Ian Roper

Reporting on sustainability and HRM:a comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies

As a response to the growing public awareness on the importance of organisational contributions to sustainable development, there is an increased incentive for corporations to report on their sustainability activities. In parallel with this has been the development of ‘Sustainable HRM’ which embraces a growing body of practitioner and academic literature connecting the notions of corporate sustainability to HRM. The aim of this article is to analyse corporate sustainability reporting amongst the worlds largest companies and to assess the HRM aspects of sustainability within these reports in comparison to environmental aspects of sustainable management and whether organisational attributes – principally country-of-origin – influences the reporting of such practices. A focus in this article is the extent to which the reporting of various aspects of sustainability may reflect dominant models of corporate governance in the country in which a company is headquartered. The findings suggest, first and against expectations, that the overall disclosure on HRM-related performance is not lower than that on environmental performance. Second, companies report more on their internal workforce compared to their external workforce. Finally, international differences, in particular those between companies headquartered in liberal market economies and coordinated market economies, are not as apparent as expected.

Promoting family-friendly policies: is the basis of the government's ethical standpoint viable

This article examines how human resource (HR) practitioners are responding to the current UK Governments “business case” approach to promoting family‐friendly policies. The ethical basis of the Governments approach to work‐life balance is examined and the results of a survey of HR practitioners’ views on this issue are presented. Findings indicate that, when examining the interdependent factors that determine the ethical basis of support and opposition to such policies, respondents are more likely to reject the Governments rationale on equal and opposite terms to which they are being promoted.

Best Value: Is It Delivering?

The enhancement of public service performance has been a central concern of successive Labour governments since 1997. Best Value is intended to address this by replacing the former policy of compulsory competitive tendering with a policy that has been likened to a local government version of total quality management. In this article the authors draw on a survey of local government officers to explore the extent to which BV is providing the basis for improvements in the quality of local services and finds mixed results.

Workplace partnership and public service provision: The case of the 'best value' performance regime in British local government

This article considers the extent to which partnership espoused in Best Value is likely to be compatible with the model of social partnership espoused for employment relations. More specifically, the article seeks to cast light, empirically, on the degree to which Best Value can support the series of mutually supportive arrangements between these external stakeholders while maintaining positive-sum relationships with their unions and staff. The article proceeds as follows. Initially, the study’s methodology is detailed. Following this, the findings obtained from a survey are detailed and discussed. Lastly, a concluding section draws out their key analytical implications.

The Importance of Legislated Employment Mark Harcourt, Protection for Worker Commitment in Geoffrey Wood Coordinated Market Economies

This article extends contemporary debates about corporate governance, institutions, and firm-level behavioral effects, with a more systematic analysis of how one institution, legislated employment protection (employment security), deepens the reliance of firms in coordinated market economies (CMEs) on cooperative employer employee relations for their competitive success (cf. Whitley 1999, 38; Wood 2001, 252). This represents a meso or mid-level approach, as opposed to existing studies, which adopt a micro-level focus on industry case studies or a macro-level focus on cross-national differences in entire clusters of employment practices. We begin with a brief overview of two schools of institutional thought: varieties of capitalism (VOC) and regulation theory (RT). We then define and describe the key elements of legislated employment protection (employment security) as an institution, in addition to how these elements differ across CME countries, and between CMEs and the United States, the liberal market economy (LME) with the least employment protection. We then discuss the importance of worker commitment to CME economic success, and the crucial part played by legislated employment protection in engendering that commitment. We acknowledge that legislated employment protection may have negative lethargy effects, but argue that these are potentially less damaging in CMEs than LMEs for the same degree of protection. Next, we suggest practical ways that CMEs might modify legislated employment protection to both allay the negative lethargy effects and enhance the positive commitment effects. Finally, we conclude by stressing that despite its economic importance, legislated employment protection in CMEs remains politically fragile, in being vulnerable to attack by employers pursuing narrow, private interests.

Quality management and trade unions in local government – Demonstrating social partnership?

