Senia Kalfa

Strategic HRM and devolving HR to the line: Cochlear during the shift to lean manufacturing

Our case study at Cochlear, a medical device manufacturer, highlights how devolving HR to the line can facilitate organisational change to lean manufacturing. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted with management and employees, it sheds light into the HR practices in one of the very few Australian manufacturers that are successful on an international scale. This study contributes to the debate on strategic human resource management and in particular on the role of line managers and the process and outcomes of devolving HR responsibilities to the line during an organisational-wide transformation to lean management (a form of high-performance work systems). Furthermore, we add to the increasing and significant research stream which argues that HR affects organisational performance indirectly rather than directly; hence, the focus of HR professionals should be on developing systems of support for line managers so as to ensure the consistent and equitable enactment of intended HRM practices.

Lean manufacturing as a high-performance work system: the case of Cochlear

This paper addresses the Special Issue call for Australian examples of innovative management systems that enable the production of successful products by drawing on a single case study: medical device manufacturer Cochlear. Through qualitative case study methodology, we examine the human resource management practices that complemented the implementation of lean manufacturing principles. We argue that in their implementation, Cochlear’s management team enriched the traditional understanding of lean and its focus on waste reduction, low cost and quality assurance by adopting people management practices as an integrated component of the overall management capability which allowed their people to grow and develop. The combination of lean and HR practices transformed Cochlear to a high-performance work system and positively impacted production processes and output. By examining a medical device manufacturer, an under-researched sector, our paper expands existing literature on lean manufacturing and provides implications for practitioners.

Financial cost of lymphedema borne by women with breast cancer

Our study examines the financial cost of lymphedema following a diagnosis of breast cancer and addresses a significant knowledge gap regarding the additional impact of lymphedema on breast cancer survivors.

The academic game: compliance and resistance in universities

This article draws on the sociology of Bourdieu to explore how academics respond to managerialist imperatives. Bourdieu’s metaphor of the game is applied to a case study of a regional Australian university, which underwent significant changes in 2007, the most notable being the introduction of performance appraisals. In-depth interviews (N=20) reveal evidence of symbolic violence: staff compliance with and complicity in the changes. This is evident in the way that the interviewees, mostly early career academics, chose to play the game by concentrating their efforts on increasing their capital within the new order. To further support this argument, signs of resistance to the new regime were explored. Findings show that vocal resistance was sparse with silence, neglect and exit being the more realistic options. The article concludes that it is academics’ illusio, their unwavering commitment to the game, which neutralizes resistance by pitting colleagues against each other.

Introduction: Employee voice in emerging economies: Charting new territory

Within the industrial relations paradigm, employee voice is broadly defined as the ways and means through which employees attempt to have a say and potentially influence organisational affairs about issues that affect their work and the interests of owners and managers (Wilkinson, Donaghey, Dundon, & Freeman, 2014). Whilst there is an extensive literature on employee voice in the Anglo-American (developed) world (e.g., Freeman, Boxall, & Haynes, 2007; Wilkinson, Gollan, Marchington, & Lewin, 2010), we know much less about how employee voice operates in emerging economies. This special issue of Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations explores the nature of employee voice in seven emerging economies: Argentina, China, India, South Korea, Belarus, South Africa and Namibia. The issue brings together an internationally renowned group of contributors who are experts in their field and an authority on these countries, to combine cutting edge research and theory in this essential exploration of voice in emerging economies.

Voice as an Empowerment Practice: The Case of an Australian Manufacturing Company

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to examine voice as an empowerment practice in a manufacturing company. The case study follows a qualitative approach to analyse employee voice and types of empowerment from a structural perspective. Findings suggest a variety of voice arrangements to empowering employees such as voice surveys, meetings, e-suggestions, opinion boxes and informal means such as casual meetings and walkarounds. In addition, employee voice is linked to types of empowerment such as information sharing, upward problem solving, task autonomy and attitudinal shaping. Further research would benefit from an exploration of employees’ feelings regarding voice mechanisms to examine the psychological perspective of empowerment.

