Robert MacKenzie

The Realities of Regulatory Change: Beyond the Fetish of Deregulation

The article argues that any discussion of regulatory change should be sensitive to the manner in which regulation was originally constructed and developed. Any change can only be understood by a mapping of the complex interrelation of spaces, spheres and actors of regulation. The act of regulatory change requires shifts and re-alignments across a wide range of fronts. This is because regulation involves alliances and linkages across a range of spaces and actors, contingent upon the peculiarities and limits of different states and their respective civil societies. The manner in which regulatory change may be prosecuted also belies any notion of unproblematic transfer of responsibilities between actors.

‘Unstable boundaries?’ Evaluating the ‘new regulation’ within employment relations

The ‘emergence’ of the ‘market’ as the basis of economic and political decision-making has become a main focus of debate within the social sciences since the late 1970s. Even while those opposing the growing centrality of neo-classical economics and market-oriented political discourses remain a significant academic constituency, within their ranks there has been a growing realization that regulatory mechanisms, and in particular the role of the state, have nevertheless been the subject of extensive changes. Alternative schools of thought have argued in terms of the way in which such mechanisms have been refashioned. Regulation has become, in the words of Regini and Majone, ‘transferred’ and the ‘boundaries’ between regulator and regulated ‘changed’: the regulatory process has been seen to shift at the macro/national level and at the micro/enterprise level. While supporting the general argument that it is the boundaries of regulation which are to be discussed, not its presence, we shall nevertheless argue that these changes are, if anything, more contentious and that a set of ironies emerges which politicize regulation even further.

‘All that is Solid?’: Class, Identity and the Maintenance of a Collective Orientation amongst Redundant Steelworkers

This article explores the importance of class and collectivism to personal identity, and the role this played during a period of personal and collective crisis created by mass redundancy in the Welsh steel industry. The research findings demonstrate the importance of occupational identity to individual and collective identity formation. The apparent desire to maintain this collective identity acted as a form of resistance to the increased individualization of the post-redundancy experience, but rather than leading to excessive particularism, it served as a mechanism through which class-based thinking and class identity were articulated. It is argued that the continued concern for class identity reflected efforts to avoid submergence in an existence akin to Beck’s (1992) vision of a class-free ‘individualized society of employees’.These findings therefore challenge the notion of the pervasiveness of individualism and the dismissal of class and collective orientations as important influences on identity formation.

Subcontracting and the Reregulation of the Employment Relationship: A Case Study from the Telecommunications Industry

This is a case study of the use of subcontracting within BT plc the UKs largest telecommunications firm. The 1990s have witnessed significant quantitative and qualitative changes in the utilisation and management of subcontracting within BT. The deregulation, or rather the shift in regulation, of the employment relationship represented by movement from bureaucratic hierarchical forms of organisation to subcontracting introduces several sources of uncertainty into the process of ensuring an adequate supply of labour and inducing the desired contribution within production. This study examines whether the regulation of labour in terms of supply and performance can be reconciled through subcontracting mechanisms. In this case the experience of deregulation of the capital-labour relationship threw up unforeseen outcomes. The problems that arose from the reliance upon a labour source that was ostensibly beyond the control of the firm inspired initiatives that essentially represented the partial reregulation of the capital-labour relationship.

Work–life balance and older workers: employees' perspectives on retirement transitions following redundancy

Work-life balance and older workers : Employees’ perspectives on retirement transitions following redundancy

From Networks to Hierarchies: The Construction of a Subcontracting Regime in the Irish Telecommunications Industry

The perceived displacement of bureaucracy by external market relationships through the use of subcontracting has brought about an increase in interest in inter-organizational relations. The development of such relationships can be a protracted process, characterized by tensions and contradictions. The article traces the development of subcontracting within Eircom, the Irish telecommunications provider, from its relatively ad hoc origins in the mid-1990s to the development of a far more sophisticated contracting regime by 2003. The article explores the relationship between internal and external organizational changes associated with the construction of the subcontracting regime and the development of inter-organizational relationships. The subcontracting regime was transformed from a reliance on a series of decentralized local networks of suppliers to a highly centralized arrangement that bore increasing semblance to a unitary hierarchy. The transactions costs implications of such developments are considered throughout. The dynamics of change in this case reflect an incremental learning process as the organization adapted to changes in its environment and the emergent limitations of existing practices. Trust played an important role in the mediation of the subcontract relationships; however, the development of trust-based relationships was not a linear process.

The Migration of Bureaucracy: Contracting and the Regulation of Labour in the Telecommunications Industry

This is a study of the reconfiguration of bureaucracy, based on a case study of subcontracting within BT plc, the UKs largest telecommunications firm. The 1990s witnessed significant quantitative and qualitative changes in the utilization and management of subcontracting. The expansion in the use of subcontractors in this period was paralleled by reforms to the processes of negotiating, administrating and monitoring contracts. This article traces these developments and analyses their implications. The continuing process of reform saw a significant redrawing of the boundaries of responsibility between the patron firm and its supplier, as discrete elements of the production process were transferred to the remit of subcontractors. This migration of responsibility was, however, predicated upon the exportation of bureaucracy, from the patron to the supplier; the relocation of the bureaucratic mechanisms appropriate to the management of the widening range of tasks. The movement towards an increased reliance on external sources of labour could ostensibly bring greater exposure to market imperatives, but it is argued that, contrary to the theme of dismantling hierarchical employment structures, these reforms represented the reconfiguration of the bureaucratic organization of production.

Redundancy as a critical life event moving on from the Welsh steel industry through career change

This article investigates the process of moving on from redundancy in the Welsh steel industry among individuals seeking new careers. It identifies a spectrum of career change experience, ranging from those who had actively planned their career change, prior to the redundancies, to those ‘at a career crossroads’, for whom there were tensions between future projects, present contingencies and past identities. It suggests that the process of moving on from redundancy can be better understood if we are able to identify, not just structural and cultural enablers and constraints but also the temporal dimensions of agency that facilitate or limit transformative action in the context of critical life events. Where individuals are located on the spectrum of career change experience will depend on the balance of enabling and constraining factors across the four aspects considered, namely temporal dimensions of agency, individuals’ biographical experience, structural and cultural contexts.

Why do contingent workers join a trade union? Evidence from the Irish telecommunications sector

The restructuring of Irish telecommunications brought major changes to employment in the sector, including increased use of contingent labour. The Communications Workers Union won bargaining recognition in the main subcontract supply firm.The recruitment of contingent workers brought new challenges in terms of reconciling the interests of members working on traditional employment contracts and those with a variety of contingent employment forms. Successful organizing campaigns also raised the questions: why do contingent workers join the union and what does union membership mean to them? These developments are set in the context of union responses to sectoral restructuring in other countries, and possible lessons are drawn for broader attempts by unions to recruit and represent contingent workers.

Contingent work in the UK and Sweden: evidence from the construction industry

This article explores the use of contingent forms of employment in two diverse country contexts—the UK and Sweden—and investigates the influence of changing regulatory and economic conditions over ...