bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Job Evaluation, Technical Expertise and Dual Ladders in Research and Development
Authors: Griffiths Dorothy
Published: March 2008

The problem of how to weight technical expertise is familiar to anyone concerned with the design and implementation of company job evaluation schemes, and nowhere is this problem more acute than in Research and Development (R & D) departments. Here, typically, there are large numbers of highly qualified technical specialists who both deserve and demand promotion on the basis of their technical contribution. Yet, because technical staff have relatively few of the kind of responsibilities which carry high weighting on most job evaluation schemes, they rarely warrant higher grading on conventional criteria. And where they are promoted, their excellence as scientists wins them promotion into research management. In a recent study conducted by the author, concerning the reasons why R&D staff in a large UK company sought posts elsewhere in the organisation, the belief that promotion was easier to get outside R&D was one of the most important factors. A dual ladder system may offer a partial solution to this problem. By a dual ladder is meant the establishment of two parallel hierarchies within R & D: a management ladder and a ladder for technical specialists. The two ladders carry different responsibilities but equivalent rewards and status. In theory, at least, a distinction is made between responsibility for resources, located on the management ladder, and responsibility for technical merit, located on the technical ladder.
Implementing an Added Value Payment Scheme
Authors: Ghobadian Abby
Published: March 2008

The concept of added value has recently re‐emerged after many years of neglect and is currently recognised by many businessmen and consultants as making a valuable contribution to the debate on the problem of low productivity in Britain.
Home Relationships and Work Behaviour II. Informal Family Financial Relationships and Productivity at Work
Authors: Johnston Thomas
Published: March 2008

Many studies of work behaviour have been bound by the factory walls, despite repeated reminders that what happens outside the organisation can have a direct effect on behaviour inside it. Some years ago the Rapoports pointed out that the inter‐relationship between work and family life
Boredom and Repetitive Work: A Review
Authors: Shackleton V.J.
Published: March 2008

Many people make the assumption that a repetitive job is automatically a boring one. This is not so. For many years, psychologists and other students of work behaviour have been pointing out that boredom is a subjective experience and refers to the individual's reaction to the environmental situation, whereas repetition or monotony is a characteristic of a task as perceived by an individual. Simply put, some repetitive or monotonous tasks are experienced as boring by some people. The aim of this article is to explore the sorts of repetitive tasks which lead to feelings of boredom, the effects of repetitive tasks on boredom and performance, and the methods that both workers and employers can use to reduce these effects.
Organisational Change for Productivity Improvement
Authors: Lupton Tom , Tanner Ian
Published: March 2008

There are three essential steps in a planned programme of productivity improvement.
The Tutor‐Learner Interaction in Management Development
Authors: Binsted Don , Snell Robin
Published: March 2008

This is the third part of a five‐part series, based on research done on live sessions in which management teachers and trainers were interacting with groups of learners.
Industrial Relations Climate and Company Effectiveness
Authors: Dastmalchian Ali , Blyton Paul , Reza Abdolahyan Mohamed
Published: March 2008

An empirical study is reported which examines the relationships between industrial relations climate and variables reflecting the state of the firm's performance, industrial relations structure, and overall effectiveness in 28 manufacturing companies. In addition to reporting the patterns of association between each of these aspects, multivariate analyses are employed in order to (i) ascertain the direct and indirect influences of industrial relations climate and other variables under study on company effectiveness, and (ii) examine the assumptions about the direction of causality between industrial relations climate and effectiveness. The results highlight the relationships between the above variables and emphasise the importance of conceptualising industrial relations climate in such a way that can adequately reflect the attitudes and behaviour of industrial relations actors. Path analysis suggests that the pattern of causality is not a simple one but involves reciprocal and feedback relationships. However, the mprovement to the explanatory power of company effectiveness by including the notion of industrial relations limate in research, is clearly demonstrated.
Formal Training Courses in Context
Authors: Joyce Laraine
Published: March 2008

Some organisations use external management and supervisory training courses as a major means of developing and training their staff. Whose needs do these courses address however? Is it those of the sponsoring organisation's or those of the individuals attending? What implication does this have for the role of the external trainer and for the administration of organisational training policy?
Research as Action: An Experiment in Utilising the Social Sciences
Authors: Gill John
Published: March 2008

This article reports three years' research into the pilot phase of the Social Science Research Council's Open Door Scheme, a scheme designed to facilitate social science research utilisation. Firstly, some general issues of social science utilisation are examined, followed by the background to the creation of the Council's Open Door Scheme to help meet these difficulties. Then, findings from research into the pilot phase of the scheme from 1977 to 1980 are discussed, including its future operation and potential for influencing managerial activity in its widest sense.
The Safety Officer: An Emerging Management Role?
Authors: Beaumont P.B. , Leopold J.W. , Coyle J.R.
Published: March 2008