This article explores the implementation of quality management initiatives in four local authorities and considers how far such a scenario offers a possibility for social partnership between management and trade unions. Although no collective bargaining processes are defined in the social partnership model, it is contended here that the implied collective bargaining model in social partnership is Walton and McKersie’s “integrative bargaining” model. It is further contended that the scenario of implementing quality management in local government offers all the preconditions for integrative bargaining to take place – both in terms of the legitimate presence of recognised unions and through the pursuit of an issue in which management, staff and trade unions may have mutual interests. In practice, however, conditions for integrative bargaining outcomes did not emerge. Evidence for this was based on assessing senior manager and union branch official opinions through interviews, and on survey responses from Unison members.

Have labour practices and human rights disclosures enhanced corporate accountability? The case of the GRI framework

Highlights • Companies over-claim adherence to GRI reporting guidelines while failing to report detailed information on their workforce.Fig. 1 Compliance with GRI Disclosure Guidelines.• Companies fail to provide material information.• Limited evidence of companies acknowledging impediments they encounter when reporting on their workforce.• Companies pay more attention to their internal (as opposed to their external) workforce.• GRI fails to achieve enhanced comparability, transparency and accountability goals. Highlights • Companies over-claim adherence to GRI reporting guidelines while failing to report detailed information on their workforce.• Companies fail to provide material information.• Limited evidence of companies acknowledging impediments they encounter when reporting on their workforce.• Companies pay more attention to their internal (as opposed to their external) workforce.• GRI fails to achieve enhanced comparability, transparency and accountability goals. Abstract This paper critically evaluates Transnational Corporations’ (TNCs) claimed adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s ‘labour’ and ‘human rights’ reporting guidelines and examines how successful the GRI has been in enhancing comparability and transparency. We found limited evidence of TNCs discharging their accountability to their workforce and, rather, we found evidence to suggest that disclosure was motivated more by enhancing their legitimacy. TNCs failed to adhere to the guidelines, which meant that material information items were often missing, rendering comparability of information meaningless. Instead, TNCs reported large volumes of generic/anecdotal information without acknowledging the impediments they faced in practice.

No room for manoeuvre: Does ‘best value’ provide a better deal for workers in UK local government?

Abstract Internationally, public services are under increasing political and ideological pressure to remove barriers to private sector involvement in the delivery of public services. Political pressure comes in the form of the encroachment into this area of domestic activity by proponents of trade liberalisation. In particular such pressure stems from the General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS) being pursued through the World Trade Organisation (WTO). While the WTO has been keen to distance itself from allegations that GATS represents a challenge to domestic policies regarding the provisions of public services (WTO 2001), the scope of GATS, in itself, opens up these areas of activity to greater scrutiny. In addition to these structural pressures, ideological pressure for ‘reform’ has come from the ‘conversion’ of the parties of the progressive left — particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world — to the benefits of the market. Nowhere better can this be seen as in the UK.

The Quantified Workplace: A Study in Self-Tracking, Agility and Change Management

While self-and other tracking devices are increasingly common in workplaces, they are normally implemented either for explicit productivity and efficiency monitoring (warehouses) or as part of wellness initiatives (white collar and office work) rather than as part of change management. This chapter looks at one company’s project work design experiment where management provided several devices to employees to record productivity and movement and asked for daily self-reports on subjective well-being and stress. The quantified workplace study (QWS) was designed by the company to identify how productivity and resilience can be self-managed in times of transition through self-awareness and healthy lifestyles and well-being in what authors call the new era of agility.

Hollowing out national agreements in the NHS? The case of “Improving Working Lives” under a “Turnaround” plan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the resilience of a national-level initiative (Improving Working Lives (IWL)) in the face of local-level initiative (Turnaround) in an NHS hospital and compare to Bach and Kessler’s (2012) model of public service employment relations. Design/methodology/approach Case study research consisting of 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews from a range of participants. Findings The principles behind IWL were almost entirely sacrificed in order to meet the financial objectives of Turnaround. This indicates the primacy of localised upstream performance management initiatives over the national-level downstream employee relations initiatives that form the basis of the NHS’ claim to model employer aspiration. Research limitations/implications The case study was conducted between 2007 and 2009. While the case study falls under previous government regime, the dualised system of national-level agreements combined with localised performance management – and the continued existence of both Turnaround and IWL – makes the results relevant at the time of writing. Originality/value Some studies (e.g. Skinner et al., 2004) indicated a perception that IWL was not trusted by NHS staff. The present study offers reasons as to why this may be the case.