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This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of front-line service workers’ experience of the worker–client relationship. It is based on a series of in-depth interviews with non-professionally affiliated workers in new front-line roles in UK mental health services. The findings cover three main areas: worker motivation and orientation; the nature of the worker–client relationship; and the role played in the relationship by the structure of work and relationships with colleagues. Evidence is found to support the use of the framework of Korczynski (Sociology, 43, 2009), but the research also suggests ways in which each of the framework's elements might be developed. It is argued that the idea of ‘caring’ is in need of refinement; that worker–client relations should not be seen solely in terms of client sovereignty and that a focus on the technical organisation of work can only go some way towards providing an understanding of the worker experience.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to look at the role relational coordination might play in understanding the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach Research was conducted in a large financial services provider in Pakistan. Across 120 branches of the bank, data on relational coordination and on the practices making up HPWS were obtained from employees by means of a questionnaire survey. Data on branch-level performance were obtained independently of this, from the bank itself. Findings Analysis shows relational coordination to be a mediating variable between HPWS and branch performance. Relational coordination is also a mediating variable for each of the three component parts of HPWS: ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing and opportunity-enhancing HR practices. Practical implications These results have important implications from two points of view. From the point of view of relational coordination, they show how the concept might apply in a previously under-researched sector, and also how relational coordination might act as a mediator for HR practices other than those aimed directly at enhancing employee opportunities. Breaking down HPWS into its component parts suggests that individual employee ability and motivation might also play a role. Originality/value This suggests that the ability-motivation-opportunity model needs to place greater emphasis on opportunity, and also that more account needs to be taken of the structural aspect of work – in particular, the degree of interdependence.

Recent workforce reforms have led to the widespread expansion of non-professionally affiliated (NPA) support and assistant roles within UK public services. Research into these roles has been confined to a limited range of settings, with a focus on the consequence of change for professional workers. This article explores the emergence of ‘co-production’, whereby NPA workers contribute alongside the professional in a distinct, complementary way. Findings are drawn from semi-structured interviews with front-line workers and managers within the context of mental health workforce reform. The results build a picture of NPA working life characterised in part by autonomy and responsibility. At the same time, NPA workers rely on colleagues for support and are subject to being used indirectly by professionals. Contextual influences are considered. The conceptual implications of the analysis are brought out, both for the NPA role itself and for the broader issues involved in front line service work.

Background: This paper examines the introduction and operation of a number of support roles in mental health services. This is done in the context of concerns about the effectiveness of CMHTs.\ud \ud Aims: Three questions are addressed: the degree to which concern for the work of consultant psychiatrists informed the introduction of the new roles; what the reforms implied for the work of the psychiatrist and those in new roles; and the impact of any changes on the operation of CMHTs.\ud \ud Method: Data were collected as part of a national-level evaluation. The main means of collection was the semi-structured interview.\ud \ud Results: The study shows: that reform was underpinned by concerns about the workload of psychiatrists; and that while in principle the responsibilities of the psychiatrist were to be distributed across other team members, those in new roles felt themselves to be isolated.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions: Despite the intentions of policy, the creation of the new roles did little to extend the idea of distributed responsibility in CMHTs.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to understand how and why employee attitudes to change might change over time; and to demonstrate what type of research might best capture this change. Design/methodology/approach – The paper brings together three studies of the same organization, conducted at different times by the same researchers. Findings – Employee attitudes to change in the three episodes are portrayed in terms of the assumptions that seem to underpin them. The first episode is characterized by a challenge to the basic assumptions employees have about their work; the second, by a fragmentation of assumptions according to sub-group; and the third, by the confirmation of a new set of assumptions about what work involves. Research limitations/implications – The paper concludes that fieldwork of a longitudinal nature is something quite rare, and its incorporation into research design needs to move beyond dealing with it through an uneasy combination of retrospection and extended organizational exposure. Originality/value – The paper provides a rare and valuable account of how employee attitudes to change might change over time. The research design on which it is based, though fortuitous in nature, overcomes a number of the weaknesses of more conventional studies in this area.

Thanks for a great 2017, and welcome to what will be a fantastic 2018. On behalf of the Editorial Board, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our submitting authors, reviewers, reade...

Institutional logics have been the focus of researchers' interest as a means of comparing and contrasting groups within organizations and their influence and impact on each other. The findings often suggest that these groups may collaborate, compete, comingle or coexist. The interest for researchers is how such interaction between logics takes place and what the final outcome of their interaction is. But not all logics compete or collaborate in the ways suggested. This article examines how one logic dominates to the detriment of another during a merger between two government departments. Two questions underlie this research into merging institutional logics: how does a logic uphold its dominance when confronted by an alternative or competing logic and what is the wider influential institutional context?

