Gemma Wibberley

Domiciliary Care: The Formal and Informal Labour Process

Domiciliary carers are paid care workers who travel to the homes of older people to assist with personal routines. Increasingly, over the past 20 years, the delivery of domiciliary care has been organised according to market principles and portrayed as the ideal type of formal care; offering cost savings to local authorities and independence for older people. Crucially, the work of the former ‘home help’ is transformed as domiciliary carers are now subject to the imperative of private, competitive accumulation which necessitates a constant search for increases in labour productivity. Drawing on qualitative data from domiciliary carers, managers and stakeholders, this article highlights the commodification of caring labour and reveals the constraints, contradictions and challenges of paid care work. Labour Process Theory offers a means of understanding the political economy of care work and important distinctions in terms of the formal and informal domiciliary care labour process.

Exploring a shared leadership perspective for NHS doctors

PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to explore involving doctors in shared leadership. It examines the policies that have led to the focus on shared leadership and the implications for practice. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH This is a conceptual paper, examining policy developments and key literature to understand the move towards shared leadership. It focuses on UK NHS, and in particular doctors, although the concepts will be relevant to other disciplines in healthcare, and healthcare systems in other countries. FINDINGS This paper suggests that the shared-leadership approach for doctors has potential given the nature of clinical practice, the inherently collaborative nature of healthcare and the demands of new healthcare organisations. Health policy reform, generally, will mean that all doctors need to be engaged with leadership, albeit, perhaps, at different levels, and with different degrees of formality. Leadership will remain an important precondition for the success of the reforms. This is likely to be the case for other countries involved in healthcare reform. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS To highlight the benefits and barriers to shared leadership for doctors. ORIGINALITY/VALUE Offers an alternative to traditional approaches to leadership.

The challenge of managing informally

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the orientations of line managers in handling workplace conflict. In particular it examines the tension between the traditional preference of frontline managers for informal approaches and the perceived certainty of written disputes procedures. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon findings from 12 organisational case studies, focusing on interviews conducted with HR and managers. Findings – As line managers undertake more responsibility for people management, their preferences for informal approaches to workplace issues appears to be being replaced by a more rigid adherence to policy and procedure. This is largely driven by a lack of confidence and expertise in conflict management and a fear of the repercussions (both legal and organisational) of mishandling difficult issues. Written procedure therefore provides managers with both a systematic guide but also a protective shield against criticism and litigation. Research limitations/implicatio...

Contemporary Union Organizing in the UK—Back to the Future?

Attempts to revitalize trade unions in the UK have had mixed results, leading to calls for more radical organizing strategies. This paper examines a recent organizing campaign in the UK public sector that involved a shift from an approach that focused on the development of rank-and-file leadership and worker engagement to one that prioritized member recruitment. The paper argues that a focus on recruitment is not necessarily inimical to union revitalization, but this depends on the extent to which it is used to develop new activists and to strengthen the ability of local unions to provide effective representation.

Inside the mediation room - efficiency, voice and equity in workplace mediation

Abstract Existing research into workplace mediation in the UK has tended to focus on managerial perceptions. Consequently, there has been a unitarist emphasis on the business case for mediation, revolving around its alleged superior efficiency properties compared to conventional rights-based procedures. This paper develops the research agenda in two respects: first, it foregrounds the experiences of participants in mediation through 25 interviews with individuals drawn from a variety of contexts. Second, it extends the analysis beyond the efficiency of mediation to consider issues of voice and equity. In doing so it explores the role played by mediation within the negotiation and re-negotiation of workplace relations and also the way in which it shapes, and is shaped by, power and control. In the cases examined in the paper, mediation not only facilitated employee voice, but allowed subordinates to challenge the authority of supervisors and line managers. However, the influence of mediation on the balance of workplace power relations outside the mediation room was much more limited.

The role of trade unions in supporting victims of domestic violence in the workplace

This article explores the effects that domestic violence has on victims in their workplace and how trade unions respond. Focussing on the experiences of union representatives, the research highlights the support offered to victims, the barriers representatives face, and the under-acknowledged personal impact that these cases can have upon representatives.

From Representation Gap to Resolution Gap: Exploring the Role of Employee Voice in Conflict Management

This chapter explores the role of employee voice in the resolution of the management of conflict and the resolution of individual employment disputes. It is taken from a broader study of conflict management in the UK, based on five organizational case studies funded by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). Since the publication of the Gibbons Review into the UK’s system of employment dispute resolution in 2007, substantial policy attention has been paid to the ways in which organizations deal with individual workplace conflict. However, the role of employee voice in supporting (or challenging) organizations in the management of conflict has been a notable omission from this debate. Therefore this chapter seeks to begin to fill this gap and offer a greater understanding of the function that employee voice plays.

Book review: Eileen Boris and Jennifer Klein, Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State

higher progressive taxation (eventually to around 60% of GDP). These funds would directly finance worker co-ops, public community banks and local participatory budgets, as well as greater welfare provisions. Some will question the realism of these proposals and a few even their radicalism. This book should be seen by sceptics as an invitation to join a conversation about how our democratic values can best be realized. The accessible and engaging nature of the book makes it an excellent reference for academics and students, as well as activists, interested in alternative economics.