Peter Ackers

The meanings and purpose of employee voice

In this paper we present and assess an analytical framework for examining the different ‘meanings, purposes and practices’ of employee voice. The data were collected from eighteen organizations in England, Scotland and Ireland. Managers defined voice very much in terms of the perceived contribution to efficiency and tended to downplay notions of rights; however, the linkages between voice and performance outcomes remain problematic. Overall, employee voice is best understood as a complex and uneven set of meanings and purposes with a dialectic shaped by external regulation, on the one hand, and internal management choice, on the other. The evidence suggests that the degree to which voice practices are embedded in an organization is much more important than reporting the extent of any particular individual or collective schemes for employee voice.

It's a small world:managing human resources in small businesses

It has become widely acknowledged that, during the past decade or so, large mainstream companies in the UK have adopted a new agenda for managing people. Relatively little is known about the impact of this new agenda on small businesses. The small business sector has been long regarded as the natural home for ‘bleak house’ employment relations practices typified by direct management control, poor terms and conditions, high staff turnover and little training. In March 1993, however, a large survey of 560 companies in Leicestershire revealed a surprisingly high take-up and awareness of new management ideas among small business managers. These findings are at odds with a crude ‘bleak house’ scenario. This large-scale telephone survey was then followed up with detailed case study research. This article presents and reflects upon the evidence and reformulates ideas about people management in small businesses.

Understanding the Meaning of Participation: Views from the Workplace

It is now generally agreed that there has been a growth in the extensiveness of employee involvement (El) in Britain in recent years. However, the value of this information is limited because many of the studies rely heavily on management viewpoints about the impact of El. Even when surveys of employee opinion are undertaken, however, the results are typically abstracted from the organizational context in which they are located. In this article, we present information from six organizations collected as part of a larger study on El in Britain. This illustrates that employee attitudes to El are dependent, inter alia, upon the prior experiences which employees have of El and work in general, managements approaches to employee relations, and the recent and projected corporate performance of the organization. This leads us to suggest that El is as much affected by the prevailing organizational culture and environment as it is a source of change. The authors call for more research studies of this kind to be undertaken.

The Meaning of Empowerment: The Interdisciplinary Etymology of A New Management Concept

Empowerment has become a widely used management term in the last decade or so, though, in practical terms, it shares the ambiguity of its predecessors in the HRM tradition. This paper sets out to unravel the web of meaning surrounding empowerment to show what a contested concept it is, and hence why its application in organizational settings is fraught with misunderstanding and tension. It does so by taking an approach that contributes to the examination of HRM discourse and management rhetoric. To demonstrate the ambiguity of empowerment as a concept, the paper reviews the various ways in which the term has been used across non-management disciplines (women, minority groups, education, community care, politics), culminating with a review of the use of empowerment in contemporary management theory. The paper concludes that organizations and managers have chosen to coin a phrase which is open to different, sometimes contradictory, meanings and which, when applied, evokes both subjective attitudes and objective behaviour, means different things in varying contexts, and is affected fundamentally by individual differences in perception and experience. Unless organizations offer clear operational definitions when using empowerment, instead of purely acquiescing to a vague and seductive version of the concept, they are abdicating responsibility for the unpredictable consequences that result.

Changing Patterns of Employee Voice: Case Studies from the UK and Republic of Ireland

In this paper we examine a wide range of employee voice mechanisms from a total of18 case studies from the UK and Republic of Ireland. We examine how voice is defined by managers and how they link voice with improved economic efficiency. The evidence suggests that employee voice is more extensive in terms of its ‘scope’ and ‘impact’ than a decade ago, although the ‘level’ at which employees have a say remains the preserve of managerial control. The evidence also suggests that the link between voice and organisational performance is problematic. The conclusion argues that organisations now face a diffuse and persistent range of concerns from highly articulate employees. In this respect, managing employee voice will be closely related to managing diversity.

Born Again? The Ethics and Efficacy of the Conversion Experience in Contemporary Management Development

This article notes how a religious tone has seeped into the discourse of contemporary management development. This religious analogy is explored through the evangelical Christian notion of ‘conversion’ and radical personal change. The expansion of such a mind-set into contemporary management thinking is related to the revival of the charismatic form of authority, in the writing of popular management gurus, such as Tom Peters. The search for new forms of ethical and social cohesion is considered. Next, this framework is applied to management development, with particular reference to one fairly mainstream, if intensive, programme. Through quotes from the managers involved, we illustrate how this programme employed emotional experience to remould individual personality and hence corporate culture in a way that mimics the religious conversion process. Finally, we question both whether a largely involuntary business organization has an ethical right to claim the ‘souls’ of its managers, and whether this is likely to be a realizable goal, in any case.

The management of voice in non-union organisations: managers perspectives

Purpose – Given the emergence of new legal initiatives for union recognition, declining levels of union membership and the growth of alternative forms of employee representation, this paper aims to examine the management of employee voice in non‐union firms.Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts a case study approach in seven non‐union organisations from different sectors of economic activity in the UK. Several themes guided the design of the research instruments. Interviews were conducted with managerial respondents responsible for the design and implementation of employee voice at each case study, including non‐personnel practitioners.Findings – Provides information on: the meaning of non‐union voice; the range of practices adopted; the potential outcomes; and apparent barriers to the implementation of non‐union voice arrangements.Research limitations/implications – The research collected data from managerial respondents only, and this limitation is noted. Further research in this area is sug...

Doing yourself out of a job

Looks at the effect of modern empowerment policies on middle management. The transition of middle managers from technical experts to coaches, and the position at the sharpest point of conflict between senior management and employees, means that empowerment often requires middle management to implement a policy which threatens their own jobs. Based on 28 management interviews and five focus groups held within two large UK organizations between 1995‐1996, this research seeks to to answer three central questions: How does empowerment affect middle managers? What coping mechanisms do they use? What are the implications for the organizations? The results show that, in line with previous literature, managers are resisting empowerment policies to some extent. However, the added fear of redundancy among middle managers means that they are, to varying extents, beginning to “act” their compliance to empowerment affecting the ultimate success of such initiatives.

The Union Makes Us Strong? A Study of the Dynamics of Workplace Union Leadership at Two UK Manufacturing Plants

This paper draws on qualitative case study evidence to investigate the way in which union leaders involved in two workplace organizations deal with the process of managing their role within the employment relationship. In particular, the influence of their leadership style on the commitment and participation of rank-and-file members is considered. The paper highlights the dialectical relationship between local leaders and members in terms of trade union democracy and local leadership style. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2000.

Women’s Choices in Europe: Striking the Work-life Balance:

The article presents evidence from interviews in France, Spain and Poland to explore how individual actors make choices about their work-life balance. It shows that choice is a complex, contingent, and relative concept, which is both facilitated and obstructed by public policies and working regulations. Despite differences in national and sub-national policy contexts, institutional and cultural norms and expectations, the article draws the conclusion that family-friendly issues need to be mainstreamed and that the concerns of families should be added to those of the state, trade unions and employers on the agenda for negotiating work-life balance. It is also argued that the focus and scope of industrial relations need to be rethought to take account of the gendered nature of employment relationships.