PurposeImposed change at work can present individuals with ambiguous events about which they experience ambivalence in their interpretation of meaning. This paper seeks to examine the dimensions of ambivalence as defined by Piderit among a group of managers in the public sector.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a group of 20 Band 11 senior managers responsible for collecting tax and between them covering the UK in a business restructured into a large business group. The authors adopted a qualitative approach involving semi‐structured interviews seeking to uncover individual accounts of imposed change, allowing subjects to reflect on their experience of change and its meaning to them.FindingsThe findings suggested that long‐service civil servants and private sector managers draw on their previous experience to interpret the changes they experience, giving rise to different perceived ambiguity between rhetoric and reality. Each group either comes to terms with ambiguity by interpreting the meaning of change to fit in with their expectancies of change, or, in one case, do not reconcile the change which then becomes a point of resistance.Practical implicationsThe case highlights the need for change agents to understand the full complexity of employee attitudes. Not only can a variety of attitudes be identified, but each set of responses can be understood in variety of ways.Originality/valueThe devil in the detail of imposed change offers both researchers and managers of change a significant source of information about likely individual and group responses to imposed change at work. Piderit's framework offers three dimensions of ambivalence which clarify different individual responses to imposed change.

Organizations are increasingly being called to account for their history. In particular, German and non-German companies have been called to account for their relations with the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. Organizations are not only accountable for past activity, but also for previous, often misleading, historical accounts of their behaviour. Thus we are interested in how an organization deals with historical accounts of its past, and how this reflects its culture. Therefore we draw upon concepts from organizational culture studies, and specifically Martin's three perspectives of culture as integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. We take the illustrative case of Bertelsmann, the German publishing company. Revelations of its record under the Nazis, when it published anti-semitic literature, were brought to light by Hersch Fischler in 1998, when Bertelsmann was in the process of taking over Random House. These revelations jarred with the company's image of corporate social responsibility and undermined the company legend, which alleged that it had an impeccable record, and had even been closed down for opposing the Nazis. The Bertelsmann case highlights the dilemmas involved in organizations invoking their past. Debate over the Holocaust has highlighted the dilemmas of truth and relativism in representations of history. The Bertelsmann case highlights similar dilemmas for organizational culture perspectives.

Our study contributes towards a burgeoning literature that argues organizational performance is heavily influenced by what happens in the middle of the organization, rather than at the top. Examining the UK National Health Service, our study develops the work of Floyd and Wooldridge (1992, 1994, 1997, 2000). It utilizes role theory to conceptualize changing experiences of middle managers in organizations as a role transition. Associated with this are problems of role conflict and role ambiguity (Biddle, 1979, 1986; Biddle and Thomas, 1966; Kahn et al., 1964, 1966). Our study illustrates that there are limiting factors to a more strategic role for middle managers associated with the professional bureaucracy context. However, role conflict and ambiguity can be mediated by a socialization process, which values incoming identity and personal characteristics (Van Maanen and Schein, 1979).

In terms of its implications for work and production, studies of teamworking have generally relied on concepts of autonomy and flexibility. An in-depth, qualitative case study of the UK Inland Revenue reveals a form of teamworking in which both autonomy and flexibility play little part. It is argued that teamworking in this case is best conceptualized by giving greater weight to interdependence. In particular, teamworking in the Inland Revenue works through the outcome interdependence engendered by the emphasis on the team’s work targets. This form of teamworking is given the name ‘target-based teamworking’. Certain aspects of the nature of production appear to encourage this form of teamworking. More generally, the case promotes interdependence as a means of understanding teamworking, and suggests that the key to this understanding is an analysis of the relationship between interdependence and autonomy.

Our study examines the interaction of human resource policies and practices with the implementation of teamworking. Put simply, do certain human resource policies and practices support the implementation of teamworking? Do certain human resource policies and practices work against the implementation of teamworking? It utilizes an illustrative case from the UK public sector – the Inland Revenue, the UK tax assessment and collection agency – to address the research question. The case of the Inland Revenue gives support to the argument that it is necessary to identify and understand the differences between a variety of forms of teamworking. With the variation in forms of teamworking that are implemented, there may be variations in the human resource management context. In short, a contingency approach to the interaction of the implementation of teamworking with human resource policies and practices may be appropriate. In the case, teamworking was implemented to facilitate the introduction of a new tax regime...

The paper meets a need for more context specific empirical research in this area. Subject to medical group power, the three cases studied suggest that MIS/IT enhances the role of middle managers since it is they who are best placed to ‘synthesise’ information from MIS/IT for executive management.

