Adopting International Framework Agreements in the Russian Federation, South Africa and Japan: Management Motivations

Abstract

In the past few years, a growing body of literature has tried to grasp the phenomenon of IFAs, often from a union and workers’ representatives’ perspective. Most of these studies focus on agreements reached by companies headquartered in the EU or to a lesser degree in the United States, which are the origin of the majority of companies that have signed IFAs. Fewer studies have examined explicitly the IFA phenomenon from the point of view of MNEs and management (for example, IOE 2007; European Commission 2006) and no study has focused on the few non-EU and non-US multinationals that have signed agreements. This chapter endeavours to fill this double gap by addressing the following question: What are the management motivations for adopting IFAs, notably at MNEs headquartered outside the EU and the United States?