Virginia L Doellgast | The ILR School

Overview

Virginia Doellgast is the Anne Evans Estabrook Professor of Employment Relations and Dispute Resolution in the ILR School at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the comparative political economy of labor markets and labor unions, inequality, precarity, and democracy at work. She is currently studying the impact of digitalization and AI on job quality in in the ICT services and game development industries, based on comparative research in North America and Europe. Past research projects have compared labor union responses to restructuring and employer collective action in the telecommunications sector; and worker voice and well-being in call centers.

She is author of Exit, Voice, and Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2022) and Disintegrating Democracy at Work (Cornell University Press, 2012); and co-editor of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage, 2021) and Reconstructing Solidarity (Oxford University Press, 2018). She has been Co-Editor of the ILR Review since 2022, and has served on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrielle Beziehungen, Socio-Economic Review, Transfer, Work, Employment and Society, and Work in the Global Economy. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright, DAAD (Germany), ESRC (UK), SSHRC (Canada), the Research Council of Norway, the AFL-CIO Tech Institute (US), and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth (US).

Professor Doellgast works with diverse international research institutes, policy organizations, and labor unions in her research, teaching, and outreach. She served as President of the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics (SASE) (2024-5). She is a Senior Research Fellow at the at the WSI-Hans Böckler Stiftung and has been a visiting researcher at Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmarkeds- og Organisationsstudier (FAOS), Freie Universität Berlin, Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail (LEST), Max Planck Institute für Gesellschaftsforschung (MPIfG), University of New South Wales (UNSW), and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). She was previously a faculty member at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at King’s College London. She has presented her research at over 20 practitioner meetings and conferences, including those organized by the ILO, the European Commission, and UNI-ICTS. She has been interviewed on the BBC, Deutschlandfunk, and NPR, and been quoted in Asahi, Bloomberg, Der Spiegel, Forbes, the Globe and Mail, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.

Areas of Expertise

Collective Bargaining

Comparative labor movements

Employee participation

Human resources management

International and comparative political economy

Technology and work

Telecommunications

Unions

Workplace democracy

Publications (Selected)

Books

Doellgast, V. (2022) Exit, Voice, and Solidarity: Contesting Precarity in the US and European Telecommunications Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bamber, G., F.L. Cooke, V. Doellgast, C. Wright, eds. (2021) International and Comparative Employment Relations, 7th Edition. Sage Publications.

Doellgast, V. N. Lillie, and V. Pulignano, eds. (2018) Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Doellgast, V. (2012) Disintegrating Democracy at Work: Labor Unions and the Future of Good Jobs in the Service Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Special Journal Issues: Guest Editor

De Stefano, V. and V. Doellgast, eds. (2023) Regulating AI at Work: Labour Relations, Automation, and Algorithmic Management. Transfer: European Review of Labor and Research. 29(1)

Doellgast, V., M. Bidwell, and A. Colvin, eds. (2021) New Theories in Employment Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 74(3)

Vincent, S., G.J. Bamber, R. Delbridge, V. Doellgast, J. Grady, and I. Grugulis, eds. (2020) Situating Human Resource Management Practices in their Political and Economic Context, Human Resource Management Journal. 30(4)

Jackson, G., V. Doellgast, and L. Baccaro, eds. (2018) Corporate Social Responsibility and Labour Standards (Symposium). British Journal of Industrial Relations.56(1)

Journal Articles

V. Doellgast, S. O’Brady, and J. Kim. (In Press) Labor power and precarity in digital work: Union responses to work from home in US and German contact centers. Work, Employment and Society.

O’Brady, S., V. Doellgast, and J. Starcevic. (2025) Worker voice and mutual gains from remote performance management: Evidence from digitalised services in North America and Germany. Human Resource Management Journal. 35(4): 864-878.

O’Brady, S., V. Doellgast, and D. Blatter (2024) The high costs of outsourcing: Vendor errors, customer mistreatment, and well-being in call centers. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society. 63(1): 80-103.

Doellgast, V. (2023) Can democracy at work delivery mutual gains in the digital economy? Studi Organizzativi. 2: 213-229.