The safety officer is a person who has been around in industry for a not inconsiderable period of time, but about whom relatively little is known. Some indication of the historical nature of the safety officer function can be obtained by an examination of the aims and membership of the Institution of Industrial Safety Officers (now called the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health). This institution, which was formed in 1953, had a membership of some 2,000 at the time of the Robens Committee Report (1970–72) and aimed to raise safety officers' standards of professional competence, to exchange information and to develop accident prevention methods and techniques. Some further historical evidence is provided by a Factory Inspectorate Survey in 1968 which revealed that less than 25 per cent of plants with more than 50 employees had safety officers, with considerable inter‐industry variation being apparent—from less than ten per cent of plants in some industries to over 70 per cent in gas, electricity and water. The vast majority of these safety officers were part time.
A Design for a Link Model of Manpower Planning in the Local Labour Market with Relevance to the Employing Organisation and the National Labour Market
Authors: Smith I.G.
Published: March 2008

Despite the interest in manpower planning which grew considerably during the sixties and seventies, there has been continuing doubt about the degree of commitment at organisational level and about the success of any government attempt at planning at national level. But the effective management, utilisation and planning of the human resource within the British economy remains a prime interest for all parties. Manpower planning may appear to be an ephemeral technique, but, if this is so, it is not because the problem it was directed towards has gone away.
Organisational Mobility and Career Development
Authors: Routledge C.W. , Elliot C.K.
Published: March 2008

A major function of personnel management is to help individuals and organisations cope with change. Managerial career development provides a practical example of this concern as effective action requires an understanding of how individuals and organisations initiate and are affected by change. These changes can also be considered from the more theoretical viewpoints of organisational mobility. The practical concerns of the personnel manager and the theoretical models of the student of organisational mobility should both benefit from the two‐way flow of insights, and some of these potential links are explored in this article.
The DMS — and the Promise of Management Education
Authors: Lees Stanley
Published: March 2008

Despite the substantial growth of formal management education programmes during the last two decades, Britain's industrial performance has declined substantially by most international comparisons. By taking the Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) as an example of a middle‐management course, the article explores some of the structural constraints and conflicting expectations within management education which can prevent managerial thought being converted subsequently into corporate action and, in particular, some of the mechanisms by which employers and educators collude in maintaining a mutual distancing from each other.
Orientations Towards Retirement: A Predictable Transition
Authors: Kelly Graham
Published: March 2008

The article presents a conceptual model which aims to help explain the ways in which people anticipate the predictable transition from work into retirement. The findings of a research study of over 200 British managers, using the model, are outlined, and their implications, both for policy‐makers and for individuals approaching retirement, are discussed.
The Tutor‐Learner Interaction in Management Development
Authors: Binsted Don , Snell Robin
Published: March 2008

In previous parts of this series, we have examined the behaviour used by tutors to facilitate learning when involved in giving inputs or leading discussions. In this paper, we concentrate on those sessions where the tutor's interventions followed some form of task activity by the learners, e.g. exercises, case studies, structured experiences, role plays, games or simulations. This differentiates between “de‐brief” (which follows learner task activity) and discussion, which does not. As in the other papers in the series, this paper is based on research findings.
Changing the Organisation and Society as Strategies for Ameliorating the Effects of Unemployment: Part II
Authors: Hayes John
Published: March 2008

Society's response to unemployment is influenced by its attitudes to those out of work. Typically, they are seen as outsiders, as deviants who need help to regain their normal status in society. An earlier article considered changing the individual as a strategy for ameliorating the effects of unemployment. This article examines two alternative‐strategies. The first is concerned with changing the organisation in ways that make it easier for the unemployed to adjust to work after they have managed to secure re‐employment, and the second is concerned with changing society in ways that will either increase the demand for labour or lead to the unemployed being accepted as full, if different, members of society.
Framework for the Analysis of Management Learning Methods, Part I: Description of the Elements
Authors: Huczynski Andrzej A.
Published: March 2008

