bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Rehabilitation of Joint Consultation: A Recent Trend in the Participation Debate
Authors: Cuthbert Norman H. , Whitaker Alan
Published: March 2008

This paper focuses attention upon the current public policy debate on employee participation in managerial decision‐making before the publication of the Bullock Report and, in particular, the apparent resurgence of popularity for the concept of joint consultation. In view of joint consultation's relatively unsuccessful history it may be that the implications of this development have been largely unrecognized. Current attitudes towards participation as exemplified in certain of the more important policy statements of management, unions and political parties are analysed in terms of the role allotted to joint consultation within them. Similarly, European experience with joint consultation is considered for its relevance for developments in Britain. The paper closes with discussion of the future role joint consultation could play as a vehicle in the development of employee participation and the key issues involved.
Sit‐Ins, Worker Cooperatives and some Implications for Organization
Authors: Eccles A.J.
Published: March 2008

The occupation of employers' premises by employees has rapidly become an unremarked aspect of industrial action in Britain. Sufficiently so that, in September 1975, the Trades Union Congress debated and passed a motion to seek to legalize ‘sit‐ins’ and ‘work‐ins’.
A Contingency Approach to Work Week Structuring
Authors: Lee Robert A. , McEwan Young W.
Published: March 2008

Recent experiments with changes in work week structure from ‘rigid’ to ‘flexible’ have alerted employers and employees to the possibility of varying existing hours arrangements. The decision to change (or not to change) is often based on inadequate consideration of the consequences and an incomplete identification and analysis of all the available alternatives. Different degrees and forms of ‘flexibility’ may be appropriate for different work situations. The decision‐maker must appraise the work situations under his control and determine from the alternatives available which particular structure(s) are most suitable. To this end it is necessary, firstly, to conceptualize about the major variables in work week structures and then to develop a model which will allow the work situation characteristics to be ‘matched’ with a suitable work week structure. Research carried out in the Department of Management Studies at Loughborough University indicates that a ‘contingency’ model seems most appropriate.
A Systems Approach to Organizational Change
Authors: Lindquist Mats G.
Published: March 2008

Organizational change is an activity that is only partially analysable within current systems theories since they are based on static models of systems. The change process therefore is often organized on an ad hoc basis with less efficient control compared to the operation of the regular system. This paper offers some guidelines for the design of change programmes, ie the plan of action for the implementation of a change. In particular the concept of ‘Design/Contribution Graphs’ is presented as a tool for planning the implementation programme.
Experiments in Work System Design: Economic and Human Results Part I
Authors: Taylor James C.
Published: March 2008

This two part paper represents an attempt to enumerate and analyse recent instances of work system design experiments in terms of the outcome measures sought or reported in those studies. ‘Work system design experiments’ is intended to include only experiments dealing with sets of interrelated jobs, as opposed to those experiments solely manipulating either jobs which are dealt with individually, or changes in such things as work environment, or management climate. The literature comprising experiments in work system design contains a wide range of general end results variables, but, however, suffers from the associated fact that these numerous outcome measures are frequently poorly conceived or operationalized, and are not easily compared with one another from study to study.
The Management of Stress in Organizations and the Personnel Initiative
Authors: Torrington Derek P. , Cooper Cary L.
Published: March 2008

The extent to which stress at work produces a degree of psychological impairment has become a central issue in the current debate on the quality of working life. Various analyses of alienation as a result of paced assembly lines and other forms of mass production have spawned a range of possible initiatives to mitigate that condition: job enrichment, autonomous work groups and versions of industrial democracy being some of the best known.
The Camel Model: A Model for Career Planning in a Hierarchy
Authors: Keenay G.A. , Morgan R.W. , Ray K.H.
Published: March 2008

Many large organizations employ staff who make the greater part of their careers within the organization. Today's recruits are tomorrow's senior managers and so the planning of the careers of the staff is often undertaken with some care. The planners will want to avoid both shortages of suitably experienced staff for promotion to senior levels, and surpluses with their attendant problems of early retirement and redundancy schemes.
Power from Technology: Computer Staff and Industrial Relations
Authors: Purcell John , Dalgleish Lee , Harrison Juliet , Lonsdale Ian , McConaghy Ian , Robertson Alan
Published: March 2008