Doellgast, V. and T. Kämpf. (2023) Co-determination meets the digital economy: Works councils in the German ICT services industry. Entreprises et histoire. 4(13): 32-43.

Bellego, M., V. Doellgast, and E. Pannini (2023) From Taylorism to Teams of Technicians: Organisational and Institutional Experimentation at France Télécom. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. 29(3): 355-370.

Andrias, K. and V. Doellgast (2023) Stärkung des Tarifvertragssystems in den USA: Herausforderungen und Reformaussichten. WSI Mitteilungen, 76(3): 185-193.

De Stefano, V. and V. Doellgast, eds. (2023) Introduction - Regulating AI at Work: Labour Relations, Automation, and Algorithmic Management. Transfer: European Review of Labor and Research. 29(1): 9-20.

Doellgast, V., Wagner, I., & O’Brady, S. (2023). Negotiating limits on algorithmic management in digitalised services: cases from Germany and Norway. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research. 29(1): 105-120.

Ibsen, C. L., Sezer, L., & Doellgast, V. (2023). Coordination versus organization: Diverging logics of firm cooperation in Denmark and Sweden. British Journal of Industrial Relations. 61(3): 526-549.

Doellgast, V. (2022). Strengthening social regulation in the digital economy: Comparative findings from the ICT industry. Labour and Industry. 33(1): 22-38.

Doellgast, V. and I. Wagner (2022) Collective regulation and the future of work in the digital economy: Insights from comparative employment relations. Annual International Review, Industrial Relations Journal. 64(3): 438–460.

O’Brady, S. and V. Doellgast (2021) Collective Voice and Worker Well‐being: Union Influence on Performance Monitoring and Emotional Exhaustion in Call Centers. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 60(3), 307-337.

Doellgast, V. M. Bidwell, and A. Colvin (2021) New Directions in Employment Relations Theory: Understanding Fragmentation, Identity, and Legitimacy. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 74(3): 555-579.

Carver, L. and V. Doellgast (2021) Dualism or solidarity? Conditions for union success in regulating precarious work. European Journal of Industrial Relations. 27(4): 367-385.

Doellgast, V., M. Bellego, and E. Pannini (2021) After the social crisis: the transformation of employment relations at France Télécom. Socio-Economic Review, 19(3): 1127-1147.

Vincent, S., G.J. Bamber, R. Delbridge, V. Doellgast, J. Grady, and I. Grugulis (2020) Situating human resource management in the political economy: Multilevel theorising and opportunities for kaleidoscopic imagination. Human Resource Management Journal. 30(4): 461-477.

Doellgast, V. and D. Marsden (2019) Institutions as Constraints and Resources: Explaining Cross-national Divergence in Performance Management. Human Resource Management Journal. 29(2), 199-216.

Jackson, G., V. Doellgast, and L. Baccaro (2018) Corporate Social Responsibility and Labour Standards: Bridging Private Governance, Industrial Relations and Management Perspectives. Introduction to a Special Symposium. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(1): 3-13.

Book Chapters

Doellgast, V., L. Dorigatti, S. O’Brady, I. Wagner (2026) Algorithmic Management in Call Centres: Old Wine in New Bottles? In: U. Rani and M. Williams (eds) From Taylorism to Algorithmic Management: A multi-sector analysis of technology, control, and worker experiences. ILO and Edward Elgar.

Bader, V. and V. Doellgast. (2025) Der Mythos vom Mythos: Zur Wirkmächtigkeit von Bildern und Erzählungen über KI für ihre Regulierung. In S. Lücking, M. Hütten und M. Klöpper, eds. „Digitalisierung der Arbeitswelt: Mythen und Realitäten“.

Bamber, G., V. Doellgast, C. Wright, F.L. Cooke (2024) Employment Relations in International and Comparative Perspective: Research Agendas. In S. Procter, ed. A Research Agenda for Work and Employment. Edward Elgar.