In these two articles, an analytical framework is presented which can be used by management teachers, trainers and educators both to evaluate the effectiveness of the training sessions which they have run and to help them increase the effectiveness of their future sessions. The model can be seen as a refinement and development of one proposed by Binsted and Burgoyne. However, it differs from it in two significant ways. Firstly, it is more detailed and elaborate in that it considers more aspects of teacher style. Secondly, it is relevant to both classroom interactions between students and teachers and also to learning situations which are part of a manager's everyday life and experience. In such situations, there may be no intervention from a teacher or anyone else whose job it is to encourage learning. In the first of these articles, the author discusses the problem of comparing and contrasting different management development methods and practices. He comments on the lack of any satisfactory system for the classification of different teaching and learning methods, and suggests some reasons which can account for its absence. The remainder of the article is devoted to the presentation of the elements, not of a methods classification system, but of a framework for the analysis of management development methods‐in‐use. The second article will focus on the application of this framework by the management trainer.
Reality and Role Playing: The Use of a “Living Case Study” in Management Education
Authors: Linstead Steve , Harris Bob
Published: March 2008

This paper describes some of the major elements of Marfleet Steel Company, a multidisciplinary case study which we developed with the help of Chris Dixon. The case attempted to address some of the educational problems which had arisen from our experiences with the group of students for whom it was first designed, but which we felt were typical problems of management education in general. The paper begins by discussing our own particular difficulties and their relation to the generalised problems of the education/experience gap; the common sense/education distinction; the importance of the unconscious in developing managerial “skills”; the need for integrating disparate disciplines; the difficulties of handling various and conflicting sources of information and the indispensability of action and involvement to successful learning. We go on to discuss our specific objectives and methodology in developing Marfleet, focusing on issues of verisimilitude, the provision and release of information and the importance of role‐playing to the “living case study”. We examine the running of the case, with formal inputs, monitoring the process and providing and organising feedback. Finally, we discuss the experiences of both staff and students on the case and suggest that the “living case study” method, though demanding for all participants, offers huge benefits in stimulating discovery and learning. It makes considerable advances in bridging the gap between the too often isolationist classroom case study or simulation and the organisationally problematic action‐learning project.
Shop Steward Organisation and Joint Consultation
Authors: Marchington Mick , Armstrong Roger
Published: March 2008

It now seems to be fairly widely accepted that joint consultation has experienced a resurgence of interest and practice since the mid 1970s. Whilst the seeds of this revival were probably sown by anxieties prior to the publication of the Bullock Report, the institution does not appear to have withered away following the demise of the ideas on worker directors.
Social Forces and Managerial Job Satisfaction
Authors: Mansfield Roger , Poole Michael , Blyton Paul , Frost Paul
Published: March 2008

Managers are a very large and growing occupational group of substantial economic and social significance. Indeed, by 1978, Lindley estimated that there were as many as 2,146,000 managers in Britain, corresponding to no less than 8.7 per cent of all employed persons. Despite this, there has been surprisingly little systematic research on managers as an occupational group. However, this has not precluded a substantial amount of comment and speculation about managers and their roles in modern industrial Britain, particularly in the popular media. In a large number of cases, the tone of the argument suggests that managers are being increasingly constrained in their activities and that their “prerogative to manage” has been substantially undermined.
Matrix Organisation: A Case Study in a Government Department
Authors: Carpenter Helen
Published: March 2008

This article describes the effects of the implementation of a matrix structure into a division of a large New South Wales Government organisation. The existing organisation structure had proved inappropriate for the execution of divisional tasks, with the resultant emergence of problems of co‐ordination, planning and control. A Task Force recommended that a matrix structure be introduced, since this appeared more suited to the complex nature of the division's workload. In the period under review, various benefits and problems associated with the organisation change emerged. The benefits included improvements in efficiency and flexibility, and job and client satisfaction. In general, the problems which arose are those often associated with matrix structures; for example, role confusion and ambiguity, and role conflict. It is argued that to a large extent the problems originated more from poor planning and management of the organisation change process and ignorance of the pervasive influence of the organisation context than from inherent weaknesses in the matrix structure.
Experiencing Uncertainty: Organasational Lessons from the Clinic
Authors: Firth MRC/SSRC Jenny
Published: March 2008

Many of the features of the work environment reported to be associated with stress can be subsumed under the general heading of “ambiguity” which is experienced by the individual as “uncertainty”. As Folkman et al. have suggested, it is not the ambiguity of the situation so much as the person's perception of it that creates the feeling of uncertainty; whether this is experienced as stressful depends on the meaning that uncertainty has for the individual.
Achieving Health and Safety at Work: The Problems of Evaluating Management Effectiveness
Authors: Barrett Brenda N. , Brown Hilda , James Philip W.
Published: March 2008