Studies of teamworking suggest that, for it to be successful, fundamental changes must take place in many aspects of an organization’s structure and operations. This study of the Inland Revenue reveals that only in a few aspects does its operation of teamworking follow this model. The range of work is little changed; employees exercise little in the way of new skills; they appear reluctant to adopt responsibility for the work of others; and the performance management system operates on the basis of individual performance. Nonetheless, teamworking appears to work in the Inland Revenue. It does so by having a team rather than an individual allocation of work, and by encouraging individual identity with the team target. This suggests that, although a limited version of teamworking exists, this might be all an organization needs. Thus what is needed is a more sophisticated understanding of teamworking, its objectives, and the relationship between the two.

The concern of this paper lies with empowerment of middle managers in a community health trust. It considers the impact of traditional structures and cultures upon the level of decision which middle managers are empowered to make. The conclusion reached is one which suggests that the level of discretion available to middle managers was one of making task‐orientated decisions rather than decisions about strategic change. However, even this was compromised by financial constraints and by “best practices” imposed by the personnel function.

The concept of culture promised to make organization studies more historical and to provide theoretical relevance for business history. This promise has not been fulfilled. The conventions at various levels of organizational culture studies prevent them from becoming more historical, and the conventions of business history make it difficult to engage with the concept of culture. Corporate culturism imposes a narrative structure that privileges the role of founders in history. Similarly, corporate sponsorship reinforces the tendency for business historians to endorse the unity and continuity of corporate cultures. The influence of economics in business history reduces culture to a residual variable and subordinates narrative to economic models. Organizational symbolists are suspicious of narrative, which they associate with founder-centred corporate culturism. Instead, ethnographies emphasize verisimilitude and the subjective experience of the author at the expense of verifiable historical narratives. Business historians adopt an objective stance that allows them to write definitive company histories, but makes it difficult to engage with the subjectivism and relativism of organizational symbolism or the scepticism of post-modernism. Unlike organizational culture studies, post-modernism in history is identified with a return to narrative. A serious engagement with organizational culture studies might engender the much-needed critical reflex in business history. We use the rare examples of historical deconstruction in organizational culture studies (Boje 1995) and of deconstruction in business history (Church 1996) to highlight the differences between the two discourses. We argue that a more historical approach in organizational culture studies and a more reflexive engagement with the concept of culture in business history would facilitate the deconstruction of founder-centred narratives of corporate culture.

Ulrich's recent influential claim is that the personnel function needs to be seen in terms of its multiple roles. This paper aims to deepen this kind of analysis in two ways: by focusing on specific areas of personnel work and by looking at the processes - in particular, the relationships with other organizational actors - through which these roles are assumed. A case study of the personnel function in a UK health service trust examines three areas: local pay, competence-based recruitment and skill mix. In looking at the development of the function's role in each of these, the analysis concentrates on its relationship with middle-level operational managers. The case reveals differences in perception between the personnel function and the middle managers, and shows how the relationship between the two groups shapes the role the function takes on in each of the areas examined.

In the late 1980s, the idea of Japanization dominated debates about the restructuring of production, work and industrial relations in this country. There was, of course, some evidence to support the Japanization thesis; yet, even at the time of the strongest influence, there were indications that it did not describe what was happening very well. It now seems much more plausible to argue that British manufacturing companies were on a distinctive trajectory of development, which has only passing similarities to Japanese patterns of organization.

The deskilling/reskilling controversy within the labour process debate is considered within the context of the implementation of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). Effective implementation of CIM is shown to require an appreciation of the social and organizational issues associated with organizational change. As such the deskilling/reskilling issue is worthy of analysis within the CIM context and aspects of the labour process debate are examined. The effects of technological change on the skills of shopfloor oerators and supervisors are examined by analysing two dimensions of skill, technical complexity and discretion or autonomy. The paper concludes that the outcomes of technical change are framed by managerial perceptions and consequent decisions on how technology should be implemented in terms of work organisation.

Current evidence on the extent of JIT is based mainly on questionnaire surveys, and can give only a partial picture. Uses evidence from official statistics on stock levels, the rationale being that even if the motivation behind JIT is not to reduce stocks, its use should still have this effect. The figures show a substantial reduction in the overall stock ratio in the period since the early 1980s. However, account must be taken of the relationship between the stock ratio and the level of output. There is little evidence of a new relationship having been established. Moreover, stock trends in the vehicle manufacturing industry have been less marked than in manufacturing as a whole. If reductions in stock ratios had been due to the adoption of JIT, we would expect the opposite to be the case. Evidence drawn from aggregate stock data thus provides little support for the idea that the adoption of JIT has been widespread in the UK.

