Documents Glover, Linda 5 results

"‘Who gains from partnership?' is a topic that has been hotly debated (Roche 2009) and it has been suggested that the ‘balance of advantage' is often skewed towards employers. However, employee testimony remains limited. To address this gap, the paper examines employee evidence on the partnership process and their interpretation of the gains realised over time in a large UK-based subsidiary of an engineering multinational company. The research is part of a larger longitudinal case-study project extending over 5 years. The analysis here draws upon data collected during 2006–2010 and includes 99 interviews alongside nearly 200 matched survey responses, in addition to observational and documentary evidence. We introduce a process model of the ‘hierarchy of gains' and suggest that this helps explain shifts in worker behaviour as a result of partnership."

"This article considers the workplace partnership–employee involvement nexus. While an empirical association has been recorded, there has been limited exploration of the potential benefits to be derived from the coupling of these interventions. Developing the idea of forward and reverse synergies this article argues the relationship is complex. The tendency for partnership to act as an antecedent for the utilization of employee involvement and wider organizational change has been documented – forward synergy. However, the reverse scenario, where involvement is used by management to initiate and subsequently bolster workplace cooperation and consensus has received far less scrutiny. This article seeks to shed light on both phenomena. "

"Drawing on longitudinal research in an engineering multinational corporation, this article considers the resilience of workplace partnership under conditions of retrenchment. In line with extant literature, the twin influences of trade union power and competitive strategy are seen to significantly shape the durability of partnership. Beyond these determinants, trust and managerial skill and political sensitivity are deemed important moderators. The findings nonetheless suggest that the favourable alignment of these factors may not represent a sufficient bulwark in those situations where the axis of partnership is local, within the context of otherwise centrally coordinated industrial relations."

"This article seeks to address the question of whether workers' reactions to managerial interventions can be more fully explained when the influence of informal social relations are analysed. Empirical evidence is drawn from detailed case studies that examined workers' reactions to quality management in British subsidiaries of two multinational companies. Some of the findings appear paradoxical at first sight. For example, workers expressed concerns for quality and customer satisfaction — despite feelings of demoralization and alienation. The analysis of informal relations offers an explanation for these responses. While not overlooking the importance of formal relations, the discussion focuses upon the nature and impact of informal relations (inside and outside the organization) as these have been less well discussed. Furthermore, the importance of linking the workplace with the non-work domain is increasingly being recognized and the concept of social relations can bridge these domains. "

"Quality management (QM) is now a mainstream management initiative, but few researchers have explored worker experiences of it. An exception is found in the work of Edwards et al. (1998) who make an important contribution by offering the ‘disciplined worker thesis' (meaning that workers prefer an ordered and disciplined work environment over disorganization or chaos) as a basis for explaining why workers may respond positively to QM initiatives, despite finding that these often require extra effort. We explore the utility of this concept by reference to empirical data from two detailed case studies. We found the disciplined worker thesis to be substantive but not comprehensive, in that it leaves some inexplicable results. In particular it does not capture the non-work factors that shaped workers responses to QM initiatives. As a result, we suggest that the conceptual remit of the disciplined worker thesis could usefully be enlarged to incorporate ‘orientations to work'."