Peter Prowse

Whatever Happened To Human Resource Management Performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the evidence that human resource management (HRM) could contribute to the improvement of organizational and individual performance. It aims to examine the historical development of HRM and its emergence as a distinct management discipline. The evidence indicates that HRM is the product of several different traditions that range from a concern with employee welfare to the development of workplace relationships. The paper critically re‐evaluates what human performance is and assesses its contribution to organizational effectiveness. What is particularly important is the lack of empirical literature on the contribution of HRM and business performance. This paper will call for the re‐evaluation of more contemporary criteria of how people contribute to organizational performance in private, public and the emerging non‐profit making sectors.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology adopted in this research uses critical literature on the contribut...

Is there still a public sector model of employment relations in the United Kingdom

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to evaluate the general developments in the form of industrial relations in the UK public sector.Design/methodology/approach – It reviews the main literature on the topic and relevant policy texts.Findings – The article concludes by analysing changes in public sector employee relations. It argues that there are serious attempts to decentralise industrial relations within the state system but that the outcomes of these are uncertain and unclear.Research limitations/implications – It is a general overview of key developments.Practical implications – It is relevant for a discussion of the general trends in UK public sector industrial relations.Originality/value – This article takes an overview of recent developments and points to the uncertainties embedded in a new market approach.

The Living Wage – Policy And Practice

A recent development in addressing the longstanding problem of low pay in the United Kingdom has been the emergence of a social campaign for a ‘living wage’. Using a case study approach this article explores an employers decision to pay the living wage that, in turn, provided both challenges and opportunities for the unions in their dealings with contractors.

Flexible working and work–life balance: midwives’ experiences and views:

This article presents midwives’ views and experiences of flexible working and work–life balance. Both flexible working and work–life balance are important contemporary agendas within midwifery and can have both positive and negative consequences for midwives. Full-time midwives and those without caring commitments feel disadvantaged by flexible working and work–life balance policies as they have to fit when they work around part-time midwives and are increasingly expected to cover extra work. They feel their work–life balance is marginalized and this is fuelling discontent and resentment among midwives and leading to divisions between full- and part-time staff that reinforce flexibility stigma. Although flexible working and work–life balance are important for recruiting and retaining midwives they are part of the ongoing tensions and challenges for midwives and the midwifery profession.

The living wage in the UK – an analysis of the GMB campaign in local government

ABSTRACT The adoption of a statutory national minimum wage policy in the UK is proving ineffective in resolving the problem of low pay. The emergence of living wage campaigns in the UK follows similar developments in the USA, and more recently, New Zealand. Rather than focus on a particular employer-specific campaign, this paper explores the campaign of the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union (GMB) in local government which recruits members from low-paid occupations. The 11 local government sector cases examine contracted workers allied to local government services, drawing on interviews with full-time officers, lay representatives and members involved in the campaigns. Nine campaigns were successful and two were not. The Union’s strategy revealed an interplay between industrial and political influences and, despite the social-economic nature of the issue, the limited extent of involvement of social movements in the campaign.

Negotiations in the Workplace: Overcoming the Problem of Asymmetry

This chapter explores the challenge of establishing collaborative negotiations in the workplace. We suggest that asymmetry within key elements of negotiation, such as asymmetry in nature of the management and union constituencies, make it inherently difficult to establish a collaborative dynamic. However, a more constructive cycle of workplace relations can be built through respect, consistency and information exchange.

The living wage: concepts, contexts and future concerns

Editorial for special issue on the Living wage : The living wage : concepts, contexts and future concerns.

Community and union-led Living Wage campaigns

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate different approaches to effective campaigning in support of the Living Wage and so this paper contributes to the broader debate over the nature of the union movement’s engagement with community groups in pursuit of workplace and social issues. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a systematic comparison of a union-led and a community-led campaign, drawing primarily upon interview and survey data. Findings Though different, both campaigns met with a measure of success in improving employee pay and in increasing union membership suggesting a pragmatic approach to the building of union-community relationships. Practical implications The paper shows the need for campaigners to adopt a strategic approach in identifying the target for their campaign, and also the importance of shaping a persuasive argument. Originality/value The paper reaffirms the importance of traditional union-led campaigning alongside campaigning through engagement with community groups and so offers a broader framework for exploring the relationships between union and community groups.

Book Review: Craig Phelan (ed.) Trade Union Revitalization: Trends and Prospects in 34 Countries Bern: Peter Lang, 2007, £50.00 pbk (ISBN: 9783039110094), 582 pp

explore workers’ struggles under New Labour. The crucial and emblematic 2002–3 firefighters’ dispute is reduced to just a paragraph or two; likewise the 2005 Gate Gourmet strike, 2007 Royal Mail strikes, and series of national one-day public sector strikes by local government workers, teachers, civil servants and others in recent years. While Lyddon’s chapter provides a useful descriptive summary of strike activity, there is little attempt by the editors to relate workers’ struggles to the attitude and behaviour of union activists and members compared to union leaders and their self-limiting loyalty to New Labour. Yet arguably absolutely crucial to understanding the extent of New Labour’s success and the unions’ continuing weakness has been the loyal defence of the government and the way in which higher levels of the union movement (including the ‘awkward squad’) have often stymied and/or narrowed resistance by grassroots members that has taken place, with ramifications for the overall levels of recorded strike action. On the basis that the historical and comparative record suggests that any future successful revitalization of the unions is likely to involve mass adversarial mobilization from below, the potential as well as the limits for a transformation in the fortunes of trade unionism merits more consideration than it receives from the editors in this otherwise superb text.

Book Review: Trade Unions: Resurgence or Demise?

of European industrial relations. These include issues (i.e. minimum wages, working hours, health and safety) and procedures (i.e. information and consultation) that are dealt with at the Community level as well as the structures of the national industrial relations systems in the EU. The authors analyse three key aspects of the European industrial relations model: the economic, the political and the social. The changing nature of collective bargaining, as well as benchmarking as an emerging form of regulation, occupy important sections in the study. Marginson and Sisson point out that multi-employer bargaining in the EU is becoming increasingly decentralized as regulation becomes ‘softer’ (i.e. more flexible). They single out and discuss three processes: collective bargaining, ‘co-ordinated bargaining’ (i.e. when parallel sets of negotiators seek to achieve similar goals in separate negotiations) and benchmarking. They situate these processes in relation to the concept of isomorphism: when different sets of actors tend toward common solutions. Of course, no discussion of European industrial relations would be complete without looking at the impact of European integration on national industrial relations. For example, Marginson and Sisson examine national social pacts as evidence of both Europeanization and re-nationalization. These pacts are ‘soft’ frameworks that involve dialogue between the social partners on issues such as wage moderation, flexibility and reform of social protection. Also integral to the analysis is an examination of the decentralization of bargaining from sector to company level. This subject is treated empirically by persuasive case study evidence from four countries (Belgium, Italy, Germany and the UK) and two sectors (metalworking and banking). They argue that EMU is fuelling the pressure for decentralization, but not to the point where national sector bargaining will collapse completely. Other aspects of European industrial relations that are addressed are the Eurocompany and European integration’s impact on wages and working time. Much of the discussion about the Euro-company focuses on the role of European works councils in the context of the broader processes of Europeanization. They take the optimistic road in arguing that these fora ‘are incrementally opening the door to forms of European collective bargaining’ (p. 242). This summary only scratches the surface of the depth of their analysis. They have produced a truly impressive piece of work that will likely go down as one of the most important contributions to the study of European industrial relations.