Les Worrall

The impact of organizational change on the work experiences and perceptions of public sector managers

The paper is based on a five year, UMIST‐Institute of Management study into the changing nature of the quality of working life and seeks to uncover differences in the incidence and impact of organizational change on the perceptions and experiences of managers in the public sector, the private sector and the (former public) utilities. The research indicates that there are significant differences in the impact of organizational change on managers in the three sectors with public sector managers and managers from the utilities having been more adversely affected. An analysis of managers’ perceptions of their “organization as a place to work”, prevailing managerial styles in their organization and managers’ perceptions of the “changing nature of their job” also reveals wide differences between managers in the three different sectors.

Reforming further education: the changing labour process for college lecturers

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to examine how the labour process of further education lecturers has changed as a result of legislative reforms introduced in the early 1990s.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on labour process theory and emergent perspectives on “the new public management” to provide theoretical frameworks. Evidence is derived from research carried out at three FE colleges in the English West Midlands involving interviews with managers and lecturing staff, documentary material and a survey of lecturing staff employed in the colleges.Findings – Market‐based reforms in this sector have resulted in the intensification and extensification of work effort for lecturers. This paper argues that these changes have been driven by the ideological underpinning of the reform process. Individual and collective acts of lecturer resistance have been insufficiently strong to prevent change from occurring and worker alienation has increased.Research limitations/implications – The case s...

Innovation, business performance and regional competitiveness in the West Midlands: evidence from the West Midlands Business Survey

Focuses on exploring the extent and patterns of innovation in the West Midlands region, based primarily on data generated by the Price Waterhouse West Midlands Business Survey, a bi‐annual survey of around 1,000 businesses. Explores regional development and innovation within a framework developed by Camagni, which focuses on agglomeration economies and the creation of an innovative milieu within a regional economy. Suggests two methods to encourage innovation within the UK’s West Midlands region through support to associated expenditures (training and exporting). In the context of a rising currency the research suggests that innovating firms have a strategy to overcome adverse currency movements.

Working patterns and working hours: their impact on UK managers

Reports on the UMIST‐Institute of Management five‐year study into the changing experiences of UK managers and the impact of organizational change. Examines the patterns of actual working hours generally and by managerial level before going on to explore the reasons managers give to explain their work patterns (over contract hours, evening and weekend working). Contains an assessment of how managers trade‐off work and non‐work activity and the impact of long working hours on managers’ health, morale, productivity, social life and relationships with their partners and children. The analysis reveals a strong relationship between actual hours worked and an increasingly negative impact on all the factors tested.

Management skills development: a perspective on current issues and setting the future agenda

In recent years managerial work has changed considerably, largely because the organisational, economic and technological context in which it is conducted has changed beyond recognition. Organisations have been delayered; new work organisation concepts have been developed; organisations have been subjected to a host of managerial fads; the scale of IT‐enabled home‐based working has increased; the variety of communication channels that managers have had to cope with has increased; and globalisation has created a more competitive environment where businesses have had to become leaner, more flexible and adaptable. The consequences of this are that the skills and “capabilities” that managers need to be effective have change radically. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of these changes and to assess the implications of management development and education programmes.

Managing strategy in local government

Explains the process of strategic management based on the existing literature and fits these concepts within the domain of local government. Develops a tentative model of the development of a strategic process for local government and reviews aspects of current practice. The desire to be more strategic increases as resources get tighter and politicians insist that priorities are met.

Executive stress in different industrial sectors, structures and sizes of business

Based on a sample of senior managers from West Midlands businesses, quantifies the level of executive stress in a regional setting. Identifies significant levels of stress generally but also reveals that stress is patterned across industrial sectors and by firm size. Also identifies and quantifies the impact of various “stress drivers” and measures the impact of stress‐related illness episodes across businesses.

Managers, hierarchies and perceptions: a study of UK managers

Redundancy, delayering, downsizing and various other forms of organisational change, often accompanied by the managerial fad of the moment, have become increasingly prevalent over the last ten years. This paper is based on the results of a four‐year University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST)‐Chartered Management Institute (CMI) research programme (the Quality of Working Life Project) that was designed to explore the changing nature of managerial work in the UK and also to assess the impact of different forms of organisational change on managers’ perceptions of the organisations they work within. The analysis reported here indicates clearly that some forms of change (notably redundancy and delayering) have had particularly damaging effects on managers’ experiences in the workplace and ultimately on their behaviours within and beyond their organisations. The objectives of this paper are, first, to paint a picture of recent organisational change in the UK based on the responses of members of the CMI, second, to explore how change has affected managers’ perceptions of their organisations and their working lives and, third, to explore if different forms of change (particularly redundancy and delayering) have had a differential impact on managers’ perceptions of their organisations “as a place to work”.

Surviving redundancy: the perceptions of UK managers

Redundancy, delayering and other forms of organizational change have become increasingly prevalent over the last ten years. This paper is based on a five year UMIST‐Institute of Management research programme which has been used to explore the impact of redundancy on UK managers’ sense of loyalty, motivation, morale and loyalty to the organization. The paper reveals that redundancy is a particularly damaging form of organizational change even on the survivors of redundancy. The research reveals that where redundancy has been used as a means of change surviving managers’ perceptions of their organizations are significantly more adversely affected than where change is enacted without the use of delayering or redundancy. The research raises significant questions about how change is managed in organizations.

The role of GIS-based spatial analysis in strategic management in local government

Abstract While GIS is becoming more commonplace in local government, the application of GIS-based spatial analysis is less well developed, as GIS applications have tended to focus more on improving the efficiency of processing administrative tasks and on asset management rather than on “higher order” managerial tasks. The objectives of this paper are to review recent trends which are affecting the role and structure of local government; to review briefly the role of GIS in local government; to discuss the potential for improving spatial analysis in a public policy development setting; and, finally, to develop a research agenda which will seek to enhance the role of GIS-based spatial analysis in strategic management both in local government and in other organisations concerned with the development and implementation of public policy.