City Research Online

Abstract

This article examines the impact of Private Equity Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs) on employees. It finds LBOs do not appear to have significant negative implications for overall employment and pay levels. Any negative employment effects are focussed on less productive sites, and reductions to pay levels are concentrated on administrative and managerial employees rather than production workers. Regarding intrinsic job quality, employees in LBOs report higher job demands counterbalanced by higher job resources compared to employees in non-LBOs. As a result, employees report equivalent levels of job-related mental health, job satisfaction and commitment in LBOs compared to non-LBOs. These findings are consistent with evidence of LBOs reporting increased rather than decreased levels of employee training. LBOs do not typically have negative implications for union representation or the scope and content of joint regulation. Whether Private Equity originates from an Anglo-Saxon country appears to have limited impact. In contrast, the institutional context in which LBOs occur appears to be important, with Private Equity upgrading human resource practices mainly in liberal-market economies.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Publisher Keywords:	Private Equity, Leveraged Buyouts, Mergers and Acquisitions, Human Resource Management, Employees
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HG Finance
Departments:	The City Law School > Academic Programmes

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