The significance of computer technology in terms of industrial relations is an area which has been neglected in the proliferation of literature accompanying the computer boom. This omission is becoming increasingly serious. By April 1976, the National Computer Index recorded a total of 9,245 computers in operation within the UK, in industry, the commercial and service sectors, public administration and defence. During the decade 1965–74 the population of computer installations grew by more than five and a half thousand and because this figure includes bureau facilities, it certainly understates the growth in the number of end‐users who have come to rely on computer technology. More importantly, the degree of this reliance has increased as the technology has been applied to a wider range of organisational functions. The growing dependence of organisations on the computer has enhanced its strategic position in the work process. Control over the functioning of the computer thus constitutes a source of increasing power which may well be used by employees as a powerful tool in negotiation.
The Economics of Modes of Employment
Authors: Whiting Edwin
Published: March 2008

It is generally recognised that the cost to a company or other organisation of employing people to work for them is considerably more than the actual wages or salaries paid. The number and weight of these additional costs has been steadily growing in recent years so that no longer are they insignificant but represent, on the contrary, important factors to be considered in the total cost of employment. The cost of ‘labour’ in the classical economic sense is no longer a periodic payment to the employee which can be turned on or off at will, but is a complex computation of various costs and expenses, some of which are incurred at the out‐set of employment and others of which continue throughout the term of employment. These additional costs, on top of the wages or salary, govern to a large extent the mode of employment which an employer will prefer. By ‘mode of employment’ is meant the type of contract which the worker may have with his/her employer in terms of the time when he/she will be at work and the relation of wage or salary payment to that time. It has nothing to do with the nature of work, the level of individual wage or salary, the status of the job or the method of recruitment.
Teaching and Learning Methods in Management Development
Authors: Burgoyne John , Stuart Roger
Published: March 2008

The ‘design’ of management development programmes is usually seen by practitioners in the field as a matter of choosing the methods appropriate to the ‘content’ of what they want to teach or the learning they hope to bring about. In a previous paper in this series we have argued that the real difference between programmes, which determines the extent to which they achieve their goals, lies in the assumptions which are embodied in them, usually implicitly, about how people learn.
Workers' Direct Participation in Decisions in Hungarian Factories
Authors: Héthy L. , Makó Cs.
Published: March 2008

For the past few years workers' participation in decisions associated with the running of factories has become a much discussed question in Hungarian industrial relations. Shopfloor democracy, however, is much more than a fashionable topic for discussion in industry, science or politics. It is a real social problem waiting for a solution. Workers' participation has emerged as an outcome of a number of recent industrial and socio‐economic advances which have had a major impact on our working class, and on industrial and social processes in our country. This progress has made us question many traditional approaches to the motivation of workers and encouraged us to look for new solutions. One of these is the promotion of the direct participation of workers in shopfloor decisions. Although indirect workers' participation, e.g. through trade union representatives, is of the utmost importance in Hungary and well deserves attention, it cannot be discussed within the compass of the present article, which will be strictly limited to the question of direct participation.
Management By Appreciation
Authors: Gadalla I.E.
Published: March 2008

In the study of social systems, we are becoming used to asking questions about the nature of the ‘language’ that systems use to manage and communicate with themselves and their environments. Essentially, the ‘language’ that a system uses will determine its picture of the world — its ‘reality’ — and consequently also the quality of its relationship with its particular environment. Contemporary concern with ecological problems has served to highlight this problem and has implied that our traditional philosophies of management are employing ‘languages’ which, in important respects, are out of joint with a balanced and mutually supportive relationship between system and environment.
Flexible Working Arrangements in Continuous Shift Production
Authors: McEwan Young W.
Published: March 2008

The application of flexibility to shift systems of working has generally been limited to individual arrangements between ‘opposite numbers’ on other shifts. This article describes a successful experiment to design and implement a flexible system that greatly extends the discretion accorded to operatives on shiftwork in their overall use of time. The scheme appears to be unique in that over 1,500 production workers are involved in operating a scheme that was largely designed by themselves.
An Integrated Approach to the Development of Managers: The Role of the Management Development Practitioner
Authors: Burgess R.A. , Fryer B.G.
Published: March 2008

