann
Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
Department of Labor and Business Law
Churfürststraße 1, 5020 Salzburg, Österreich

Magdalena Bergthaler
Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
Department of Labor and Business Law
Churfürststraße 1, 5020 Salzburg, Österreich