Stephen Procter, John Hassard and Michael Rowlinson investigate the introduction of cellular manufacturing in two units of a large British engineering group. They explore the reasons for its introduction – in both cases it was the cumbersome, functionally-based system of production that precluded quick and easy reaction to changes in conditions – and the effects such as the flattening of the organisational structure and the new role of the cell leader. A comparison of the two companies shows the difficulties involved in trying to enhance discretion by means of a process that was explicitly low-trust in nature. In one case an open and participative style was used which appeared to meet with success. In the second case, management adopted a closed and uncommunicative style which induced indifference and, at worst, resistance. Stephen Procter and Michael Rowlinson are Lecturers in the School of Management and Finance at the University of Nottingham, and John Hassard is Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Keele.

The relationships between computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), corporate strategy and organization are assessed, and various periodizations for analysing the process of innovation are considered. The periodization selected consists of concept, translation, commissioning and operation, and this is then used to structure a case study, based on in-depth interviews, of the introduction of CIM in a medium sized UK manufacturer of electrical components for the automotive industry.

Current evidence on the extent of just‐in‐time (JIT) is based mainly on questionnaire surveys, and can give only a partial picture. Uses evidence from official statistics on stock levels, the rationale being that even if the motivation behind JIT is not to reduce stocks, its use should still have this effect. The figures show a substantial reduction in the overall stock ratio in the period since the early 1980s. However, account must be taken of the relationship between the stock ratio and the level of output. There is little evidence of a new relationship having been established. Moreover, stock trends in the vehicle manufacturing industry have been less marked than in manufacturing as a whole. If reductions in stock ratios had been due to the adoption of JIT, we would expect the opposite to be the case. Evidence drawn from aggregate stock data thus provides little support for the idea that the adoption of JIT has been widespread in the UK.

SUMMARY This paper discusses the use of performance related pay (PRP) as a means of control over the relationship between effort and reward. Taking a critical perspective, it describes how the implementation of PRP in a UK-based electronics company has been used as a device to remove trade union influence in wage-setting arrangements and to effect changes in employee behaviour. The opinions of supervisors, line managers, personnel managers and shop-floor staff are discussed and the implications for management control are assessed. The paper concludes that from management's perspective the PRP system appears to have been a success, for it has in some cases ‘commercialized’ the relationship between effort and reward, and has pre-empted expressions of employee resistance.

The introduction of cellular manufacture in two factories is examined. In the first factory, the economic difficulties driving the changes were anticipated rather than being felt. Its most pressing problem was how to divide its products into the “families” necessary for cellular production. It was decided that this division should to some extent determine what products should be produced rather than vice versa. For the second factory, where economic difficulties were already present, the stage had been reached at which it had to be decided who was to work in the cells. Though the decisions had been made, they had not been communicated to the workforce for fear of disrupting current production. In both cases it can be seen that in order to gain the benefits of cellular manufacture, fundamental changes have to be made not only in the production process but also in the management of human resources.

Decisions about R&D affect all of us. They are linked inextricably with the performance of firms and of economies as a whole. Their importance means that they are of concern to a large number of practitioners, policymakers and researchers. Their scope means that their study can be approached from a wide variety of perspectives. It is hoped that this book will demonstrate the range of issues and perspectives which R&D can encompass and, at the same time, that it will bring out the elements which unite them. This introductory chapter is thus in two parts. The first describes the chapters in terms of the three sets of issues around which the book is structured: strategy and organization, policy and performance, and finance and disclosure. The second part addresses the themes which emerge from all this and which bring together contributions from the different sections of the book.

The concern of this paper lies with empowerment of middle managers in a community health trust. It considers the impact of traditional structures and cultures upon the level of decision which middle managers are empowered to make. The conclusion reached is one which suggests that the level of discretion available to middle managers was one of making task‐oriented decisions rather than decisions about strategic change. However, even this was compromised by financial constraints and by “best practices” imposed by the personnel function.

This paper examines the form in which British manufacturing industry has assumed greater flexibility. Two basic types of flexibility are identified: technology-centred and labour-centred. Each of these has generated a substantial literature of its own; each, however, gives little consideration to the other. To the extent they have been considered together, the assumption has been that flexible manufacturing technologies require multi-skilled labour. The argument presented in this paper is that flexibility in technology and flexibility in labour should be regarded not as complementary but as substitutes for each other. Evidence from British industry shows that the use of advanced manufacturing technology is not widespread and that, where it is used, its potential benefits are not fully exploited; other evidence shows labour flexibility to have been pursued systematically. Analysis of firms' strategies will take into account the fact that the conditions under which they operate will make certain courses of action more likely to be taken than others. A number of reasons have been advanced as explanations of British manufacturing's low and poor use of advanced manufacturing technology. It is these same conditions that make the pursuit of an exploitative form of labour flexibility the more attractive alternative.