Keith Townsend

Filling the gaps: Patterns of formal and informal participation

Industrial relations scholarship has traditionally privileged union forms of employee participation. In more recent years there has been a shift to understand the role of participation in non-union firms. This article develops theory on employee participation through analysis of an Australian case study in the hotel sector. The authors find that formal participation mechanisms are useful and essential for both employees and managers, however formal participation leaves behind gaps which are partially filled with informal voice exchanges between employees and their managers.

Recruitment, training and turnover: another call centre paradox

Purpose – There appear to be many paradoxes within the management of the growing call centre sector. The purpose of this paper is to consider one of these paradoxes, the extensive recruitment and training regimes in workplaces that are faced with very high levels of turnover. Design/methodology/approach – This research is of a single worksite, a call centre of a public utilities company. The research method was non-participant observation over a seven-month period coupled with ten interviews with key personnel. Findings – It was found that the organisation was able to offset the costs of training and recruitment through internal transfers within the larger organisation. Research limitations/implications – It is a single site study, hence, while of substantial depth the findings are not generalisable. More broad based research is required in the area. Practical implications – A useful source of information for practitioners in call centres, as well as researchers in the area of recruitment, training and call centres. Originality/value – This paper provides a valuable insight into an area of call centres that has not been adequately investigated; that of recruitment and training employees for emotional labour.

Reporting and Justifying the Number of Interview Participants in Organization and Workplace Research

In this paper we examine established practice regarding the reporting, justification and number of interview participants chosen within organization and workplace studies. For such qualitative research there is a paucity of discussion across the social sciences, the topic receiving far less attention than its centrality warrants. We analysed 798 articles published in 2003 and 2013 in ten top and second tier academic journals, identifying 248 studies using at least one type of qualitative interview. Participant numbers were contingent on characteristics of the population from which they were chosen and approach to analysis, but not the journal, its tier, editorial base or publication year, the interview type or its duration. Despite lack of transparency in reporting (23.4% of studies did not state participant numbers) we reveal a median of 32.5 participants, numbers ranging from one to 330, and no justification for participant numbers in over half of studies. We discuss implications and, recognizing that different philosophical commitments are likely to imply differing norms, offer recommendations regarding reporting, justification and number of participants. Acknowledging exceptions, dependent upon study purpose and data saliency, these include an organization and workplace research norm of 15−60 participants, alongside credible numbers for planning interview research.

Reassessing Employee Involvement And Participation: Atrophy, Reinvigoration And Patchwork in Australian Workplaces

Within Australia and internationally, much of the research on employee involvement and participation developed historically with a focus on the role of unions in ensuring employees had the opportunity to play a role in decision-making at the workplace, organisation or industry level. Partly in response to changing union fortunes and their lesser centrality to employment relations in many countries, and partly as an acknowledgement to the hitherto inadequate conceptualisation of participation, researchers had developed more nuanced themes to the body of work on employee involvement and participation, for example, formalised non-union participation, informal participation and multiple channels. By adapting and extending a model of participation and drawing on data from five workplaces, we show that employee involvement and participation is multidimensional and that some elements atrophy while others are reinvigorated, and we find a limited overall strategy and more patchwork to employee involvement and participation architecture in these workplaces. Equally, despite the interest in the ideas of employee involvement and participation and the idea of multiple channels, it does tend to be confined to a limited range of topics, especially information-passing with a hint of consultation, rather than any notion of industrial democracy. The channels are wide rather than deep.

Routes to partial success: collaborative employment relations and employee engagement

The contradictory objectives of consent and control in the employment relationship means that there is no single best way of managing and furthermore, all managerial strategies are ‘routes to partial failure’ (Hyman 1987, p. 30). This paper examines ‘managerial strategies’ toward employment relations in three organisations with a focus on the ‘success’ aspect of Hymans partial failure notion. The respective management teams of each case study are involved in management strategies to lift the standard of how they engage with employees. While the indeterminacy of labour ensures that managerial strategies will never be complete, we seek to better understand how collaborative approaches to employment relations, for example partnerships, can co-exist, complement, or contradict within organisations with more individualised approaches to managing people, for example, employee engagement.