A research team at the Middlesex Polytechnic recently carried out a small‐scale study on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive to investigate the implementation by companies of certain new provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974. These provisions are contained in Section 2 of the Act and require employers, inter alia, to inform and train their employees in safety matters and to consult on these matters with work‐place safety representatives appointed in pursuance of the Act.
How Relevant is Leadership Research to the Study of Managerial Effectiveness? A Discussion and a Suggested Framework for Skills Training
Authors: Alban‐Metcalfe Beverly M.
Published: March 2008

At a recent conference sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership, the following remark was overheard, “I was away from leadership for 15 years, and when I returned, I felt that I have been gone for 15 minutes.”
Management Style and Achievement: A Model Synthesis
Authors: Roskin Rick
Published: March 2008

The area of leadership, management style and decision‐making research contains ideas which have proved to be both controversial and useful. Many of the equivocal results are due to the limited variables contained within the models reviewed. On analysis, each contain powerful ideas and variables which, if integrated, could provide a useful research vehicle as well as an effective training paradigm. This article synthesises a number of variables from several models to develop such an approach.
Board and Sequential Interviews in Selection: An Experimental Study of their Comparative Effectiveness
Authors: Bayne Rowan , Fletcher Clive , Colwell John
Published: March 2008

Despite strong attacks on its use—such as that of Eysenck—and the consistent conclusions of the literature reviews that its reliability and validity is unsatisfactory, the interview continues to be the main technique in selection. Whilst a great deal of research has been done on it, the focus of attention has usually been on interviewers themselves and the results they achieve. Other perspectives, such as the influence of the candidate or the effects of different types of interview, have been relatively neglected. The study reported then concerns the latter, comparing the efficiency of two of the most widely‐used kinds of selection interview—the Board or Panel in which a candidate faces several interviewers at once, and the sequential interview, where the interviewee meets a series of interviewers one at a time.
Self Assessment, Realistic Job Previews and Occupational Decisions
Authors: Makin P.J. , Robertson I.T.
Published: March 2008

Most recent reviews of the value of self assessments in industrial and organisational settings conclude that there is little to recommend their use. Major criticisms concern the excessive leniency apparent in self assessments and their poor accuracy. This article reconsiders the available literature. With respect to leniency, it is suggested that leniency is common to all ratings, that there are individual differences in leniency and that degree of leniency is influenced by perceived consequences to the assessor. It is also argued that accuracy may be influenced by both the purpose of the assessment and the extent to which the assessment is based on immediate experience rather than recalled, hypothetical or vicarious experience. Ways in which self assessments might be effectively used are suggested and the conclusions and evidence are discussed within the context of a four‐component framework for the self assessment process.
Information, Participation and Pensions: Strategy‐ and Employee‐Related Issues
Authors: Schuller Tom , Hyman Jeff
Published: March 2008

For most people, pensions as an issue has been mainly associated with retired people as a separate and deserving category of the population, intermittently attended to by government as a result of pressure group activity. Over the last few years, however, occupational pensions have attracted far more attention, and not only from those nearing the end of their economically active life. In the first place, the recurrent imposition of incomes policies has led negotiators to look more closely at benefits which do not fall under the standard pay heading. Some benefits—for example, increased holiday entitlements—are non‐monetary in character and take the form of a substitute for the extra cash which might otherwise have been available. Pensions, on the other hand, represent an area of potential improvement in financial terms, even if in deferred form. More generally, pensions are starting to be seen in the industrial relations world as a standard negotiable item—as part of the “total remuneration package”, to use a currently fashionable term.
An Attribution Theory of Sex Discrimination
Authors: McElroy James C. , Morrow Paula C.
Published: March 2008

Sex discrimination in organisations operates at two distinct levels. On one hand, women experience difficulty entering certain occupations/organisations. This type of discrimination has been labelled access sex discrimination. This form of discrimination relies heavily on stereotyping. One form of stereotyping—sex characteristic stereotypes—refers to widely held beliefs that men and women are different in terms of their personalities and capabilities. The existence of these differences is used to justify the position that women are not capable of successful performance in certain occupations. A second form of stereotyping—sex role stereotypes—refers to widely held beliefs concerning the appropriateness of behaviour. This form of stereotyping implies that while women could enter certain occupations as they have the capabilities, they should not.
Improving Trainer Effectiveness
Authors: Leduchowicz Tad , Bennett Roger
Published: March 2008

It is only right that in the present financial climate consideration should be given to assessing and improving trainer effectiveness. The training function can absorb considerable resources in the organisation and apparently yield very little in return. On the other hand, it can produce real and lasting benefits and influence directly and indirectly the organisation's prosperity.
Office Automation — Its Design, Implementation and Impact
Authors: Waineright Judith
Published: March 2008

