Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T09:07:45.076Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Internal Versus External Labour Flexibility: The Role of Knowledge Codification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Eve Caroli
Eve Caroli*
Affiliation:
Paris X University, EconomiX and Paris School of Economics
*
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article uses a competence-based approach to the firm in order to analyse the recent destabilisation of internal labour markets. We argue that increasing knowledge codification made possible by the diffusion of information and communication technologies has made competences less dependent upon individuals. Knowledge has been increasingly embodied in firms themselves, which has played an important role in lowering the relative cost of human resource management strategies based on external labour flexibility. As a consequence, recourse to external labour markets has developed, which may harm firms' innovative capabilities in the long run.

Keywords

Competencesknowledge codificationinformation technologiesinternal labour marketsB52O33M51
Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 201 , July 2007 , pp. 107 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful to Robert Boyer and Jérôme Gautiér for numerous and extensive discussions about this paper. The present version owes a lot to comments by Geoff Mason and Ed Steinmueller on an earlier draft. I also thank Andrea Bassanini, Patrick Cohendet, Thomas Coutrot, Giovanni Dosi and Aija Leiponen for their remarks and suggestions. All remaining errors are my own. I gratefully acknowledge financial support from DARES (French Ministry of Labour).

References

Ancori, B., Bureth, A. and Cohendet, P. (2000), ‘The economics of knowledge: the debate about codification and tacit knowledge’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 9, 2, pp. 255–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. (1975), Human Capital, NBER, New York, Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Beffa, J.L., Boyer, R. and Touffut, J.P. (1999), ‘Les relations salariales en France : etat, entreprises et marchés financiers’, Note de la Fondation Saint-Simon, April.Google Scholar
Behaghel, L. (2003), ‘Insécurité de l'emploi : le rôle protecteur de l'ancienneté a-t-il baissé en France ?’, Economie et statistique, 366, pp. 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Béret, P. (2001), ‘Transformations de l'activité de recherche-développement et compétences des chercheurs en entreprises’, Education et Formations, 59, pp. 61–8.Google Scholar
Berton, F. (2001), ‘Carrières salariales et marches professionnels’, presented at the 8th Journées de Sociologie du Travail, Aix en Provence, 21-23 June, http://www.lise.cnrs.fr/Docberton.htm.Google Scholar
Bresnahan, T., Brynjolfsson, E. and Hitt, L. (2002), ‘Information technology, workplace organisation and the demand for skilled labour: firm level evidence’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(1), pp. 339–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlsson, B. and Eliasson, G. (1994), ‘The nature and importance of economic competence’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 3, 3, pp. 687–711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, A.D. (1962), Strategy and Structure. Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, A.D. (1992), ‘Organizational capabilities and the economic history of the industrial enterprise’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6, 3, pp. 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chennells, L. and Van Reenen, J. (2002), ‘Technical change and the structure of employment and wages: a survey of the micro-econometric evidence’, in Greenan, N., Lhorty, Y. and Mairesse, J, Productivity, Inequality and the Digital Economy: A Transatlantic Perspective, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, W. and Levinthal, D. (1990), ‘Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, pp. 128–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohendet, P., Kern, F., Mehmanpazir, B. and Munier, F. (1999), ‘Knowledge coordination, competence creation and integrated networks in globalised firms’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 23, 2, pp. 225–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conner, K. (1991), ‘A historical comparison of resource-based theory and five schools of thought within industrial organization economics: do we have a new theory of the firm?’, Journal of Management, 17(1), pp. 121–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, R. (2001), ‘Expert systems: aspects of and limitations to the codifiability of knowledge’, Research Policy, 30, pp. 1355–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, R., David, P. and Foray, D. (2000), ‘The explicit economics of knowledge codification and tactitness’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 9, 2, pp. 211–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, R. and Foray, D. (1997), ‘The economics of codification and the diffusion of knowledge’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 6, 3, pp. 595–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiPrete, A., Goux, D. and Maurin, E. (2002), ‘Internal labour markets and earnings trajectories in the post-Fordist economy: an analysis of recent trends’, Social Science Research, 31, pp. 175–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doeringer, P. and Piore, M. (1971), Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis, Lexington MA, Heath.Google Scholar