Some recent research lends support to the evolving idea that management is specific to the situation, so that neither the work nor development of managers can be considered without reference to many variables. Case studies of four organisations and interviews with more than fifty managers in the construction industry suggest that managers rely heavily on interpersonal, decisional and problem handling skills, which they consider are largely derived from their work experiences. Management development programmes may assist the learning of such skills but are unlikely to make their best contribution unless organisations acknowledge learning as a mainstream activity, giving more thought to their long range development strategies, evolving suitable ‘learning climates’ and encouraging their managers to take a greater measure of responsibility for their own development. On the basis of this research we concluded that the contribution of the management development practitioner should be more variable than has usually been the case. His role, like that of the manager, should be largely determined by the situation and he should be responsive to the particular needs of organisations and individual managers. The research supports the argument for greater emphasis on the relationship between managerial action and learning and suggests that the methods used should be more carefully selected to suit individual managers' learning styles and development objectives.
The Job‐Related Consequences of Different Types of Role Stress
Authors: Keenan A. , McBain G.D.M.
Published: March 2008

In recent years there has been an increasing realisation that managers often experience considerable stress in their working environment and that this can have a variety of effects on their well‐being. In particular, following early work by Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snock and Rosenthal, a great deal of attention has been given to the concept of role stress. Several different kinds of role stress have been conceptualised by workers in this field.
Management Perceptions of the Institution of Collective Bargaining
Authors: Beaumont P.B.
Published: March 2008

This study examines the views of a group of managers about the value of the collective bargaining process as a means of dealing with a variety of job‐related issues. The views reported indicate that collective bargaining is considered most effective in dealing with the traditional wages, hours, fringe benefit, grievances subjects of bargaining, which are in turn considered the job‐related issues of major concern to workers. The success of collective bargaining in dealing with these traditional matters did not seem to be related to the existence of clear cut differences between union and management goals on these matters. There was also found to be little management support for extending the subject matter of collective bargaining, except in the area of job security.
A Model for Recruitment Planning in a Company
Authors: Keenay G.A. , Morgan R.W.
Published: March 2008

It is of the greatest importance to any organisation to obtain recruits with the right qualifications and abilities both for the immediate tasks and for the years ahead. We will describe a model developed in conjunction with Civil Service Management aimed at assisting them to recruit staff with an appropriate mix of characteristics. The model is an extension of the Camel model described in a previous paper. The data used are based on Civil Service data but have been modified significantly to the extent that the conclusions do not necessarily apply to the Civil Service.
An Exploration of Occupational Role: An Exercise in Team Development
Authors: Armstrong Tony , Eden Colin
Published: March 2008

The manager of a small group of professional valuers within a Local Authority expressed concern about the inconsistent, and often conflicting, ways in which his officers described situations. In particular he was worried about the varying emphases and content of reports he received from different officers where they had been addressing issues he believed to be similar. While it is clear there are a large number of possible explanations for the phenomenon, the manager concerned, and ourselves, became interested in the extent to which the officers might be attributing significantly different meanings to the situations they experienced. Our own interest was excited by the opportunity to experiment with a field application of grid techniques where the deliberate intention was to provide a vehicle for team development set within the context of the problem the manager has defined. Discussion with the eleven members of the department both reinforced our belief that it might be valuable to conduct an analysis of meanings and also provide an opportunity to negotiate our intervention and the prospect of team involvement after the elicitation and analysis of the grids.
Managing Illness at Work
Authors: Payne Roy L. , Arroba Tanya
Published: March 2008

Anyone who has been in regular contact with the media during the last 10 years must have been impressed by the amount of information and interest in health and the stresses of modern life. Much of the attention has been centred on the role of work in creating stress and its possible contribution to major illnesses such as heart disease, stomach ulcers and hypertension. This interest has been stimulated by an ever growing amount of research into stress at work. Friedman and Rosenman in California have carried out many large scale studies of the role of behaviour/personality in causing heart disease. This lead to a semi‐popular book called A‐Type Behavior and your Heart. Three large surveys have been reported in the last few years: Caplan et al. carried out a survey of 2,300 persons from 23 different occupations for the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. They collected data on perceived stressors at work, perceived strain and perceived supports from inside and outside the organisation. Physiological measures were taken from a sub‐sample of 390 The results are very complex but the most stressed persons were in occupations which involve tasks that are simple but inescapable such as in machine‐minding. Such jobs are low in status and the strain is possibly exacerbated by lack of support from both inside and outside the organisation. Zaleznik et al. studied over 2,000 managers and supervisors from a large Canadian Corporation. Pearlin and Schooler conducted a survey of 2,600 persons for the National Institute of Mental Health. As well as exploring the nature of the stresses and strains experienced by these people the authors asked about the different kinds of strategies they used to cope with their problems. Four different problem areas were explored: marital, child‐rearing, economic and work. It was found that the people with a greater range of coping strategies felt less strained except in the area of work. The authors suggested that this was because the in dividual person can do little to remove the stresses at work since they are inherent in the system. Coping with work problems, they argue, needs to be done more at the level of the system.
Change within the Probation Service: Evaluation from an Action Research Perspective
Authors: Fineman Stephen , Eden Colin
Published: March 2008