Despite widespread publicity given to the concept of the “paperless office” office automation is still in its infancy. Most offices have got little further than installing a few word processors, some of which may be interlinked.
The Bloody Worm: The Production of a Consulting Report
Authors: Linstead Steve
Published: March 2008

In a previous article [I] I explored the consulting process from a social anthropological perspective, suggesting that there are significant parallels between the role of sorcerer amongst “primitives” and that of consultant amongst organisational man. The focus of that paper was on discussion of two case examples highlighting problems of entry and contracting. This article focuses on the production of the consultant's report. The report is presented as the centrepiece of the consultancy ritual, a reflexive account so constructed as to present and analyse data in a way which will partly interpret, partly “seed” interpretations and partly function as a performance which will engineer its own acceptance. Possibilities of future failure may also be anticipated. The efficacy of such reports is questioned by the presentation of data which, although crucial to understanding the situation, would not normally be available to a consultant seeking to intervene. The success or failure of a consultancy report is therefore seen not as a result of its effectiveness in presenting facts and solving problems, but in its persuasiveness as an account, its support of the deep structures of the organisation, its value for money as a performance and its ability to generate and sustain present and future agreement.
Job Evaluation and Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value
Authors: McNally Joyce , Shimmin Sylvia
Published: March 2008

In July 1982 the European Court of Justice ruled that the United Kingdom's Equal Pay Act infringes Directive 75/117 of the European Economic Community, which provides for equal pay for men and women where the same work, or work of an equal value is being performed. The ruling of the European Court has necessitated changes to the Equal Pay Act in order to give effect to the principle of “equal value” and attention has focused, therefore, on how to give the concept practical expression. To date, the most commonly used method of measuring value is job evaluation, which is said to measure the demands a job makes on a worker. This raises the question as to whether a job evaluation scheme in itself, is an effective instrument for ensuring equality of treatment in assessing the value of men's and women's jobs.
Overcoming Barriers to Women's Advancement in European Organisations
Authors: Povall Margery
Published: March 2008

There are three recurring themes in the media that present three very different images of women—woman as the top executive, (as yet another woman becomes “the first to…”); woman as the mother who is contributing to unemployment and juvenile delinquency by taking “men's” jobs and woman as the unemployed victim of technological change.
The Process of Organisation Development: A Reformulated Model of the Change Process, Part I
Authors: Lovelady Louise
Published: March 2008

The main objective of this article is to present an empirically based reformulation of our models of the organisational change process. In Part 2 this reformulation will be developed and illustrated with reference to an extended case study. In this first part of the article I will attempt to demonstrate that this reformulation is necessary because current empirical data on the practice of OD is not consistent with the conceptual models of the organisational change process presented in the literature. The evidence suggests that models are used regularly in the practice of Organisational Development and are important to consultants and clients alike, because they enable a complex and uncertain process to be better understood, It is therefore vital that such models are accurate representations of reality.
Reasserting the Radical Potential of OD: Notes Towards the Establishment of a New Basis for OD Practice
Authors: Harrison E.G.
Published: March 2008

This article examines the recent decline in Organisation Development (OD) in the UK. Its aim is to offer a modest contribution to the now urgent task of rehabilitating OD as a coherent and credible strategy for social change. My basic contention is that such a programme for the renewal of contemporary practice must rest on systematic and determined efforts to reassert the radical potential which I believe lies at the heart of the OD enterprise. By recovering and reaffirming a commitment to its original humanistic ideals, OD may avoid obsolescence and retain professional viability. In short, to survive, OD must rededicate itself as a radical agency for organisational renewal.
The Deconstruction of Evaluation Research: Part I, The Way Forward?
Authors: Gowler Dan , Legge Karen
Published: March 2008

Acts of evaluation—the assessment against implicit or explicit criteria of the value of individuals, objects, situations and outcomes—form the core of any high discretion job, where choices have to be made and decisions taken in a world of scarce resources. On a day‐by‐day basis informal evaluations pervade the job of any manager or administrator, but often this is supplemented by formal evaluation research studies—whether technology assessment, investment appraisal, the evaluation of markets and competitors, or in the case of personnel managers—the evaluation of training and development and of organisational change programmes generally. These formal studies include the evaluation studies conducted by “professional” evaluation researchers, such as those engaged in the evaluation of federally funded US social change programmes, those drawn from commercial consultancy agencies or occupying an internal consultant's role within a large company, and those applied social scientists, working in university departments and research institutions interested in issues concerning work system and organisational design . Many articles published in Personnel Review attest to this concern with evaluation research and, indeed, expertise in the conduct of formal evaluation studies has been identified as a major weapon in the armoury of personnel managers who adopt a “conformist innovator” approach to developing their power and influence.
The Process of Organisation Development: Part II, A Case Example
Authors: Lovelady Louise
Published: March 2008

