The employment structures of space agencies in three regions and implications for competitiveness

Abstract

While space organizations are present worldwide, dominant organizations are NASA in the US, ESA in Europe and JAXA in Japan. Each of these organizations has a high budget, which is a strong indicator of its political, economic and scientific dominance in the field. We investigate the flexibility of these agencies’ employee structures and show how their competitiveness is affected by those structures. We develop propositions on regular vs. non-regular employment, on long-term employment and on job security and conclude that, in the short run, it is difficult for ESA to compete against the more flexible hire-and-fire structure at NASA and against Japan’s developed non-regular employee system mentality, which is employed at JAXA. However, the European system has visible advantages in the long run. Implications for organizations are discussed.