The present account results from twelve months of the authors' involvement with a probation service undergoing change. The change was initiated by an external body to the service and was based upon an apparently plausible rationale. Nevertheless considerable difficulties arose in the implementation of the change and these have provided some specific insights into the functioning of the organisation, and the values, attitudes and beliefs of some of its key decision‐makers. The data have also formed the basis of an action research programme (which is currently underway) and have generated substantive material from which to draw conclusions concerning the salient factors affecting the change. We believe that these conclusions, which form the core of this article, have particular implications for the management of change in professional settings, such as research and development, schools and further education establishments. These settings, like a probation service, are characteristically client centred, where the professionals ‘… are trained on the outside, usually at the public expense, and a large number of rules are inculcated into them. They bring these into the organization and are expected to act upon them without further reference to their skills’. Furthermore we consider that the essence of our findings has important implications for any organisation where internal or external change agents are attempting to bring about change.
Policy, Accounting and the Problem of Order
Authors: Berry Anthony J.
Published: March 2008

Since the evolution of theories of organisation in relation to environment the issue of environmental turbulence has come to dominate the literature of management. The strategists in organisations have become the repositories of this turbulence. A policy statement is defined as a statement which absorbs uncertainty, that is, states which are regarded as having a probabilistic formulation may be regarded via an interpretive policy statement as having quasi‐certainty. This protective function of policy permits parts of an organisation to operate in a regular, technically efficient fashion. In this sense all organisation boundaries are policy statements. Within the confines of ordered, stable or quasi‐stable states the disciplines of accounting and operations research may flourish. The accountants in organisations have become the repositories of this order. Accounting is a language of order, an instrument of control which is ordered, narrowly rational and reflects in the organisation that which is similar to the super‐ego. Environmental turbulence threatens chaos and chaos is the antithesis of order. The tension which is experienced in many organisations is exactly the tension between chaos and order, between the threat of being overcome and the need to maintain organisation boundaries. This tension exists in individuals and persons become established in roles which are psychologically comfortable for them (i.e. the accountant is an accountant because he is comfortable with high levels of order and stability). This paper will argue that the use of accountants and accounting as the repository of the problem of order is not accidental and that it is caused by the splitting and projection of parts of whole problems of organisation into variously attuned receptacles. Further, any attempt by accountants to break away from the role of repositories of order will be resisted by other organisational participants mainly because the anxiety associated with a contingent ‘free for all’ is unacceptable.
Predicting Effectiveness from Individual or Organisational Climate Scores
Authors: Hunt John
Published: March 2008

Organisation theory has been caught on an individual‐collective dichotomy for years. Systems theorists have argued that the whole or, even, the role system of an organisation cannot be explained by studying the individual parts. From this perspective the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Contrary to this perspective have been the theorists who argue that the individual is the important factor of organisations and that any attempt to develop a system out of a collective of different individuals is deceptive, particularly when theorists attribute needs, goals, and actions to the whole rather than to the individuals within the organisation.
Organisation Design,Technology and the Influence of Operations Management
Authors: Wild Ray
Published: March 2008

Operations managers are responsible for the design and operation of systems for manufacture, supply, transport and service. They are concerned primarily with physical resources and their deployment, the nature of the operating system, and the development and use of appropriate strategies for tackling the problems associated with that system. Operations managers' decisions inevitably influence the nature of the organisation, the nature of the jobs in it, their interrelationships, and the manner in which the whole is managed.
Designing ‘Reality’ into Management Learning Events I: Towards Some Working Models
Authors: Binstead Don , Stuart Roger
Published: March 2008

The need for management training, development and educational activities to be grounded in practical experience and real life situations has become a loud and frequently heard cry in current debate on how to improve the efficacy of such activities. Not the least vociferous in this rallying call have been, for example, proponents of what have come to be known as ‘Action Learning Programmes’. What is being echoed are comments, by the participants in managerial learning events, of the kind ‘… that sounds fine, but the reality is …’, ‘…in reality things just aren't like that…’,‘… playing with Lego bricks is fun … but what's it got to do with my job?…’,‘… but when I get back to the real world … ’, etc. Such statements reveal a feeling that, in entering a learning event, reality has somehow been left behind.
Industrial Relations and Safety Representation
Authors: Abell D.
Published: March 2008