Voices unheard: employee voice in the new century

The concept of employee voice has attracted considerable attention in research since the 1980s primarily in the fields of Employment Relations/Human Resource Management (ER/HRM) and Organisational Behaviour (OB). Each of these disciplines focuses on different aspects of employee voice, the former examining the mechanisms for employees to have ‘a say’ in organisational decision-making (Freeman, Boxall, & Haynes, 2007; Gollan, Kaufman, Taras, & Wilkinson, 2015; Wilkinson & Fay, 2011) and the latter considering voice as an ‘extra-role upward communication behaviour’ (Morrison, 2014, p. 174) with the intent to improve organizational functioning. The purpose of voice is seen by each of these disciplines in a different way. ER/HRM perspectives are underpinned by the assumption that it is a fundamental democratic right for workers to extend a degree of control over managerial decision-making within an organisation (Kaufman, 2015; Wilkinson, Gollan, Lewin, & Marchington, 2010). Thus, everyone should have a voice and a lack of opportunities to express that voice may adversely affect workers’ dignity. In contrast, OB perspectives are underpinned more by a concern with organisational improvements, therefore leaving it much more to managerial discretion to reduce or change existing voice arrangements due to, for example, an economic downturn (Barry & Wilkinson, 2016). The term employee voice is somewhat weaker than that of other related terms such as employee participation because it does not denote influence or power-sharing and may thus be at times no more than trickle up voice. However, ‘without voice, there can be no enactment of participation’ (Glew, O’Leary-Kelly, Griffin, & van Fleet, 1995, p. 402) and thus all voice models in the ER/HRM tradition begin with the presence of a voice opportunity for participants, which refers to ‘any vehicle through which an individual has increased impact on some element of the organization’ (Glew et al., 1995, p. 402). From an ER/HRM point of view the extant research examining employee voice focuses primarily on the ‘definitions, structures, processes and effectiveness of employee participation’ (Gollan &

Employee Voice in Emerging Economies

While much is known about employee voice in the developed world, much less is known about its operation in emerging economies. This volume explores the nature of employee voice in Argentine, China, India and South Korea, providing a timely challenge to the predominant assumptions that underline our knowledge of employee voice in the Western world.

Partnership at eurotunnel: challenges for NER and union representation

Competitive pressure on companies to boost productivity and performance has intensifi ed in the last two or three decades due to a confl uence of events, such as global integration of markets, a more fi nance-driven business environment, and industry deregulation and privatization. The ripple effects spread across all functional areas of business, affect all stakeholders, and can have positive or negative social consequences. Certainly employees and the human resource function are a case in point. Companies may react to greater competitive pressure by taking the low road through labour commodifi cation, cost cutting, and worker disempowerment or the high road through investment in human capital, high-involvement work practices, and mutual-gain compensation.1. Voice and Involvement at Work: Introduction Paul Gollan, Bruce Kaufman, Daphne Taras, and Adrian Wilkinson Part I: Australia 2. NER at Suncorp Group: the Suncorp Group Employee Council Paul Gollan and Cathy Ying Xu 3. NER in a Leading Australian Medical Manufacturer Paul Gollan and Senia Kalfa 4. The Difficult Challenge Faced by Hybrid Employee Voice in the Australian University Sector Alison Barnes and Craig MacMillan Part II: Britain 5. Legislating for NER? NER and the ICE Regulations at Manufacture Co. Jimmy Donaghey, Niall Cullinane, and Tony Dundon 6. Employee Voice at a Dot Com: The Rise and Demise of the Employee Forum at WebBank Stewart Johnstone and Adrian Wilkinson 7. Partnership at Eurotunnel: Challenges for NER and Union Representation Paul Gollan and Senia Kalfa Part III: Canada 8. A Century of Employee Representation at Imperial Oil Daphne Taras 9. Non-Union Employee Representation in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Resistance and Revitalization Sara Slinn 10. From Nonunion Consultation to Bargaining in the Canadian Federal Public Service: Expanding the Bounds of Employee Representation through the NJC Richard Chaykowski Part IV: United States 11. Employee Involvement and Voice at Delta Air Lines: The Leading Edge of American Practice Bruce Kaufman 12. The Intersection of NER and ADR: A Conceptual Analysis and Federal Express Case David Lewin 13. What Do NLRB Cases Reveal About Non-Union Employee Representation Groups? A Typology from Post-Electromation Cases Michael LeRoyThis chapter examines the employee involvement and voice (EIV) system at a UK-based Internet bank, referred to by the pseudonym “WebBank,” which was established in 1997 and ceased trading in 2011. The company quickly grew from a small city-centre startup operation to employing more than 2,500 in a large purpose-built operations centre at its peak. The context provides an interesting opportunity to explore the evolution and development of EIV in a greenfi eld context over its entire lifecycle. Given the importance of context and management choice in shaping EIV systems (Wilkinson et al. 2013), this represents an opportunity to explore a relatively unusual model of non-union EIV in Britain, during a period when the newly elected Labour government appeared to have warmer attitudes to trade unions after almost two decades of Conservative governments of leaving them out in the cold.This chapter examines the case of Cochlear, a medical manufacturer in Sydney, Australia, and its non-union voice arrangements. It draws on interviews conducted in 2009 and 2012 with management and employees to argue the following points. First, representative non-union employee representation (NER) arrangements can be used in periods of organisational change in a problem-solving capacity (Butler 2009) and as means to address short-term communication needs. However, when the change at hand is embedded in the organisation and the circumstances that gave rise to representative NER dissipate, the centrality and role of a collective non-union representation body wanes. In other words, we concur with much literature that fi nds that NER arrangements diminish in importance in the long term. Second, direct-voice arrangements can substitute for collective NER and in fact be more effective in capturing employee concerns over production and/or other matters. Third, embedding employee voice mechanisms within a broader human resources (HR) framework is crucial and preferred to a “narrow, one-dimensional employee participation initiatives” (Wilkinson et al. 2010: 9). In other words, the existence of voice mechanisms per se is not enough; what is needed is a high-involvement strategy that emphasises competitive advantage through people (Kaufman and Taras 2010).

