Jane Bryson

Managing HRM risk in a merger

Mergers are big, risky business and they frequently fail. This article reviews the literature around managing human resource management (HRM) risk in a merger. It finds that poor merger results are often attributed to HRM and organisational problems, and that several factors related to maintaining workforce stability are identified as important in managing HRM risk. Gaps are exposed in the extensive merger focused literature, particularly its lack of consideration of the role of unions and different employment relations policy approaches. The New Zealand‐based banking merger of Westpac and TrustBank is used to illustrate and explore the impact of union involvement alongside HRM initiatives, and to extend Guests employment relations policy choices taxonomy. This article contributes an important additional dimension to a theory of managing HRM risk in a merger.

Putting skill in its place

This article argues that a focus on human capability and its development can be used to rethink the high skills policy visions favoured over recent decades. The article briefly summarises the increasing concerns with government policy formulas which have adopted a narrow focus such that skill and its accreditation is regarded as the outcome rather than as an input to the utilisation of skill or the achievement of a civil society. It is argued that human capability conceptions encourage a more holistic appreciation and systemic analysis of the impact of social arrangements and economic structures on people’s opportunity to flourish at work, and in life. The article reports research with workers and managers which operationalises these conceptions in the form of a list of capabilities expected through work. The implications for the place of skill in rethinking policy are discussed.

Stress, Minister: government policy advisors and work stress

Purpose – The public management and the occupational stress literatures are both silent on stressors associated with the work of government policy advisors. This paper aims to fill that gap with an exploratory study to identify the potential work stressors for this occupation.Design/methodology/approach – In‐depth interviews with 13 policy advisors/managers in a single government department and a focus group with 11 policy managers from 11 government departments are reported.Findings – The stressors experienced can be clustered under the well accepted labels of role overload, control, culture, and interpersonal relationships. However, results indicate that the practical reality of these stressors in public sector policy advice environments is different from the generic concepts associated with the labels.Research limitations/implications – This paper underlines the importance of occupation‐specific understanding of stressors, and has implications at a workplace level for human resource management, and at ...

`Jack be Nimble, Jill be Quick': HR Capability and Organizational Agility in the New Zealand Public and Private Sectors

This study uses Dyer and Shafers organizational agility framework to analyze and compare the contribution of human resource strategies and practices to organizational capability in twelve private sector and three public sector organizations. Similarities are found in public and private sector HR practices and priorities, particularly with regard to some aspects of work design, performance management and remuneration, and communication. However, there are also differences, mainly evidenced in the much greater degree of formalization of the HR systems in the public sector organizations and a greater emphasis upon control. A number of reasons for this were identified, including: the public sector regulatory environment; differences in key sources of organizational capability and risk minimization; differences in the nature of work; and the influence of historical legacy and temporal perspective.

Behind the Beehive buzz: Sources of occupational stress for New Zealand policy officials

Abstract Described as quintessential knowledge workers and also practitioners of a public service ethic, policy officials generate vital inputs into good government. This article reports on sources of stress identified by 24 policy managers and senior advisers in the New Zealand State Service. Stressors were similar, but also different, to those commonly found in the stress literature. The differences were particularly noticeable in workload demands, which were not only quantitative (too much and urgent work) but also qualitative (technically difficult work), and these combined uniquely with role proliferation and complexity (multi‐tasking), and a policy professional culture in which there was pressure to over‐perform. These features provided both negative and positive stress experiences—the strain and the buzz of performance and occupational well‐being.

Women workers: caring, sharing, enjoying their work – or just another gender stereotype?

This article examines the responses of more than 10,000 unionised women and nearly 5000 unionised men, working in the New Zealand public sector, to a selection of questions in a workplace dynamics survey. The questions investigated in this article provide insights into women’s levels of commitment and job satisfaction compared to those of men. It also reports on comparative experiences of cooperation, information sharing, recognition and managerial practices. The findings show that women and men do not differ significantly in terms of organisational commitment. However, women are more committed generally and enjoy their work more than men, but they report less favourably on experiences of cooperation and communication at work. Women, compared with men, also report experiencing less recognition. We discuss the possible meaning of these results and the potential implications for management and unions.