The ‘Health and Safety at Work Act (1974)’ has always seemed to have important industrial relations implications. The Act was greatly influenced by the Robins Report which had stressed the need for greater voluntary regulation at the operational level. Substantively, the Act followed the Robins philosophy in the provision of the very important general duties of employers in section two. These duties, whilst comprehensive, were necessarily expressed in terms of relative standards, which need interpretation in particular workplaces. Although it was intended that codes of practice would be provided to facilitate this, the Act also followed Robins procedurally in providing for the appointment of employee safety representatives to participate in such interpretations. An amendment to the Act at the behest of the TUC provided that the legal rights and privileges of safety representatives be confined to those appointed by recognised independent trade unions. The passage of the regulations on safety representation are therefore a further stage in the formal development of trade union involvement in the control of health and safety at work. The purpose of this article is to assess the industrial relations implications of such safety representation.
The Study of Personnel Management as an Occupation, Using Repertory Grid
Authors: Tyson Shaun
Published: March 2008

This paper describes part of a research project into personnel management as an occupation, and argues for the study of personnel managers in the context of the organisations in which they work. The research draws on Kelly's personal construct theory by examining the way 20 personnel specialists in four organisations interpret and make meaningful the roles of others encountered in their working world. These ‘interpretations’ or constructs were discovered by using a repertory grid technique, and the results are compared between each of the four organisations. Some possible explanations are offered of the ways in which the personnel specialists studied cope with values that conflict with their own, and of how they are able to integrate within their organisations' cultures.
Bureaucratic Politics: Decision‐Making in Organisations
Authors: Allen D.E.
Published: March 2008

Some people argue that management, including personnel management, is decision‐making. This perspective ignores the many other functions of a manager — providing and processing information, persuasion and role‐playing—but certainly it would seem to be one of a manager's main activities.
Contingency Theory in Practice, I
Authors: Hendry C.
Published: March 2008

The need to develop the social sciences to make a practical contribution to organisational problems is a theme we hear much about. This article, which is in two parts, starts by comparing two cases of consulting to organisations in order to develop a critique of the models used — namely, ‘cultures and structures’ analysis and Gowler and Lupton's ‘7‐box model’. The main argument of Part I is that we need to take into account the political realities of organisations, and that failure to do so will distort the help we believe we are giving. Part II considers the other, more probable consequence, of neglecting political realities—failure to influence, recommendations not adopted, problems of implementation. It relates the practical consequences of using contingency models such as the ‘7‐box model’, to basic design assumptions and elements intrinsic to the models. The writer concludes that their deficiency as models of a working organisation actively inhibits their successful application to practical problems. They need, therefore, to be used with care or supplemented.
Application of Delphi Techniques to Predicting Employee Relations Futures
Authors: Wigginton G.S.S.
Published: March 2008

This article describes an industrial relations research project which I recently undertook as part of a wider secondment experience aimed at extending my own knowledge of industrial relations practices. The secondment was based in an organisation outside the Imperial Group and was part of a management development programme.
Contingency Theory in Practice, II
Authors: Hendry Chris
Published: March 2008

In part I of this paper a case study was considered in which I described my use of contingency analysis to solve a problem of organisation design. It was argued that the account underplayed the character of the organisation as a political system and, in consequence, failed to treat the political character of the relationship between the consultant and members of the organisation. What was presented as a rational design solution was, therefore, not so. It was influential more for its pragmatic value in suggesting a form of organisation which fitted the managing director's preferences.
Designing ‘Reality’ into Management Learning Events III: Low Reality Strategies
Authors: Stuart Roger , Binsted Don
Published: March 2008

This paper is the final part of a trilogy focusing upon the reality dimensions in management learning event designs. In the first paper a number of models were developed which lend greater understanding to the design of reality into learning events and the implications for participants' subsequent learning. The second paper considered the application of these models to designs specifically aimed at producing high reality learning events. In all, six broad types of strategy were identified, each of which prescribed tactics leading to a perceived high reality for the learner. The focus upon high reality was in line with the authors' thinking that there needs to be a much stronger base in reality than that which is perceived in many management learning events currently mounted as part of management development activities in this country. Nevertheless, as discussed in the first paper, there are situations where low reality learning activities are appropriate.
Perceptions and Attitudes to Change: A Pilot Study
Authors: Bowey Angela M.
Published: March 2008