NER in a leading Australian medical manufacturer

Competitive pressure on companies to boost productivity and performance has intensifi ed in the last two or three decades due to a confl uence of events, such as global integration of markets, a more fi nance-driven business environment, and industry deregulation and privatization. The ripple effects spread across all functional areas of business, affect all stakeholders, and can have positive or negative social consequences. Certainly employees and the human resource function are a case in point. Companies may react to greater competitive pressure by taking the low road through labour commodifi cation, cost cutting, and worker disempowerment or the high road through investment in human capital, high-involvement work practices, and mutual-gain compensation.1. Voice and Involvement at Work: Introduction Paul Gollan, Bruce Kaufman, Daphne Taras, and Adrian Wilkinson Part I: Australia 2. NER at Suncorp Group: the Suncorp Group Employee Council Paul Gollan and Cathy Ying Xu 3. NER in a Leading Australian Medical Manufacturer Paul Gollan and Senia Kalfa 4. The Difficult Challenge Faced by Hybrid Employee Voice in the Australian University Sector Alison Barnes and Craig MacMillan Part II: Britain 5. Legislating for NER? NER and the ICE Regulations at Manufacture Co. Jimmy Donaghey, Niall Cullinane, and Tony Dundon 6. Employee Voice at a Dot Com: The Rise and Demise of the Employee Forum at WebBank Stewart Johnstone and Adrian Wilkinson 7. Partnership at Eurotunnel: Challenges for NER and Union Representation Paul Gollan and Senia Kalfa Part III: Canada 8. A Century of Employee Representation at Imperial Oil Daphne Taras 9. Non-Union Employee Representation in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Resistance and Revitalization Sara Slinn 10. From Nonunion Consultation to Bargaining in the Canadian Federal Public Service: Expanding the Bounds of Employee Representation through the NJC Richard Chaykowski Part IV: United States 11. Employee Involvement and Voice at Delta Air Lines: The Leading Edge of American Practice Bruce Kaufman 12. The Intersection of NER and ADR: A Conceptual Analysis and Federal Express Case David Lewin 13. What Do NLRB Cases Reveal About Non-Union Employee Representation Groups? A Typology from Post-Electromation Cases Michael LeRoyThis chapter examines the employee involvement and voice (EIV) system at a UK-based Internet bank, referred to by the pseudonym “WebBank,” which was established in 1997 and ceased trading in 2011. The company quickly grew from a small city-centre startup operation to employing more than 2,500 in a large purpose-built operations centre at its peak. The context provides an interesting opportunity to explore the evolution and development of EIV in a greenfi eld context over its entire lifecycle. Given the importance of context and management choice in shaping EIV systems (Wilkinson et al. 2013), this represents an opportunity to explore a relatively unusual model of non-union EIV in Britain, during a period when the newly elected Labour government appeared to have warmer attitudes to trade unions after almost two decades of Conservative governments of leaving them out in the cold.This chapter examines the case of Cochlear, a medical manufacturer in Sydney, Australia, and its non-union voice arrangements. It draws on interviews conducted in 2009 and 2012 with management and employees to argue the following points. First, representative non-union employee representation (NER) arrangements can be used in periods of organisational change in a problem-solving capacity (Butler 2009) and as means to address short-term communication needs. However, when the change at hand is embedded in the organisation and the circumstances that gave rise to representative NER dissipate, the centrality and role of a collective non-union representation body wanes. In other words, we concur with much literature that fi nds that NER arrangements diminish in importance in the long term. Second, direct-voice arrangements can substitute for collective NER and in fact be more effective in capturing employee concerns over production and/or other matters. Third, embedding employee voice mechanisms within a broader human resources (HR) framework is crucial and preferred to a “narrow, one-dimensional employee participation initiatives” (Wilkinson et al. 2010: 9). In other words, the existence of voice mechanisms per se is not enough; what is needed is a high-involvement strategy that emphasises competitive advantage through people (Kaufman and Taras 2010).