LEARNING ABOUT THE TRANSITION IN AN EAST- GERMAN FIRM

Given the development of relations between companies located in former East Germany and firms in western Europe, organizational methods and techniques, have been introduced that lead to increasing differentiati on in the productive system and an ever growing recourse to the legal formalities of a contract. These innovations are presented; and their consequences, examined, as well as the ways they interfere with the ex perience accumulated over the four decades preceding reunification - i n particular, with wage-earners' collective representations.