Alina I. Petrescu

Partnership, flexible workplace practices and the realisation of mutual gains: evidence from the British WERS 2004 dataset

This paper examines the potential for workplace partnership to produce mutual gains through the implementation of high-performance, flexible-working initiatives. Using a large manager–employee matched dataset, originating in the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004), it focuses upon a range of related workplace practices reported by manager and employees as available or in use in their establishment, to consider the extent to which their implementation is associated with mutual benefits (positive-sum), reported by both managers and employee respondents, or whether gains for one group occur at potential cost to another (zero-sum). Bivariate probit models allow measures of manager and employee-reported organisational outcomes to endogenously affect each other, first from a managerial perspective, second from an employee perspective and third from a combined managerial and employee perspective. The results highlight the significant potential for partnership agreements to deliver mutual gains, albeit within a narrower range of workplace practices than might be the case if the innovation package was designed with the primary interest of only one group in mind. Unsurprisingly, managers and employees were found to have different perspectives in relation to partnership arrangements, with the latter having the more realistic expectations of achievable outcomes. However, since partnership agreements, as defined by this paper, remain underdeveloped within UK workplaces, with only 8% of the sampled 23,000 employees benefiting from such workplace arrangements, the evidence advanced by this paper would indicate a potential scope for realisable gains deriving from well-designed, participatory forms of partnership.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

The inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is typically associated with a variety of economic benefits, ranging from increased productivity to enhanced innovation and technological development.

Workplace Flexibility Practices in SMEs: Relationship with Performance Via Redundancies, Absenteeism, and Financial Turnover

This workplace flexibility study uses primary data on private sector small and medium‐sized enterprises () in ancashire, nited ingdom, collected in 2009 during the recent “credit crunch” recession. Key features include: (1) objective measures of performance; (2) a focus on the previously relatively neglected relationship between workplace flexibility practices () and three performance indicators, namely, redundancies, absenteeism, and financial turnover; and (3) a timely contribution to research on . Numerical, functional, and cost analyses, via zero‐inflated oisson and linear regressions, control for and market characteristics. Despite having limited resources, the results show a significant section of to be innovative and entrepreneurial organizations, embracing advancements in employment relations regarding employee discretion, training, participative working arrangements, and/or job security. Moreover, results indicate that have the potential to assist in responding to periods of constrained demand. Flexitime and job sharing are associated with low permanent‐employee redundancies. Training, job security, and family‐friendly practices relate to low absenteeism with reductions of up to six annual days per worker. Job security and profit‐related pay are associated with high financial turnover. Staff pay‐freeze links with high financial turnover, but to the detriment of redundancies and absenteeism, whereas management pay‐cuts or management pay‐freeze relate to low financial turnover. On a cautionary note, spending cuts, often enforced by policymakers, may be of limited benefit to , and thus other approaches would appear more fruitful.

Workplace Flexibility Practices and Corporate Performance: Evidence from the British Private Sector

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace flexibility practices (WFPs) and corporate performance using data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004. Disaggregating WFPs into numerical, functional and cost aspects enables the analysis of their relationships to an objective measure of corporate performance, namely workplace financial turnover. Furthermore separate analyses are presented for different types of workplace: differentiated by workforce size; ownership; age; wage level; and unionization. Results show that different types of workplaces need to pay attention to the mix of WFPs they adopt. We find that certain cost WFPs (profit‐related pay, merit pay and payment‐by‐results) have strong positive relationships with corporate performance. However, training delivers mixed corporate performance results, while the extent of job autonomy and the proportion of part‐time employees in a workplace have an inverse association with corporate performance. Given the limited existing research examining disaggregated measures of WFPs and objectively measured corporate performance, this paper offers useful insights for firms, policy makers and the overall economy.

The economics of Brexit

This book presents a comprehensive evaluation of the likely economic impact upon the UK economy arising from Brexit. It seeks to assess both the methods adopted, and conclusions reached, by the existing economic studies, and supplements this by providing additional evidence to assist the reader in forming their own assessment of the relative merits of the different approaches. It additionally outlines the options available to policy makers for the formation of an economic strategy capable of adapting the economy to the challenges and opportunities presented by Brexit. Finally, it outlines and comments upon the range of alternative models of future trading relationships that are available to the UK, both in relation to the EU and the rest of the world.

Workplace flexibility practices and corporate performance

This paper investigates the relationship between workplace flexibility practices (WFPs) and corporate performance using data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004. Disaggregating WFPs into numerical, functional and cost aspects enables the analysis of their relationships to an objective measure of corporate performance, namely workplace financial turnover. Furthermore separate analyses are presented for different types of workplace: differentiated by workforce size; ownership; age; wage level; and unionization. Results show that different types of workplaces need to pay attention to the mix of WFPs they adopt. We find that certain cost WFPs (profit‐related pay, merit pay and payment‐by‐results) have strong positive relationships with corporate performance. However, training delivers mixed corporate performance results, while the extent of job autonomy and the proportion of part‐time employees in a workplace have an inverse association with corporate performance. Given the limited existing research examining disaggregated measures of WFPs and objectively measured corporate performance, this paper offers useful insights for firms, policy makers and the overall economy.

Workforce nationality composition and workplace flexibility in Britain

Purpose – The purpose of this paper, with an organisational focus, is to offer a novel examination of the association between workforce nationality composition and workplace flexibility practices (WFPs), an under-researched topic with high potential benefits at microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Design/methodology/approach – British data are used, as the UK has experienced significant immigrant flows and has a relatively high level of labour market flexibility. The Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2011, sampling 2,500 British workplaces, offers for the first time data on workforce nationality. Via zero-inflated regressions, the number of non-UK nationals employed in a workplace is assessed against a wide range of numerical, functional and cost WFPs. Findings – There are significant links between WFPs and the employment of non-UK nationals, and these are distinct for non-UK nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA) when compared to non-UK nationals from outside the EEA. The former are more lik...

Brexit and Trade

The economic impact upon trade was the primary concern expressed by the opponents of Brexit during the recent referendum campaign.

Alternative Trading Models After Brexit

The analysis contained in the rest of the book is, in part, predicated upon the successful outcome of withdrawal negotiations with the EU, and the formation of new trading relationships both with the EU but just as importantly with the rest of the world.

Economic Policy Considerations

One remarkable feature of most studies which have sought to forecast the economic impact of Bresit, is that they have consistently ignored the role of macroeconomic policy in affecting the outcome. Presumably, this was to simplify the analysis, yet it was always going to be unrealistic. Indeed, almost immediately after the referendum result was announced, the Bank of England presented a significant stimulus package, whilst a new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced a partial relaxing of the former tight fiscal stance. These measures contributed to the UK economy producing a very respectful economic performance, in the first full quarter after the referendum result, with a provisional growth rate of 0.5%; thus confounding previous predictions, contained in many of the reports examined in this book, of a vote for Brexit causing an immediate recession.