Management Research News: Volume 12 Issue 3
Table of contents
Augmenting Employee Resources — Actions for the 1990's
Alan BartlettThe 1990's will be a period of growing skills shortages, at a time when the demographic trend will be to a drastic fall in the numbers of young employees and an aging workforce…
Flexibility: The Trade Union View
Calvin AllenThe trade union response to flexibility has become more pragmatic as public discussion about the subject has progressed. From initial and outright condemnation of the flexibility…
Women Returners — Options For Employers
Dorothy Berry‐LoundThe number of 16 – 24 year olds entering the GB labour market will fall by 1.2 million between 1987 and 1995. This dramatic downturn is well chronicled.
Maximising the potential of women returning to work: aspirations, opportunities and policies
Elizabeth BirdThis paper takes as its starting point the prediction made by the National Economic Development Office/Training Commission Report of July 1988 that four out of five new entrants…
Between Adverserial Relations and Incorporation: Directions and Dilemmas in the U.S. Auto Industry
John Black, Peter AckersThis paper explores new directions in labour relations in the U.S. car industry by focussing on new developments in “Jointness” and “Teamworking” at a General Motors components…
Beyond Substitution: The Organisational Implications for the Successful Use of Integrated Technologies
Joanna Buckingham, John BessantIn recent years, process innovation has been increasingly seized upon by manufacturing industry as a key to improved performance. Complex integrated technologies, under banner…
Workplace Flexibility in Hospitals
Ali DastmalchianThis paper reports the results of a study examining the relationships between the perception of hospital staff of the climate of flexibility and aspects of hospital organisational…
Governments' Policy Towards Flexible Labour Contracts
Lei DelsenIn the next ten years the demographic composition of the labour force is likely to change considerably. Broadly in most European countries the proportion of youth and the elderly…
Labour Relations and Industrial Adjustment in the North American Automobile Industry
John HolmesThe purpose of this project is to examine similarities and differences in the labour‐management relations system between the United States and Canadian portions of the North…
Quality Strategies and Workforce Strategies in the European iron and Steel Industries
Hans‐Werner Franz, Rainer LichtePublic attention on iron and steel affairs is, despite booming production figures, still focussed on rude capacity and employment reductions, due to the far‐reaching social…
State Intervention at the Margin — Employment Initiatives into the 1990s
Chris HighleyOver the past decade the Government has identified two main policy areas relating directly to employment. These are covered by its initiatives to reduce unemployment through…
Local Economic Development and Training
J.T. HughesRegional and local development policies have gone through three main stages in the post‐war period.
Subcontracting Flexibility? Changes in Buyer‐Supplier Relations
T. Rutherford, J. Morris, R. ImrieThe past decade has witnessed a dramatic change in the scale and nature of production subcontracting in Britain. Recent surveys on buyer‐supplier relations indicate an increase in…
Managerial Strategies for Flexible Employment: An analysis using cross‐sectional data
Nicholas KinnieFew subjects in the employment field have generated as much controversy as the current debate over the existence of the ‘flexible firm’. The initial ideas put forward by the…
From ‘Welfare Capitalism’ to ‘Market Capitalism’; a Comparative Review of Trends Towards Employment Flexibility in the Labour Markets of Three Major European Societies
Christel LaneThis paper focuses on trends towards employment flexibility or numerical flexibility in the manufacturing sector. A careful distinction will be made between policy and actual…
Strategic Management and the Decision to Subcontract
H. MallochSubcontracting labour is an area which is likely to grow in importance in the 1990's: it has recently been highlighted as the major obstacle to growth in industries like…
Between Control and Consent?: Corporate Strategy and Employee Involvement in Ford UK
Alan McKinlay, Ken StarkeyManagement strategy within the Ford Motor Company has been going through a quiet revolution in the last decade. From being a utility car producer understanding competitive…
Open Secrets and Hidden Agendas: Working Time, Flexibility and Industrial Relations in Engineering
Alan McKinlayA common theme in industrial relations and business policy is the need for increased ‘flexibility’ to maintain or regain competitive advantage. The industrial…
Flexible Working Practices in European Engineering
Peter Needham, Nigel DonaldsonPeter Needham, Director of Studies at Ashridge Management College and Nigel Donaldson of the EEF describe the Study Tour organised by Ashridge and the Engineering Employees…
Subcontract, Flexibility and Changing Employment Relations in the Water Industry
Julia O'Connell DavidsonThe public utilities have not featured prominently in recent research in industrial sociology on restructuring, changes in employment relations and work flexibility. The fact that…
Flexible Specialisation: A View from the Boundary
Al RainnieIn 1979 Michel Aglietta published a book which translated into English some years later as “A Theory of Capitalist Regulation”. The book is dense, complex and espouses a version…
Older Workers, Ageism, and Labour Force Change: The Challenge to Employment Policy
David J. ParsonsThe rapid decline in older people in paid employment has been one of the most remarkable features of the UK labour market over the last decade. This has been most acute among…
The End of Organisational Society: A Theme in Search of a Theory?