Much management literature has been devoted to the topic of change in recent years. It has been suggested that we are facing a more dynamic environment than ever before; and many authors have suggested new approaches to managing change in organisations. Very little attention, however, has been given to the conceptual frameworks on which organisation members base their attitudes to change and which influence their behaviour in situations of change.
The Safety Representative Function: Consultation or Negotiation?
Authors: Beaumont P.B.
Published: March 2008

In Britain there has long been a general distinction drawnbetween subjects which are considered suitable for joint consultation and those which are considered suitable for negotiation. The former are those where the basic aims of union(s) and management are held to be essentially similar, while the latter are those where there is held to be a fundamental divergence of interests between the two parties. The problem‐solving orientation of joint consultative arrangements, with the possibility of joint gains to union and management (i.e. a varying sum pay off matrix) has been labelled “integrative” bargaining by Walton and McKersie, while the issue orientation of the negotiation process has been labelled “distributive” bargaining.
A Self‐Regulating Pay Structure at Plant Level
Authors: Lupton Tom , Tanner Ian
Published: March 2008

In this paper we demonstrate that it is possible, and economical, to design and install self‐regulating pay structures in manufacturing plants (that is to say, fairly typical British manufacturing plants) with the following characteristics:
Payment Systems in Smaller Companies: Relationships with Size and Climate
Authors: Dastmalchian Ali , Mansfield Roger
Published: March 2008

The nature of organisational payment systems is likely to be a critical factor in the complex pattern of interactions which influence industrial relations and productivity in industrial companies. The systematic arrangement of rates of pay for employees is one major way in which organisational managements attempt to influence the behaviour of those employees both directly and indirectly. At the same time, particular arrangements reflect the outcome of political, social and economic processes in which all levels of employee, as well as many outside agencies, are frequently involved. Despite its undoubted importance there is not as much systematic research on the topic as one might expect. In particular, little empirical evidence is available linking the parameters of payment systems to other organisational characteristics. The present paper attempts to make a contribution towards filling those gaps in the literature. We report on the characteristics of payment systems and their prevalence in different sized organisations in 59 small companies in South Wales. It will be argued that the characteristics of payment systems will be related to different dimensions of organisational climate, and these relationships are examined empirically.
For Whom the Axe Falls: The Profile of the Outplaced Executive
Authors: Scissons Edward H.
Published: March 2008

Fired — Outplaced — Dehired — Terminated … there are few life events more stressful to the modern executive than the unplanned loss of a job. Coming as it often does in the mid‐30 to mid‐40 year age group, job loss, while being painful at any time, is particularly so during this stressful period which has often been associated with midlife crisis. Feelings such as “Life is passing me by”, “I'm a failure”, and “Why me?” are common initial reactions to this recurrent phenomenon. There are many reasons for unplanned job loss incompetence, corporate reorganisation with resulting redundancy, amalgamation, or takeover. A true picture with respect to executive job loss is hard to pin down. Many organisations do not keep detailed records or are reluctant to release information. As well, many terminations are masked by a forced “resignation”.
Reactions to Redundancy: A First Test of a Response Typology
Authors: Payne Roy , Arroba Tanya
Published: March 2008

Two recent papers on the psychological impact of redundancy, have pointed out that there are frequently very positive reactions to the experience. Their remarks do not apply to those seeking voluntary redundancy to achieve substantial financial benefits, but to those who have redundancy forced upon them who then discovered that it gave them an exciting opportunity to start a new career and a new life. Apart from the fact that “redundancy” could do with some positive publicity, their finding raises the question as to what kinds of people respond to redundancy in this proactive fashion. This study was designed to examine the validity and utility of a personality typology which has the appearance of being very relevant to understanding people's reactions to changing circumstances.
Problems with Participation at Work
Authors: Marchington Mick
Published: March 2008

This paper describes and analyses a system of participation operating in a firm manufacturing kitchen furniture (labelled as Kitchenco). It assesses the way in which the attitudes and behaviour of employees, shop stewards, foremen and managers have an effect upon, and are influenced by, the participative scheme. By organising the approach to the case study loosely around the framework developed by Walker, it is possible to identify the propensity to participate of the shop floor, management's acceptance of participation and the effect of the participation potential on the system at Kitchenco. A variety of research instruments were used for this purpose and it is the contention of the author that use needs to be made of observational techniques and a semi‐structured interview programme, rather than the more usual questionnaire approach, in order to generate a “richer” understanding of workplace industrial relations. One of the primary intentions of the paper is to discount the myth that participation is the latest panacea and to demonstrate that it does have important limitations; and yet to suggest that these drawbacks are not insurmountable but, rather, require discussion and analysis in order to develop our knowledge of them.
The Convergent and Discriminant Validity of the Stochastic Rewards Model for Human Resource Valuation: A Field Study
Authors: Flamholtz Eric
Published: March 2008

