Gail Hebson

PPPs and the Changing Public Sector Ethos: Case-Study Evidence from the Health and Local Authority Sectors

This article explores the extent to which a new contractual approach to delivering public services, through public private partnerships (PPPs), is transforming the traditional values underpinning the public sector ethos among both managers and workers. Drawing on two detailed case studies of PPPs - a Private Finance Initiative in the health sector and the outsourcing of housing benefit claims in the local government sector - we identify a range of new pressures impacting on five key elements of a traditional notion of the public sector ethos. Our findings demonstrate that the contractual relations of PPPs have led to a clear weakening of traditional notions of managerial accountability and bureaucratic behaviour, reflecting both a shift to new lines of accountability (private sector shareholders) and a vicious circle of monitoring and distrust between partner organizations, in place of the old faith in bureaucratic process. Among workers, certain traditional values - especially a concern for working in the public interest - continue to inform the way they identify with, and understand, their work in delivering public services. However, the cost cutting and work intensification associated with PPPs present a significant threat to these values.The article identifies examples of short-term resilience of the traditional public sector ethos, as well as developments that threaten its long-term survival.

Too emotional to be capable? the changing nature of emotion work in definitions of 'capable teaching'

This article uses the concept of emotional labour to understand some of the changes that are ongoing in the teaching profession. While research has explored the impact of the new performance culture upon teachers’ work and identified a marginalisation of the caring and emotional aspects of teaching, the concept of emotional labour allows us to extend this argument. Using interviews with teachers who have had their capability questioned, in the majority of cases through the threat or implementation of capability procedures, this article draws upon newer conceptualisations of emotional labour to analyse some of the changes teachers are experiencing with the introduction of new accountability and performance systems. Utilising Bolton’s typology of different forms of emotion management in the workplace, we argue it is possible to recognise the distinctiveness of the emotion work carried out by teachers and identify why teachers’ emotion work is particularly vulnerable to the educational reforms associated with the standards agenda. We suggest that not only is there a shift away from the caring aspects of teaching, but also the emotional work teachers are expected to perform is becoming increasingly prescribed in ways that mirror the management of emotional labour carried out in the service sector. This is particularly the case in the primary sector where the majority of teachers in the study were working.

Intersectionality: are we taking enough notice in the field of work and employment relations?

Intersectional analysis has been developing since its emergence from critical race feminism in the 1980s when it was used to conceptualize the inter-relationship of race and gender and, particularly, the experiences of discrimination and marginalization of black women in employment. While its contribution has been much debated within sociological and gender specific journals, its use still remains relatively limited within studies of work and employment relations. It is argued here that this field of study would benefit from greater engagement with and understanding of an intersectional approach to both the design and interpretation of research. Two lines of reasoning are put forward for this contention: firstly, that the intersectional approach contains an important caution against over-generalization that has been obscured; secondly, that separating the challenge for all academics to be more intersectionally sensitive from the methodological challenges of taking an intersectional approach brings the significance of intersectionality into sharper relief.

Private sector provision of supply teachers: a case of legal swings and professional roundabouts

The increasing role of private sector agencies in the provision of supply teachers across Britains schools raises three inter-related issues that need to be addressed during the current process of re-assessing the medium and long-term viability of this policy option. First, there is a danger that educational concerns and equity of teaching provision across schools conflict with the private sector concern to maximize agency revenue. Secondly, the legal definition of the agency as ‘employer’ and supply teacher as ‘self employed’ leaves many unanswered questions regarding how the employment relationship is defined and managed in practice; ambiguities over whether the school or the agency bears the risk and the extent to which the supply teacher is free to bargain individual terms and conditions, raise problems regarding quality of supply teaching and equity of status of supply teachers compared to permanently employed teachers. Thirdly, increased use of the contract as a means of delivering teaching potentially conflicts with longstanding notions of what constitutes professional duties and obligations among teachers - factors that are difficult to write into a contract. This paper explores these issues drawing on 60 interviews with a mix of supply teachers, school teachers, and employees from two branches of a large teacher agency. It concludes that new models of providing temporary teaching cover are needed both to address problems of escalating costs and quality standards and to enshrine common notions of professionalism and equity of terms and conditions among all teachers.

Rethinking job satisfaction in care work: looking beyond the care debates

Studies of care workers frequently reveal relatively high levels of job satisfaction despite poor employment conditions. The rewarding nature of care work, altruistic motivations and gendered social norms have all been used to explain why subjective job satisfaction is high despite poor pay and terms and conditions. Using data collected in case-study research with domiciliary and residential care workers, this article offers a new direction for care worker research that contextualizes the taken-for-granted assumption that care workers tolerate poor pay and conditions because women find the work satisfying and intrinsically rewarding. The article draws on cultural analyses of class to offer an alternative framework that identifies the wider social processes that can shape care workers’ job satisfaction.

Performing for the 'Customer': managing housing benefit operations across organisational boundaries

Attempts to introduce a new managerialism into local authorities have taken place consistently and continuously over the last 20 years in an effort to secure lower costs as well as performance improvements. Most of this activity has involved the use of private sector providers. This paper reviews the development of a partnership between the housing department of a London borough and a large, private sector contractor that took over the running of this service several years ago. Drawing upon data collected over an 18-month period, three aspects of the relationship between the two parties are examined: performance levels, opportunities for inter-organisational learning, and the experience of work. The conclusion is that there have been few gains for any of the stakeholders from this process, largely due to the complexities involved in managing contractual relations in this area.

Applying Union Mobilization Theory to Explain Gendered Collective Grievances: Two UK Case Studies

This article draws on Kellys mobilization theory to identify potential stages in developing gendered collective articulation of grievances and discusses the barriers to such articulation within two case sites in the UK telecommunications sector. It focuses on employee concerns surrounding pay and working time issues arising from organizational change in two case studies from the UK telecommunications sector. Findings showed that organizational change had brought work intensification that exacerbated long hours cultures and that concerns were common to both sexes, although organizational variations in career ambitions and sense of entitlement occurred. In contrast, there was evidence that women were less willing to articulate concerns over unfair pay practices, shaped partly by a low sense of entitlement and also perceived weaknesses in potential for collective redress. The activation of grievances was severely limited by the gendered occupational and organizational structure of both workplaces and union organization within them. We conclude that there are opportunities for unions to pursue a two-pronged approach to worker mobilization by mainstreaming concerns about working time that are common to workers of both sexes with families and to activate gendered concerns around pay at workplace level.

Applying a gender lens to employment relations: revitalisation, resistance and risks

Employment relations is on the defensive. A gender lens provides opportunities for revitalisation through bringing in social reproduction alongside production, introducing intersectional identities alongside class, developing gendered critiques of ‘neutral’ markets and recognising the ‘doing of gender’ within the workplace. However, resistance within research and practice is evident in gender blindness, marginalisation of gender issues or preference for male interests. Three risks associated with a gender lens are identified: first, feminist critiques may be used by employers or neoliberal policymakers to deregulate employment; second, by making gender visible, gender differences may be used to legitimise gender inequalities; and third, in representing workers’ interests many pitfalls need to be navigated in steering a path between excessive fragmentation and reproducing hierarchy, whether by class, gender or race. Nevertheless, the costs of not embracing a gender perspective go beyond missed opportunities for renewal and leave employment relations at risk of further decline.