Outsourcing in 18 European countries: The role of worker power

Abstract

Most research on outsourcing looks at cost-driven, resource-based or transformational motives to understand outsourcing decisions at the company-level. This article brings in the workers’ perspective, which is a topic that has not been the focus of attention of most previous studies. The article takes cross-national data for 18,264 companies in 18 European economies to examine the role of worker power on outsourcing decisions. According to the results from multilevel logistic analysis and contrary to the authors’ expectations, worker power relates to a higher likelihood of outsourcing. This article concludes with some thoughts on this finding and presents some directions for future research.