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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The two faces of Nordic management? Nordic firms and their employee relations in the Baltic States

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This study examines Nordic management styles in union and non-union industrial enterprises in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) through case studies of nine Nordic subsidiary companies, based on on-site interviews with management and employees.1 This analysis construes the ‘Nordic model’ of management style as ‘bargained constitutional’ or ‘sophisticated consultative’, following Purcell and Ahlstrand's (1994) matrix of management styles in the highly unionized countries of origin, characterized as coordinated market economies. The case studies reveal that in the Baltic liberal-market environment, Nordic employers exhibit a variety of management styles, ranging from sophisticated human relations or paternalistic relations styles in non-union contexts, to an adversarial bargained style or modern paternalistic style in unionized subsidiary firms. The Nordic model's ‘bargained constitutionalism’ only occurs in those cases in the sample in which Soviet-era trade union structures survive, or where ...