This introduction will explain the objective of this article and introduce aspects of the process of Organisation Development, which will be illustrated and discussed. After this, it will progress to an introduction of the case example which will form the main body of the article.
Present and Desired Methods of Selecting Expatriate Managers for International Assignments
Authors: Zeira Yoram , Banai Moshe
Published: March 2008

In the last two decades we have seen a rapid increase in both the number and size of multinational corporations (MNCs). These organisations typically have their headquarters (HQs) in a parent country, and branches, subsidiaries or joint ventures of different types in host countries. Although their international personnel policies are very diverse, most MNCs send parent‐country managers and professionals to work in the host countries for limited periods of time.
The Deconstruction of Evaluation Research: Part II, The Way Back?
Authors: Gowler Dan , Legge Karen
Published: March 2008

In Part I of this article we examined the conventional strategies which have emerged to cope with crises in methods, utilisation and values in evaluation research and, using “deconstructive” analysis, we questioned their validity and effectiveness. In so doing we argued that the logic of deconstructing evaluation research would suggest that there is no ultimate solution to the crises.
The Impact of Role Boundaries on Promotion Decisions
Authors: Golding David , Golding Judith
Published: March 2008

To be really effective, decisions concerning organisational succession need to take into consideration changing departmental needs and structures. There are many problems of diagnosis of training and development needs associated with such change. In addition, personnel managers have to disentangle a variety of perspectives stemming from personal preferences, prejudices and possible hidden agendas, since, of course, organisations are also networks of political pressure and intrigue.
Using Others to Learn: Some Everyday Practice
Authors: Stuart Roger
Published: March 2008

Amongst the many attempts to define management training and development, the one with which this article is in most accord is that of: an attempt to improve managerial effectiveness through a planning and deliberate learning process.
The Identification of Skills in the Negotiation Process
Authors: Cousins J.Y. , McCall J.B.
Published: March 2008

This article is an attempt to describe a negotiation skills model originally derived for business negotiations and applied to collective bargaining situations. It is based on a view of collective bargaining which emphasises behavioural predispositions and interpersonal skills and the environmental and situational influences on participants. The emphasis is placed on the skills needed within successive phases and those needed to move the negotiations through these stages.
Organisational Induction: The Re‐creation of Order and the Re‐reading of Discourse
Authors: Linstead Steve
Published: March 2008

In this article I attempt a re‐conceptualisation of the process of organisational induction, borrowing concepts from discourse analysis, and Lévi‐Strauss's structuralism in particular. It is argued that previous treatments of induction have concentrated on the means by which “culture” is transmitted, and to a much lesser degree on how it is received. What is required is a treatment which recognises the creativity involved in both producing an organisational image and in interpreting it — that “culture” is created both by organisational authors and readers, inductors and inductees, managers and workers.
Graduate Recruitment: How Graduates “Select” Companies — A Note
Authors: Keenan A. , Scott R.S.
Published: March 2008

Although graduate recruitment is an area of activity which is beset with difficulties for both employers and careers advisors, it is probably the graduates themselves who are faced with the most difficult problems. Apart from the obvious anxieties they face as recruiters make decisions about them at various stages in the selection procedure, they too are required to make decisions. Two particularly important decisions are which organisations to apply to in the first place and whether or not to accept particular offers. There is little systematic evidence about the former. However, there have been some investigations of the processes which influence acceptance of offers.
Quality Circles — Can We Evaluate Them?
Authors: Sherwood K.F. , Guerrier Y. , Dale B.G.
Published: March 2008

This article presents an outline of the current views on Quality Circle evaluation in which the methods, administration and problems are discussed. It has been concluded that, regardless of concerns expressed about measuring the concept, one can be certain that management will demand proof that quality circles are cost‐effective. Preliminary survey work in 11 organisations reveals that few companies have made any serious attempt to carry out a full evaluation of their circle programme, apart from logging the cost savings of individual circle projects. There is seen to be a wide diversity of views amongst managers on how or even whether circle evaluation should be carried out.
Local Managers' Control Over Industrial Relations: Myth and Reality
Authors: Kinnie Nicholas
Published: March 2008