Doellgast, V., I. Greer, and A. Kirsch (2023) Fairer Wandel für Arbeitnehmer*innen in der Automobilindustrie? In: H. Proff, ed. Towards the New Normal in Mobility. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39438-7_43

Wright, C., G. Bamber, F.L. Cooke, V. Doellgast (2021) Introduction: Internationally comparative approaches to studying employment relations. International and comparative employment relations, 7th Edition. Sage Publications.

Doellgast, V., C. Wright, F.L. Cooke, G. Bamber (2021) Conclusions: Globalisation, Crises and Institutional Responses. International and comparative employment relations, 7th Edition. Sage Publications.

Doellgast, V. and C. Benassi (2020) Collective Bargaining. In Edward Elgar Handbook of Employee Voice, 2nd Edition. Adrian Wilkinson, Jimmy Donaghey, T. Dundon and R. Freeman, eds. Edward Elgar.

Reports and Practitioner Publications

Doellgast, V. and D. Goldman (2025) Struggling to Level the Playing Field. LERA Perspectives on Work, pp. 28-32.

Doellgast, V., S. Appalla, D. Ginzburg, J. Kim, W. Thian (2025) Spotlight: Global case studies of social dialogue on AI and algorithmic management. UNDP Human Development Report 2025 - A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI. Pp.195-198. https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2025reporten.pdf

Doellgast, V., S. Appalla, D. Ginzburg, J. Kim, W. Thian (2025) Global case studies of social dialogue on AI and algorithmic management. ILO Working Paper 144. https://www.ilo.org/publications/global-case-studies-social-dialogue-ai-and-algorithmic-management

Doellgast, V. and N. Geiser (2025) Boosting US worker power and voice in the AI-enabled workplace. Washington Center for Equitable Growth, February 19, 2025. https://equitablegrowth.org/boosting-u-s-worker-power-and-voice-in-the-ai-enabled-workplace/

Doellgast, V., O'Brady, S., Kim, J., Walters, D. (2023) AI in Contact Centers: Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Management in Frontline Service Workplaces. Report. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/a0ac9f50-5a22-4b3d-a9d9-2cc06824e31d/content

Reviews

Doellgast, V. (2023). Between Institution Building and Worker Mobilization: Situating Labor Studies in Labor and Employment Relations: Comments on Revaluing Work (ers): Toward a Democratic and Sustainable Future. Reviewed in Labor Studies Journal. 48(3): 258-264.

Doellgast, V. (2023) Labor in the age of finance: pensions, politics, and corporations from deindustrialization to Dodd-Frank. By Sanford M. Jacoby. Reviewed in International Labour Review. 162(3): 529-531.

Tassinari, A., G. Herrigel, and V. Doellgast (2023) On Sidney Rothstein’s Recoding Power: Tactics for Mobilizing Tech Workers, New York, Oxford University Press, 2022. Socio-Economic Review 21(2): 1257-1268.

Doellgast, V. (2021) Power, Politics and Influence at Work. By Tony Dundon, Miguel Martínez Lucio, Emma Hughes, Debra Howcroft, Arjan Keizer, and Roger Walden. Reviewed in Perspectives on Work. 25: 96-97.

Doellgast, V. (2021) Labor power and solidarity in economic bicameralism. In Review Symposium on Firms as Political Entities: Saving democracy through economic bicameralism. By Isabelle Ferreras. Socio-Economic Review. 19(3): 1201-1215.

Doellgast, V. (2020) Transformations of Trade Unionism: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Workers Organizing in Europe and the United States, Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries. By Ad Knotter. Reviewed in Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal. 41(2).

Doellgast, V. (2019) Workers without Borders: Posted Work and Precarity in the EU. By Ines Wagner. Reviewed in Work and Occupations. 47(4): 514-517.

Doellgast, V. (2018) Informal Workers and Collective Action. Edited by Adrienne Eaton, Susan Schurman and Martha Chen. Reviewed in Perspectives on Work. pp. 86-88.

Doellgast, V. (2018) How and why did DQP influence employment relations research? In Review Symposium, Diversified Quality Production 2.0: on Arndt Sorge and Wolfgang Streeck, ‘Diversified Quality Production Re-Visited: Its contribution to German socioeconomic performance over time’. Socio-Economic Review. 16(3): 613-635.