Michael ReedIn 1962 Robert Presthus attempted to identify the major institutional features of the ‘organisational society’ (Presthus 1962). These were:
The Implications of Flexible Machine Tools in Small Batch Engineering
Michael RawlinsonThe majority of employment within the mechanical engineering sector involves production in batches rather than in continuous mass production. Furthermore, over 40% of all…
Labour Market Flexibility: the case of part‐time employment in Canada
Olive RobinsonThe 1983 OECD Employment Outlook reported that ‘the rapid expansion of part‐time employment in virtually all member countries is one of the most significant structural shifts…
Beyond the Black Hole
Ed RoseThe paper will explore issues arising from technological changes and work re‐structuring within a high volume manufacturing organisation based at Kirkby, Merseyside. It is hoped…
Industrial Relations and the Management of Schools
Roger SiefertThe management of schools in England and Wales is undergoing its most complete change since the 1944 Education Act. As a result both senior teachers as managers and the teacher…
The Law as Gamekeeper? Skills Poaching and Training in the UK
Ed Snape, Keith BrinkworthEmployers and government are becoming increasingly concerned at the shortage of trained manpower. In some sectors, employers are reacting to this problem by “poaching” skilled…
Primary Flexibility — the Flexible Firm and its Determinants
P.J. Sloane, Anne GasteenThe aim of this paper will be to identify the factors determining the use of ‘non‐standard employment contracts’ or what we term ‘primary flexibility’. While ‘standard employment…
Flexible Futures: Work, Place and Politics in the Region of Limburg (Belgium)
Erik A. SwyngedouwThis contribution is aimed at exploring the socio‐spatial dynamics of technological change and innovation under capitalist relations of production with special emphasis on these…
Buyer‐Supplier Relations and Industrial Relations in the UK Automotive Industry
Peter TurnbullThe UK motor industry has been at the centre of many important developments in British manufacturing in the 1980s. On the industrial relations front there have been reports of…
New Firms, Jobs and Public Policy
Ivan TurokThe paper will examine some of the implications of the general shift in the economy from large establishments to smaller, allegedly more flexible enterprises. It will draw on the…
Cross National and Sectoral Comparisons in Human Resource Strategic Management
Gillian UrsellThis is a report on work in progress to investigate empirically and to analyse the human resource management practices of comparable organisations representing the…
Competitive Tendering and the Operation of Local Authorities
Kieron WalshLocal authorities are to be required to subject a number of their services to competitive tender in a phased programme beginning in August 1989. There is al ready some experience…
‘Flexible’ Labour: Some Policy Perspectives
Tim WalshDrawing on publicly available statistics and data on employment structures, hours and labour utilisation practices from detailed company case‐studies in the retail and catering…
From Personnel Management to Human Resource Management? The Case of the Co‐operative Bank
Adrian WilkinsonThis paper is concerned with examining the development of a human resource management strategy in the Co‐operative Bank and explores the relationship between business strategy and…
Technical Change & Buyer Supplier Relationships in the British Clothing Industry
Marian WhitakerThis paper reports on a project exploring the opportunities for change in the technical and organisational infrastructure of the British clothing industry which will help it to…
Technological Change and Flexibility in the British Coal Mining Industry
Jonathan WintertonThis paper traces the relationship between technological changes and work organisation in coal mining and examines the present drive towards flexible working in British Coal.