Dosi, G. and Marengo, L. (1994), ‘Some elements of an evolutionary theory of organizational competences’, in England, R.W. (ed.), Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics, Michigan Press, pp. 157–78.Google Scholar
Eliasson, G. (1990), ‘The firm as a competent team’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 13, 3, pp. 275–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliasson, G. (1994), ‘Education, competence development and economic growth - a microeconomic explanation to macroeconomic growth’, in Asplund, R. (ed.), Human Capital in an Economic Perspective, Amsterdam, Physica Verlag.Google Scholar
Farber, H. (2003), ‘Job loss in the United States, 1981-2001’, NBER Working Paper no. 9707.Google Scholar
Foray, D. (2003), The Economics of Knowledge, Cambridge, MIT Press.Google Scholar
Foray, D. and Lundvall, B.Å. (1996), ‘The knowledge-based economy: from the economics of knowledge to the learning economy’, in OCDE (ed.), Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-Based Economy, Paris.Google Scholar
Gautié, J. (2004), ‘Les marchés internes du travail, l'emploi et les salaires’, Revue Française d'Economie, 18, pp. 33–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Givord, P. and Maurin, E. (2004), ‘Changes in job insecurity and their causes: an empirical analysis for France, 1982-2002’, European Economic Review, 48, pp. 595–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, B., Lorenz, E. and Lundvall, B.Å. (2002), ‘Why all this fuss about codified and tacit knowledge’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 11, 2, pp. 245–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, L. and Autor, D. (1999), ‘Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality’, in Ashenfelter, O. and Card, D. (eds), Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3A, Elsevier, North-Holland, pp. 1463–555.Google Scholar
Lam, A. (1997), ‘Embedded firms, embedded knowledge: problems of collaboration and knowledge transfer in global cooperative ventures’, Organization Studies, 18, 6, pp. 973–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lam, A. (2000), ‘Tacit knowledge, organizational learning and societal institutions: an integrated framework’, Organization Studies, 21, 3, pp. 487–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsden, D. (1986), The End of Economic Man? Custom and Competition in Labour Markets, Brighton, Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Mason, G., Beltramo, J.-P. and Paul, J.-J. (2004), ‘External knowledge sourcing in different national settings: a comparison of electronics establishments in Britain and France’, Research Policy, 33(1), pp. 53–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, G. and Wagner, K. (1999), ‘Knowledge transfer and innovation in Britain and Germany: “Intermediate institution” models of knowledge transfer under strain?’, Industry and Innovation, 6(1), pp. 85–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milgrom, P. and Roberts, J. (1992), Economics, Organization and Management, Eaglewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall International.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.R. (1991), ‘Why do firms differ and how does it matter?’, Strategic Management Journal, 12, pp. 61–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, R.R. and Winter, S.G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Cambridge MA, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Neumark, D. (2000), ‘Changes in job stability and job security: a collective effort to untangle, reconcile and interpret the evidence’, in Neumark, D. (ed.), On the Job: Is Long-Term Employment a Thing of the Past?, New-York, Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Neumark, D., Polsky, D. and Hansen, D. (2000), ‘Has job stability declined yet? New evidence for the 1990s’, in Neumark, D. (ed.), On the Job: is Long-Term Employment a Thing of the Past?, New-York, Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Nonaka, I. (1994), ‘A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation’, Organization Science, 5, 1, pp. 15–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, E.T. (1959), The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, Oxford, Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1966), The Tacit Dimension, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Prahalad, C.K and Hamel, G. (1990), ‘The core competence of the corporation’, Harvard Business Review, 68, 3, pp. 79–91.Google Scholar
Spender, J.C. (1996), ‘Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm’, Strategic Management Journal, 17, pp. 45–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teece, D. (1993), ‘The dynamics of industrial capitalism: perspectives on Alfred Chandler's scale and scope’, Journal of Economic Literature, 31, 1, pp. 199–225.Google Scholar
Teece, D. and Pisano, G. (1994), ‘The dynamic capabilities of firms: an introduction’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 3, 3, pp. 537–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teece, D., Pisano, G. and Shuen, A. (1997), ‘Dynamic capabilities and strategic management’, Strategic Management Journal, 18, 7, pp. 509–33.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valletta, R. (2000), ‘Declining job security’, in Neumark, D. (ed.), On the Job: is Long-Term Employment a Thing of the Past?, New-York, Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 227–56.Google Scholar