A recent paper by Flamholtz and Wollman described the conceptualisation, development, and implementa‐tion of the stochastic rewards model for human resource valuation (SRVM) in a human capital intensive firm. An essential prerequisite before such models can actually be implemented in organisations (and used in personnel management in the ways described by Flamholtz and Wollman) is to assess the empirical validity of the numbers generated as measurements of human resource value. The purpose of the study reported in this paper, therefore, is to investigate the “convergent and discriminant validity” of the SRVM in the context of a human capital intensive firm. Our intent is to contribute to the development of human resource accounting by going beyond the theoretical justification of the previously proposed SRVM and present some empirical evidence on the validity of the numbers generated by the model.
Appraisal and the Small Company
Authors: Murphy A.J.
Published: March 2008

In many large organisations appraisal systems are an essential component in professional personnel practice. However, there are many difficulties in managing formal appraisals and in some places the system has decayed into disrepute and disuse. To managers in the small company the costs of implementing such a system may appear to outweigh the potential benefits. This paper examines some of these issues and describes how one small company attempted to develop its own appraisal system.
Managerial Pay Policies and Behavioural Consequences: A Cross‐Cultural Study
Authors: Thakur Manab
Published: March 2008

Since the publication of Harbison and Myers' study, many management scholars have devoted their attention to managerial systems in different cultures around the world. However, the various studies in cross‐cultural management have been criticised for not having enough specificity and relatedness. This study is concerned with a very specific aspect of managerial lives, namely, pay. Within a broad theoretical framework, three propositions are related to the data collected from 545 middle managers in Britain and the US. The propositions are; that the degree of understanding of job objectives and the perceived importance of the individual's role are directly related to pay differentials (Proposition I); that this relationship has impact upon the perception of what are and what should be the criteria used for pay determination (Proposition II); and, that if the gaps between “are” and “should be” are large, then the responses on behavioural option indices will be largely negative (Proposition III). The propositions are generally supported by these data. Implications of the findings are also discussed.
Personnel Management, Power and the Certification Process
Authors: Preece D.A. , Nicol B.N.
Published: March 2008

This paper examines some approaches to the professionalisation process and relates these to considerations which seem to have led the Institute of Personnel Management, particularly in recent years, to be concerned to establish and develop the knowledge‐base of the occupation of personnel management, importantly through certification procedures. On the basis of a comparative national questionnaire survey of student attrition rates on IPM and Diploma in Management Studies courses over the years 1973–76, it is hypothesised that this emphasis has been a major contributory factor in the high attrition rates on IPM examination courses throughout the United Kingdom. The paper concludes with some observations on the new examination scheme (introduced in 1980) in the context of a discussion of personnel managers' (and their spokesmen's) search for more acceptance and power in organisations.
Organisation Development: A Case of the Emperor's New Clothes?
Authors: McLean Adrian
Published: March 2008

Personnel specialists often bear the brunt of organisational change. Whether through the painful experiences of managing a redundancy, or as company representatives negotiating the introduction of new technology with trade unions, the shock waves of organisational change permeate most aspects of the personnel function sooner or later. Over recent years, much effort has been directed towards understanding the processes and problems of organisational change and of developing ways of more satisfactorily dealing with it. Much of these efforts have been drawn together into a body of techniques, ideas, case studies and more general wisdom which has acquired a distinctive identity.
Computerised Vicarious Experience: The Future for Management Induction?
Authors: Eden Colin , Sims David
Published: March 2008

The last two years have seen a plethora of articles discussing the impact of microcomputers on our lives. This article discusses a strange and unique use for some of the facilities now available as a consequence of recent developments in computers. For the last few years the authors have been developing both a method and computer software which is intended to help people think about and make use of their ideas. This is in contrast to the more common use for computers, where they are seen as number‐crunchers able to deal at one extreme with the payroll and, at the other, complicated mathematical programming problems. It has been our intention to exploit the potential computers have for enabling groups of people to explore their ideas in a more careful and systematic way than has hitherto been possible.
The Hidden Experience of Learning Events: Illusions of Involvement
Authors: Hodgson Vivien , Reynolds Michael
Published: March 2008