Senior managers of industrial relations in large multi‐plant companies are faced by both centrifugal and centripetal forces and ask: “How can we achieve the benefits of decentralisation while at the same time maintaining centralised control?” In response to these countervailing pressures, senior managers create the appearance of autonomy for plant managers but in reality exercise centralised authority over major industrial relations decisions. To achieve this, managers at head office promote an ideology of decentralisation while actually practising central control. Local managers' autonomy on major industrial relations issues is largely a myth, perpetuated by formally decentralised management and bargaining structures, and techniques designed to enhance the independence of each plant. Central managers' authority is exercised by making all major decisions at head office and by co‐ordinating plant industrial relations through a variety of measures. Two factors are examined to explain this inconsistency between the levels of decision making over important issues and the level at which collective agreements are made—first, the changes in bargaining structure, and in particular the move towards single‐employer bargaining, and, second, developments in organisational structures and control techniques, especially those associated with divisionalised organisations.
Some Hypotheses Regarding the Joint Consultative Process
Authors: Carpenter Helen
Published: March 2008

Worker participation has been broadly defined as “any process designed to increase the ability of a worker to make decisions, or influence the making of decisions, which relate either to a specific job within an organisation, or more broadly to the overall functioning of that organisation”. As this definition suggests, worker participation can take many forms. One of these is joint consultation. Joint consultation has been described as “the means whereby management and employees may together consider, and where appropriate determine, matters affecting their joint or respective interests”. Thus joint consultation may allow for the following different degrees of participation:
Redundancy and Unemployment: The Role of the Personnel Manager
Authors: Chell Elizabeth
Published: March 2008

There are three main themes which run through this article. They are: (1) To examine the role which personnel management may play in a redundancy situation; (2) To ask if redundancy as a process can be justifiably conceived in psychological terms and investigated as such, and (3) To consider how the different stages of this process may be handled, from a social psychological point of view, and, further, what the effects of this may be on the remaining work force.
Towards Marketing the Training Function, Part I: Adopting a Marketing Perspective
Authors: Stuart Roger , Long George
Published: March 2008

In this two‐part article, we hope to communicate our enthusiasm for a simple proposition: that some areas of training activity can be better understood and more effectively carried out when consciously viewed from a marketing perspective.
The Ergonomics of Desire
Authors: Jackson Norman , Carter Pippa
Published: March 2008

Freud has noted the basic repression of the instincts necessary for the continuation of civilised social existence. This repression, at one level, is manifest in structures of social order and control, of which the work organisation is a particular form. However, it has been argued that the degree of repression existing exceeds that which is defined as necessary. From this it must be inferred either that such control is, in Marcuse's term, surplus repressive, or that it proceeds from the desire of organisational participants to be subjected to such control. Surplus repression is not a noted explanation of control in orthodox organisation theory, so this article explores the implications of the explanation in terms of desire, by examining a number of practices common in work organisations in terms of their symbolic significance, using the technique of ergonomic reconstruction at the psychological level. The questions posed for management by this article relate to whether they are really doing something other than they intend, by being, perhaps unwittingly, more concerned with control at the micro level than in contributing to economic performance at the macro level. If so, it implies a somewhat different relationship between management action and economic performance than is usually supposed, and suggests that management may not be optimising its contribution to our economic recovery and betterment. This article is based on an understanding of organisational structures as symbolic structures. Inherently, this implies that they are symbolic of something. Our enquiry is into what these symbols mean, and what the ergonomic implications of such meanings are.
Decentralisation, Management Development and Organisational Performance in a Developing Country
Authors: Mansfield Roger , Alam Khurshed
Published: March 2008

Until recently empirical research in organisational behaviour and personnel management had tended to be based, to a very large extent, on work situations in the United States and Britain. However, in recent years there has been a noticeable increase in studies reported in the literature carried out in other parts of the world. There has also been a quickening of interest in cross‐national comparisons of management and organisation. These trends have without doubt occurred partly as a response to the growing internationalisation of business and management. They have also stemmed partly from a desire to examine Anglo‐American management practice in a sharper relief, by adopting a wider, less culture‐bound, perspective.
Is “Rattening” a Feminist Issue? The Use of an Existing Training Exercise for a New Purpose
Authors: Spencer Anne , Ball Mary
Published: March 2008

Discrimination, in all its forms, has increasingly become an issue within the personnel profession. The various Acts of Parliament have essentially provided some guidelines for those in positions which have regular contact with both the public and individuals and groups at work.
Computers and the Industrial Relations Manager: A Case Study of the Mining Industry
Authors: Heery Edmund
Published: March 2008