Accidental, unprepared, and unsupported: clinical nurses becoming managers

To what extent have hospitals developed their skilled clinicians to perform the administrative and human resources (HR) manager role of the ward manager? We consider this research question through an analysis of an acute hospital called ‘The Hospital’ where the executive team is aiming to adopt a form of high-performance work system (HPWS). We focus primarily on explanations in terms of conditions, rather than the personalities of individual managers, which are most powerful in shaping their behaviour. There has long been a failure of hospitals (and other employing organisations) to develop fully the skills required by employees before they become line managers. Line managers are a critical link in the high-performance chain and this study illustrates that, despite their rhetoric, hospitals may still have much potential for implementing schemes to develop nurses further to prepare them for line-manager positions and to support them after they move into such roles. We infer from this study that such hospitals may not yet have completed the journey to having HPWS. Hence, there is still much scope for such hospitals to progress and enjoy the benefits that proponents claim for HPWS.

When the LOST Found Teams: A Consideration of Teams within the Individualised Call Centre Environment

Abstract It is commonly accepted that the work processes within call centres are largely individualised, and tightly controlled through technology, with scripted and standardised procedures. However, at the same time, it is also a commonly accepted practice within call centres to organise employees into teams. This paper will explore the teams paradox within a case study organisation, to demonstrate that employees within the same teams take a very different approach to the importance of teams within the primarily individualised workplace of the call centre. In this case study however, one team complicates management policies. This leads to the suggestion that the managers within organisations must be cognisant that even within workplaces, not all teams are equal. Indeed, there is the possibility that the management must develop different policies and practices to deal with different teams within the same workplace.

Alternative work schedule interventions in the Australian construction industry: a comparative case study analysis

Project‐based construction workers in the Australian construction industry work long and irregular hours and experience higher levels of work‐to‐family conflict and burnout than office‐based workers, giving rise to an interest in alternative work schedules as a means of supporting work–life balance. Alternative work schedules were implemented in four case study construction projects in Australia. Interventions differed between projects, with two implementing a compressed work week, and the others introducing reduced hours schedules (one of which was optional). Data were collected from each case study project, using various combinations of focus groups, surveys, interviews and daily diary collection methods. The results were mixed. The compressed work week appears to have been favourably received where it was introduced. However, waged workers still expressed concerns about the impact on their weekly ‘take‐home’ pay. Attempts to reduce work hours by changing from a six‐ to a five‐day schedule (without extending the length of the working day between Monday and Friday) were less favourably received. Waged workers, in particular, did not favour reduced hours schedules. The results confirm the existence of two distinct labour markets operating in the Australian construction industry and markedly different responses to alternative work schedules, based upon whether workers are waged or salaried. The results clearly show that attempts to improve work–life balance must take the structural characteristics of the industrys labour markets into consideration in the design of interventions. The impact of alternative work schedules is likely to be moderated by institutional working time regimes within the construction industry.

Management culture and employee resistance: investigating the management of leisure service employees.

This article compares and contrasts the findings of two case studies that examine different management cultures within the leisure industry. It was predicted that where managerial style differed the organizational culture that developed would impact upon the actions of employee in the workplace. It was also expected that organizational size would play a large role in managerial style. Managerial style would, in turn, influence employee perceptions of what were appropriate activities while in the workplace. However, in a greenfield site, the employment history and expectations of key managerial staff proved to be interesting complications. This case presented a management culture of resisting employer expectations. As a result a culture developed where employees of all levels actively resisted employer controls. Employee actions that were deleterious to organizational profitability became more common while remaining relatively covert.

Is Enterprise Bargaining Still a Better Way of Working

In 1989, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) produced a blueprint for change titled ‘Enterprise based bargaining units: A better way of working’. To a great extent, this document and the corresponding shifts in business, government and union approaches to wage and conditions determination meant that Australia shifted from a centralised to a workplace system of bargaining. After more than two decades of enterprise bargaining, though, we ask the question: Is it still a better way of working? While the Business Council of Australia pointed to a panoply of advantages, we look at the other side of the argument. Decentralisation may be inefficient at a number of levels. First, there is the procedure of bargaining and the resources, expertise and time that is required. Second, there are the outcomes of bargaining, where despite a more individual focus, in many cases, outcomes demonstrate very little variation across enterprises. Finally, there are the collateral consequences of bargaining: conflict, reduced trust and disruption. Is enterprise bargaining still meeting the needs of the actors or has the model run its course? We consider two case studies of bargaining that demonstrate the limitations and advantages of enterprise bargaining.