The Good Employer: The Image and the Reality

This paper considers the good employer from both an HRM perspective and a legal perspective emphasising the inter-relationship between HRM and the law. While the paper focuses on New Zealand’s particular experience with a legislative conceptualisation of the good employer it also has a general application as the problems it addresses are applicable to employers generally, all of whom to a greater or lesser extent seek to project a “good employer” brand. The paper begins by considering the notion of a good employer first from an HRM and then a legal perspective and suggests that the theory of instrumental decentred regulation assists in explaining a relationship between the law and HRM: legal obligations imposed on employers have led to self-regulation through the development of HRM policies which in turn have helped the law develop its own concept of what constitutes a good employer. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand’s statutory model of the good employer. This paper was presented at the 16th ILERA World Congress as part of a Panel “The Good Employer - A Basic Building Block for Global Worker Rights.” The other participants were Prof Ellen Dannin, Penn State, Associate Professor John Howell, University of Melbourne, Professor John Budd, University of Minnesota, and Professor Gregor Murray, Universite de Montreal. References to papers by those panel members can be found in the paper.

Exploring Social Arrangements for Developing Human Capability

Over the past decade most governments have emphasised the importance of work related skills, and by proxy the increase of qualifications, as one of the keys to economic growth. In this chapter, and in Chapter 10, we argue the importance of broadening the debate from these narrow understandings of skill to the wider concept of human capability. We believe this widening of focus is important for a number of reasons, some of which are ably demonstrated in other chapters of this volume. For instance, it permits us to consider: learning rather than counting credentials (also refer Keep’s Chapter 6); the utilisation (and not just development) of skills, knowledge, and other attributes; the purpose of work (both paid and unpaid) in society beyond narrow organisational and economic ends; and the impact of regulation and social arrangements on the capabilities of organisations, individuals and communities (also refer Buchanan’s Chapter 3, Mayhew’s Chapter 4 and Spoonley’s Chapter 5).

Opening the black box: The mediating roles of organisational systems and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance link in public sector organisations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how HIWS may shape organisational capabilities, in particular organisational ambidexterity (OA) – the ability to be both adaptable to the wider world, and internally aligned so that existing resources are used well. Given the demands on public agencies to manage conflicting objectives, and to do more with less in increasingly complex environments, this paper improves our understanding of how HIWS can contribute to public sector performance. The paper sheds light inside the black box of the HIWS/organisational performance link. Design/methodology/approach This multi-level quantitative study is based on a survey of 2,123 supervisory staff, and 9,496 non-supervisory employees in 56 government organisations. Findings The study identifies two paths to organisational performance. The first is a direct HIWS performance link. The second is a double mediation model from HIWS to organisational systems, to OA and then performance. Practical implications A focus on developing HIWS provides an alternative means to public sector performance, than restructuring or other performative activities. Originality/value This is one of the few studies that explore how HIWS can develop collective as well as individual capabilities. Studies in the public sector are particularly rare.

A Framework for Developing Human Capability at Work

In Chapter 2 we made the case for broadening debate from narrow understandings of skill, and organisationally instrumental notions of capability, to the wider concept of human capability. We explored human capability as characterised by people having the substantive freedom to achieve ‘beings and doings’ that they value, leading a life of value to them. Applied to an employment setting this focuses attention on the social arrangements that lead to the ability of people to achieve things they value. This concluding chapter reports on an attempt to identify the conditions for the optimal development of human capability in New Zealand workplaces. Our research specifically examined influences on these conditions at three levels: institutional, organisational and individual. These conditions are summarised in a framework which is aimed to be of assistance to workplace practitioners in shaping social arrangements which develop human capability. This framework is informed by our reflections from case study interviews; first that institutionally coordinated industry or region-wide responses to product or service markets and commitment to quality jobs are all important contributors to capability, as are clear policy/regulatory signals of acceptable practice. Secondly, that organisations are not fully mobilising the tacit knowledge of production processes which workers possess and this is hindering the capability of workforces.