Documents Beale, David 7 results

"Focused on a large, diverse branch of the British postal workers' trade union, workplace union responses to Royal Mail's employee involvement initiatives are examined through a two-stage longitudinal case study. Royal Mail – the letters section of the British postal service – has carried out a series of managerialist experiments with employee involvement and participation in the last few decades, providing the basis for an important research literature on union and worker responses to new management initiatives, participation and HRM. Findings suggest that these management initiatives and union responses have mutated over time, with an ever-growing gap between management rhetoric associated with employee involvement and increasingly punitive management practice; and with changing but relatively resilient, oppositional workplace union responses. These developments are closely related to the entrenched, confrontational nature of Royal Mail industrial relations that has persisted since the mid-1980s."

"Workplace bullying is increasingly recognized as an important area of debate, particularly among researchers adopting a psychological perspective of work. This paper examines definitions of workplace bullying and explores less orthodox approaches within a British context. It focuses primarily on managers as perpetrators, and comments on the 'bullying organization', the relevance of human resource management and of gender. Context, the workplace balance of power, workers' collective resistance and trade unions are then emphasized as significant factors and the potential for developing a contextualized, politicized and interdisciplinary approach to workplace bullying is suggested. Links with mobilization theory are explored, and the issue is also examined within the UK public sector environment."

"The pattern of adoption of high-performance work practices has been explained in terms of strategic contingency and in terms of union presence. We compare the post-deregulation/privatization changes in work practice at AT&T, Bell Atlantic and British Telecom. On the basis of these cases, we argue that the choice of new work practices should be understood as a consequence not only of the company's resources or changes in its environment, nor of a simple union presence, but also as a consequence of the practices' effects on union power, the nature of the union's engagement, and the union's strategic choices."

"Previous research strongly indicates that the perpetrators of workplace bullying in Britain are mainly managers. Contrary to the predominant view in workplace bullying literature and despite cost implications for employers, this article proposes an agenda for future empirical research focused on whether employers may also benefit significantly from bullying. It outlines a definition of workplace bullying, key debates and prescriptions suggested in previously published literature for management to contest and prevent it. When bullying is perceived in terms of managerial control of labour and the core concepts of the labour process – an approach not previously embraced in the established psychological and social psychological analyses of the issue – bullying is better understood as an endemic feature of the capitalist employment relationship. Existing secondary material and future research possibilities are then explored and discussed, with some conclusions that are aimed to take the research in this field in new directions."

"This article explores workplace bullying in Britain and Sweden. It compares and contrasts the patterns of bullying in the two countries, examines the attitudes and responses of employers and explores the different legal frameworks. It adopts a contextualized approach and explores the possibility of a connection between workplace bullying issues and the distinctive patterns of industrial relations in the two countries. The article draws on previously published material to examine these questions, suggesting possibilities for new empirical research."