A persistent theme in writing on personnel management has been the relative marginality of the personnel function within the management team as a whole (see Legge pp. 50–7) and Poole (p. 97). Because of its indirect contribution to the raising of profits, human resources management has tended not to be a priority for investment and the concerns and perspectives of personnel practitioners have tended to receive only fitful consideration in the forums at which strategic business decisions are taken. One response to this situation by the personnel profession has been to develop expertise in computer‐based data‐processing techniques which permit personnel managers to assume more of an accounting function. Such quantitative techniques enable personnel managers to monitor and evaluate the utilisation of human resources, arguably improving the efficiency and cost‐effectiveness of the enterprise. The potential and the purpose of this strategic response on the part of the profession, therefore, is to raise the centrality and indispensability of the personnel function, and elevate its importance within the management hierarchy (pp. 79–85).
Some Factors Influencing Labour Turnover: Personnel Managers' Views in Iraq
Authors: Salih Adel H. , Mansfield Roger
Published: March 2008

Labour turnover has been recognised and studied as a management problem for several decades. Interest in the issue increased significantly at the beginning of the 20th century, at about the same time as the scientific management movement began to develop. Over 1,500 publications on the topic of turnover are estimated to have appeared in this century. With this number of turnover studies published, it is surprising that there are still such large gaps in our understanding of the phenomenon. Not only are there more unanswered than answered questions about turnover, but we are only now learning the nature of some of the most important questions. In a small effort to fill some of the gaps, this article reports results from part of a large study of turnover amongst blue‐collar workers in manufacturing industry in Iraq.
A Comparison of the OPQ and 16PF in Relation to their Occupational Application
Authors: Swinburne Penny
Published: March 2008

The OPQ (Occupational Personality Questionnaire) is a factor‐analytic‐based, self‐report questionnaire which has been developed in Britain as a wide‐band assessment device for use in selection and counselling in jobs at managerial and professional level where personality factors are often important variables in success.
Alienation Among Managers — The New Epidemic or the Social Scientists' Invention?
Authors: Hunt John W.
Published: March 2008

There has been a long and wide‐ranging literature on the problems of the individual's adjustment to the demands of work organisations. In the 1950s, Argyris and Merton argued that the needs of mature individuals and the properties of modern bureaucracies were incongruent. In a later work, Argyris argued that the larger the organisation, the greater the incongruence and the greater the suppression of individuality. Maslow argued that suppression was inevitable if two variables interacted: increasing size and uncertain environments. Methods of suppression also attracted attention in the 60s; Ziller noted the techniques included formality, mobility, conformity, dominant leaders and a paucity of information sharing.
Personality Questionnaires as a Source of Learning in Management Education and Training: A Comparison of the OPQ and the 16PF
Authors: Swinburne Penny
Published: March 2008

A previous article compared the OPQ and 16PF in terms of content. It commented also on the dearth of papers on the use of personality questionnaires in selection, guidance and development. This article considers (i) the general issue of the use of personality questionnaires as a source of learning in management education and training, and (ii) more specifically, the comparative acceptability to testees of the OPQ and 16PF within this context. The general issue is considered in relation to: (a) the role of personality in effective managerial performance, and (b) current trends in management education and training. Data on the comparative acceptability of the OPQ and 16PF extend that on comparative content given in the first article. While the data were collected in an education/training context, they may be indicative of relative acceptability in other occupational applications.
Personnel Management and Recruitment
Authors: Wood Stephen
Published: March 2008

This article will set out to compare some findings of a study on recruitment with the more general pronouncements on selection which are available in the literature on personnel management. The research study investigated the recruitment systems of major employees, all with relatively developed personnel functions, in three areas of Britain and West Germany; it concentrated on manual and low‐level white‐collar jobs in the 24 largest employers in each area. Although the study confirms the importance of internal recruitment, even where there is no developed seniority system or internal labour market, this article will concentrate on external recruitment (and/or some of the general conclusions of the study, but not on the Anglo‐German comparative dimension).
The Promotion Pathology: A Study of British Police Inspectors
Authors: Glowinkowski S. , Nicholson N.
Published: March 2008

One of the most perplexing problems in human resource management is how to satisfy and motivate employees who originally joined an organisation with hopes of becoming “stars”, but who discover with time that their aspirations are unlikely to be matched by opportunities. The conventional pyramidal organisational structure guarantees that these opportunities will diminish as employees ascend the hierarchy and that therefore “stuckness” is a problem increasingly to be found the longer is employees' tenure or the higher their level. Faulkner's case studies of an ice hockey team and a symphony orchestra provide vivid examples of this process and its problematic consequences. They also serve as a useful analogue of what may be found in many business organisations.