Ian Kessler

Consequences Of The Psychological Contract For The Employment Relationship: A Large Scale Survey*

The renewed interest in the concept of the psychological contract has come to the fore in attempts to describe, understand and predict the consequences of changes occurring in the employment relationship. Recognizing that the employment relationship includes two parties to the exchange process, we set out to examine the content and state of the psychological contract from both the employee and employer perspective. The two perspectives permit an examination of the mutuality of obligations, which has not received much empirical attention to date. The research methodology consists of two surveys conducted in a large local authority directly responsible and accountable for a range of public services including education, environmental health and social care to the local population. The key findings suggest that the majority of employees have experienced contract breach. This view is also supported by managers, as representatives of the employer, who further indicate that the organization, given its external pressures, is not fulfilling its obligations to employees to the extent that it could. Overall, the results indicate that employees are redressing the balance in the relationship through reducing their commitment and their willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behaviour when they perceive their employer as not having fulfilled its part in the exchange process.

Contingent and Non-Contingent Working in Local Government: Contrasting Psychological Contracts

Given that the contingent worker is likely to be a familiar presence in the public service workplace of the future, this paper explores the consequences of contingent work arrangements on the attitudes and behaviour of employees using the psychological contract as a framework for analysis. Drawing upon survey evidence from a sample of permanent, fixed term and temporary staff employed in a British local authority, our results suggest that contract status plays an important role in how individuals view the exchange relationship with their employer and how they respond to the inducements received from that relationship. Specifically, contingent employees are less committed to the organization and engage in organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) to a lesser degree than their permanent counterparts. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the relationship between the inducements provided by the employer and OCB is stronger for contingent employees. Such findings have implications for the treatment of contingent and non-contingent employees in the public services.

Changing job boundaries and workforce reform: the case of teaching assistants

A prominent feature of the restructuring of work in the public services has been the growing importance of assistant roles. This article examines the regulation of teaching assistant (TA) roles in 10 primary schools. It examines entry into TA roles, the structure of TA roles and the consequences of TA roles for teachers and assistants. The article develops a series of arguments to explain the variations in the TA workforce between authorities and schools.

Strategic choice and new forms of employment relations in the public service sector:developing an analytical framework

The article argues that the recent restructuring of the public service sector has provided employing units–local authorities, executive agencies and hospital trusts–with new and important choices in approaches to employment relations. It presents a model for use in the evaluation of the way this strategic choice has been exercised. Suggesting that such restructuring has explicitly been based upon private sector organizational forms, the model draws heavily upon a framework developed in the context of similar analysis in multi-divisional companies. It therefore looks at how first- and second-order strategic choices linked to organizational purpose, structure and control relate to employment relations decisions within the context of a range of external influences and constraints. Three strategic employment relations decisions are examined:management styles; the role and structure of the corporate personnel function; and the level of bargaining and consultation. Using material from the initial stages of a three-year research project, the article presents trends in the exercise of choice in these areas. At the same time, it argues that, in the light of these findings, the framework used to analyse private sector developments needs to be refined and extended to account for particular public sector characteristics and circumstances.

New forms of employment relations in the public services: the limits of strategic choice

Drawing on a strategic choice model, this article examines the extent to which public service organisations have used their newly established employment relations discretion. Constrained by external pressures and upstream decisions on purpose and structure, the exercise of genuine choice is seen to vary between organisations and according to the nature of the issue.

The consequences of assistant roles in the public services: Degradation or empowerment?

This article considers whether and how shifts in the division of labour in the context of organizational change lead to the empowerment or degradation of workplace roles. It focuses on the emergence of assistants in the British public services and, in particular, whether this leads to the degradation or empowerment of those who fill the role and the professionals they work with. Concentrating upon assistant roles in education and social care, case study findings suggest that as these roles develop, the assistants themselves and their co-professionals are empowered to some degree both in terms of their work and employment conditions. However, it notes that these consequences are not unambiguously positive for the stakeholders and vary by sub-sector. The article lends support to those who have argued that changes in the division of labour result in blended and potentially contradictory outcomes for the workers involved. It also contributes to a literature which suggests that outcomes are contingent upon context, proposing that sub-sector conditions can be influential.

The modernisation of the public services and employee relations

The Modernisation of Public Services and Employee Relations provides an integrated and up-to-date account of changes in work and employment in the public services. The book examines a range of different sectors focusing on core public services, especially local government, the NHS and the civil service.

Workplace Industrial Relations in Local Government

The range of pressures which has impacted on local government in the 1980s has forced the emergence of dynamic and sophisticated forms of industrial relations at the workplace level. It is clear, however, that with conceptual tools forged to analyse developments in the private manufacturing sector, very few attempts have been made by academics, policy-makers or commentators to discuss the structures and processes which have emerged. The character of the changes at authority level are considered using material from a survey of personnel officers in over a third of authorities in England and Wales and within the context of prevailing analytical and theoretical frameworks. It is argued that the distinctive development of the personnel function in local government has resulted in a managerial process which conforms to key features of the human resource management (HRM) model, in particular the devolution of personnel responsibilities to line managers and the integration of personnel concerns at the strategic level. However, other features of this model are less in evidence. The search for employee commitment and flexibility remains patchy and often appears as a practical response to labour market and competitive pressures. Furthermore, collectivist features of employee relations remain well entrenched with the continued encouragement of both union membership and involvement. This is not to deny change beyond the HRM model. Thus, it is clear that established joint machinery is becoming increasingly unable to deal with ongoing issues while the trade unions are gradually being forced into a consultative rather than a bargaining role.

Understanding assistant roles in social care

This article re-connects with structure-agency debates to explore the development of the social work assistant role. Drawing upon an analytical framework based on the tenets of critical realism, it seeks to explain the evolution of this role across three local authorities by looking at the interaction of structure and agency at different societal levels: the sub-sector, the organization and the workplace. In doing so, it establishes the analytical value of the structure-agency dualism in studying occupations and, at the same time, provides data on what employees do in the type of role increasingly likely to characterize the modern service economy.

Steward Organization in a Professional Union: The Case of The Royal College of Nursing

This article examines notions of renewal in a professional union by exploring the developing role of the steward in the Royal College of Nursing. Drawing on survey and other data, it assesses different dimensions of the union renewal process linked to workplace activities, issues and relations. The findings suggest that the process of renewal has been based primarily upon member rather than management-facing activities, although there is strong evidence to suggest variation in the activities carried out by the RCN’s ordinary and senior stewards.