Celia Stanworth

Who Becomes an Entrepreneur

PROFESSOR JOHN STANWORTH, Stephanie Blyth, Bill Granger, and Celia Standworth are all members of the Future of Work Research Group at the London Management Centre, Polytechnic of Central London, England. At the current time, they are involved in several research projects, one of them being the study of rates of intergenerational inheritance of enterprise culture-a principal theme of this paper. The authors examine evidence from several countries in an attempt to predict the incidence of enterpreneurship and conclude that sociological determinants offer the best indication as to precisely who, among the many who express an interest, is most likely actually to make the transition to self-employment. In addition to examining the contributions of others in this field, the paper presents data recently collected by the authors themselves.

Telework and the Information Age

This article provides a critical analysis of the information age literature, explores its attractions for management and assesses evidence of the impact of the information age on the UK. It finds that material changes to work organisations and employment relationships frequently contrast with the optimistic predictions contained in much of the writing.

Franchising as a small business growth strategy : A resource-based view of organizational development

Not only are most franchisees themselves small businesses, but so are many franchisors, particularly in the formative years of their franchise businesses. High turbulence and attrition rates in the formative years of franchise businesses result in an industry profile whereby, at any one time, around half of all franchise systems are less than five years old with less than 10 outlets. The question arises: how do successful franchise organizations plan their human capital development in order to accomplish successful growth? An adjunct to this question is the role of franchisees who, while not totally independent in the sense of the conventional small business person, certainly do not see themselves as conventional employees either, and have certain expectations of participation in the process of which they are an integral part. This exploratory article uses case study material from a number of ‘exemplar’ franchise companies in the development of a resource-based view of organizational development. The article should hold considerable interest, not only for academics interested in franchising, but also for those examining fields such as small business strategic management, innovation and intangible asset growth.

Managing an Externalised Workforce: Freelance Labour‐use in the UK Book Publishing Industry

Editorial departments in the UK book publishing sector have shrunk considerably recently and many former in–house employees have transferred to home–based, self–employed (freelance) status, often still working for their former employers. The results of interviews with in–house managers of externally–based freelancers are presented here, along with a model of segmented labour markets.

A price worth paying?: Women and work – choice, constraint or satisficing

Purpose – Are women held back or holding back? Do women choose their jobs/careers or are they structurally or normatively constrained? The purpose of this paper is to shed fresh light on these questions and contribute to an on‐going debate that has essentially focused on the extent to which part‐time work is womens choice, the role of structural and organisational constraints and the role of men in excluding women.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses data from interviews with 80 working women – both full‐time and part‐time – performing diverse work roles in a range of organisations in the south east of England.Findings – It was found that many women do not make strategic job choices, rather they often “fall into” jobs that happen to be available to them. Some would not have aspired to their present jobs without male encouragement; many report incidents of male exclusion; and virtually all either know or suspect that they are paid less than comparable men. Those working reduced hours enjoy that fa...

Coping with Wage Regulation Implementing the National Minimum Wage in Hairdressing Businesses

This article investigates the effects of the introduction and uprating of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) on hairdressing businesses in the UK. The focus is on owner-manager responses to the NMW, in terms of business management, the utilization of human resources and whether the NMW constituted a ‘regulatory shock’. The data was collected from 48 in-depth interviews with hairdressing businesses in all regions of the UK during 2002. The research project was funded by the Low Pay Commission (LPC), and was designed to reflect the diversity of the hairdressing industry in terms of location, size of firm and type of services offered. The advent of the NMW did not act as a regulatory shock, and responses in terms of change to business management and utilization of staff can be best understood as reflections of existing philosophy and practice rather than a trigger for new directions.

Ethical Issues of Teleworking

“Why does the major emphasis appear to be on using telework as a cost-cutting mechanism, rather than as an approach which treats people as valued long-term assets?” This important study exploring the ethical ambiguities and challenges of teleworking was first presented at an Imperial College Management School Conference on Ethical Issues in Contemporary Human Resource Management in April last year, sponsored jointly by EBEN-UK, the British Chapter of the European Business Ethics Network, and BUIRA, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association. Chris Moon is Senior Lecturer in Occupational Psychology and Human Resource Management at Anglia Business School, Anglia Polytechnic University, Danbury Park Conference Centre, Danbury, Chelmsford CM3 4AT, as well as teaching the MBA Business Ethics programmes at Imperial College Management School, University of London. Celia Stanworth is Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the Business School, University of Greenwich, Riverside House, Woolwich, London SE18 6BU, and has published widely in the area of teleworking.

A best case scenario? Non-manual part-time work and job-sharing in UK local government in the 1990s

Local authorities in the UK have been described as “model employers” of part-time and job-share employees, with the needs of employees themselves, particularly women with family responsibilities, a...

Small Firms Policy and its Regional Implications in Britain

Under the Thatcher Government′s “Enterprise Culture”, the size of the small business sector has frequently been taken as a key indicator of economic success in Britain. Measurement of achievement in such terms does indeed indicate a high degree of economic buoyancy. However, a deeper examination of available data indicates that much of this success may be illusory and dependent for its survival on substantial levels of state intervention. At the same time, an examination of regional patterns of small business success reveals a picture somewhat similar to that pertaining to the economy as a whole. Far from raining down success selectively on economically deprived areas, as had been hoped in some circles, it appears that it is the most prosperous areas which tend to support the highest levels of enterprise.

Ethics and Empowerment: Managerial Discourse and the Case of Teleworking

Empowerment is not only currently fashionable ‘management speak’, but also has important material implications for the situation of the workforce. It can be analysed as part of the postmodernist paradigm, as emancipatory, or as a new and more subtle manifestation of traditional managerial control. This chapter explores the discourse and outcomes of empowerment in work organisations, and in particular focuses on the idea as it is applied to telework. The premise of the chapter is that empowerment is being interpreted in many different ways, but is generally related to the ideas of ‘excellence’ held by managers, rather than to unequivocal rights to liberation for the workforce, so that the promise of self-actualisation for workers is at best a secondary consideration compared to ‘bottom-line’ outcomes. Thus it does not follow that empowerment is currently a basis for strengthening employee rights. A discussion is provided of ethical issues as they relate to the empowerment literature and to that on telework.