Documents Commander, Johanna 3 results

"This article considers employees' experiences of a major organisational redesign project, which sought to deploy robotics technologies to improve the performance of National Health Service pharmacy distribution in one part of the UK. The principles of Lean-type approaches partly informed the redesign project, with senior managers seeking to tap the benefits of new technologies to streamline processes, while also arguing that change would bring opportunities for upskilling and inter-professional collaboration. The project managed to avoid some of the negative consequences for job quality predicted by the critical literature on Lean-type approaches in public services. However, employees' experiences varied, with some reporting new engagement in learning and collaborative service delivery ‘nearer the patient', while others complained of fewer opportunities to rotate across a variety of job roles. More fundamentally, employees questioned management's assumption that new technologies and Lean-type approaches are crucial to improved performance and better jobs. For many employees, both performance and job quality were compromised by the ‘leanness' of staffing models, which limited opportunities for development and contributed to work intensification. This tension is likely to remain a key theme in employment relations in the UK and beyond for as long as the public sector faces financial austerity."

"The expansion of higher education has led to more graduates in the UK labour market. Despite government expectations, this expansion has not boosted national economic competitiveness. This article argues that current understanding of the impact of graduates' skills is limited by methodological and conceptual narrowness in current research and that a broader research agenda is required. This agenda needs to cover not just the supply but also the demand, development and deployment of graduates' skills and, as a consequence, distinguish between ‘graduate skills' acquired in higher education and the ‘skills of graduates' formed prior to, in and parallel to higher education."

"This article contributes to ongoing debates about soft skills in front-line interactive service work in considering employability in the UK retail sector. It recognizes how UK government policy has emphasized the importance of qualifications in enhancing employability. However, it suggests that for front-line work in retail it is soft skills that are required to access entry-level jobs. The article notes how these soft skills have traditionally been dominated by debates about emotional labour. Drawing on a survey of 173 clothing, footwear and leather goods retailers, the article argues for a need to recognize the broadening of soft skills to also include aesthetic labour. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the broadening of soft skills with regard to policy initiatives to encourage the long-term unemployed into the retail sector. "