What do we really know about participants' experience of courses and training programmes? What are their thoughts and feelings at the time? What goes through each person's mind during the course of a learning event? Do course members' experiences of training reflect in any way their experience of the work‐place?.
Explaining Variation in the Enterprise Response to Industrial Relations Legislation: The Case of the Safety Representative Regulations
Authors: Beaumont P.B.
Published: March 2008

A much quoted observation of Phelps Brown in the late 1950s was that “when British industrial relations are compared with those of the other democracies they stand out because they are so little regulated by law”. However, the position has changed so substantially since then that Lewis was able to comment that “in 1975 it would seem that the one indubitably fundamental and irreversible trend is the ever‐increasing extent of the legal regulation of the British system of industrial relations”. In view of this substantially changed state of affairs a fundamental task for industrial relations researchers to undertake is that of explaining variation in the impact of industrial relations legislation at the level of the individual employment establishment.
The Incidence of Picketing in 1979
Authors: Marsh Arthur , Gillies James
Published: March 2008

There is no general study of the development and current practice of picketing in Britain. As a by‐product of our association with a primarily legal examination of the situation before and after the Employment Act 1980 commissioned by the Social Science Research Council we hope to remedy this situation with a publication later this year. Meanwhile it may be of interest to make available the results of two surveys conducted with the Confederation of British Industry and the Association of Independent Businesses which throw light on the incidence of picketing in 1979.
The Role of the Evaluator: A Contingency Approach
Authors: Davies Julia
Published: March 2008

The starting point of this article is the problem facing the evaluator of how to make the research findings useful to those involved in the process being evaluated. Underlying this problem is the basic assumption that, as Carol Weiss says, “Basically evaluation research is concerned with finding out how well action programmes work”, and that this is related to a second assumption that such findings should be of use to those involved in making decisions about the programme.
The Evaluation of Management Education and Development: An Overview
Authors: Easterby‐Smith Mark
Published: March 2008

Views about the nature and purpose of evaluation have developed quite dramatically over the last two decades. Unfortunately many peoples' expectations about what evaluation should be doing have not kept pace with these developments. In addition there has been a large amount of work carried out on the evaluation of general educational and social programmes, and much of this is both parallel to, and complimentary to, the evaluation of management training. This paper reviews recent trends in both fields using ideas from educational evaluation to clarify some of the problems encountered repeatedly in training evaluation and to suggest what might be more realistic expectations of evaluative activities.
The Tutor‐Learner Interaction in Management Development
Authors: Binsted Don , Snell Robin
Published: March 2008

This paper is the first of five based on research carried out in the Centre for the Study of Management Learning at University of Lancaster. It concentrates on the relationships between tutors and learners and the facilitating strategies of tutors, and the effect of these on learners' feelings and their learning and interest.
Candidates' Beliefs and Self‐Presentation Strategies in Selection Interviews
Authors: Fletcher Clive
Published: March 2008

The interview is still the main tool in selection, and rather ironically the pressure put on users of psychological tests by the Sex Discrimination and Race Relations Acts may lead to even more emphasis being placed on interviews—despite the questions raised about their effectiveness. The research literature on interviewing is substantial and covers a wide range of variables. Strangely, however, one element of the interview situation has scarcely been touched by this research and that is the interviewee. The picture one gets from most studies is that of an inert lump of material being placed in front of the interviewers for them to respond to—the candidate is simply a passive source of information, and the real interest is in how the interviewers go about eliciting and processing this information. Some researchers even dispense with real candidates altogether, preferring to use written pen‐pictures which the “interviewers” assess.
The Career Graph: A Tool for Mid‐Career Development
Authors: Thomas Alan B.
Published: March 2008

Considerable attention is being paid to career guidance and counselling for young people about to enter work for the first time, but the needs of those in mid‐career have been comparatively overlooked. Current social and economic changes have created a less secure context for the pursuit of careers and have created a need for new tools for mid‐career management. This paper describes one such tool—the career graph—and its use with middle level industrial managers during a short course on career management.
The Tutor‐Learner Interaction in Management Development
Authors: Snell Robin , Binsted Don
Published: March 2008

The first paper in this series explored the effects of the tor‐learner relationship on learners' feelings, learning and interest during management learning events.