Documents Latreille, Paul L. 14 results

"This paper analyses the relationship between training, job satisfaction, and workplace performance using the British 2004 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS). Several measures of performance are analysed including absence, quits, financial performance, labour productivity, and product quality. Although there is clear evidence that training is positively associated with job satisfaction, and job satisfaction in turn is positively associated with most measures of performance, the relationship between training and performance is complex, depending on both the particular measures of training and of performance used in the analysis."

"The perception is that formal representation is increasingly common in UK Employment Tribunals (ETs), as case volumes and complexity increase. We investigate the nature of representation in UK ETs using the 2003 and 2008 Survey of Employment Tribunal Applications (SETA). The results suggest that between 2003 and 2008, the extent of formal claimant representation declined. The majority of employers and claimants are either heavily represented or have little/no representation, and there is little evidence that claimant representation is a response to employer representation at least at the level of individual claims. Overall, however, it would seem that some of the ‘accessible, informal and inexpensive' characteristics envisaged by Donovan continue to apply only to cases within certain jurisdictions."

"Workplace mediation is high on the British policy agenda. To date, however, despite growing awareness, organisational experience in Britain remains limited and the evidence base accordingly underdeveloped. This paper contributes to the debate by undertaking secondary quantitative analysis of an Acas Omnibus Poll of 500 SMEs. Two substantive issues are explored: the characteristics associated with previous experience of mediation in resolving workplace conflict; and the extent to which prior knowledge and experience of mediation in this context impact on a range of attitudinal variables. In respect of the former we find firm size to be important, while for the latter the data suggest attitudes are typically more positive among experienced firms. This is most notably true in relation to the perceived cost of mediation and (subject to a qualification) to its suitability for smaller firms, both of which are crucial drivers of the uptake of mediation among smaller organisations."

"Existing evidence on the effectiveness of mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) suggests high settlement rates and enhanced levels of satisfaction. Faced with pressures on the UK Employment Tribunal (ET) system from increased case volumes and complexity, policymakers have turned to ADR as a policy tool that can potentially ease the strain. However, studies that provide robust evidence of a statistically significant effect or ‘value added' from ADR are scarce. In this paper, we consider evidence from a quantitative evaluation of judicial mediation in the UK ET system, piloted for discrimination cases. The findings suggest that judicial mediation is particularly favoured by employers, and controlling for a range of factors, including jurisdiction, we find that women are significantly more likely to take up the offer of mediation; as are employers who do not have representation in the early stages of the process. However, the main finding from the evaluation using propensity score matching is that no statistically significant effect can be identified when comparing the outcomes from matched mediated and unmediated case samples. The focus of discussion is on why this result occurs and the implications for the wider debates on ADR; specifically we consider the need for variety in the types of ADR used, in situations where the primary aim is to cope with increased case volumes and complexity."

"This article traces the evolution of Employment Tribunals (ETs) in Great Britain over the last 50 years from distinctive and comparatively informal bodies to their proposed merger with the ‘ordinary' civil courts. This reflects the tendency of an organisation to become similar to another organisation where both are in the same organisational field: institutional isomorphism. Such isomorphism occurs because of coercive pressures by the body controlling the organisation's resources, in this case government. Such isomorphism occurs also because of mimetic pressures; in this case the relatively newly established ETs have adopted the paradigm of the long-established civil courts, and because of normative pressures due to the common values held by judges in ETs and judges in the civil courts arising from their common legal training, legal apprenticeship and role socialisation. The article then argues that this isomorphism has contributed to the juridification of employment relations. "

"This paper uses the fourth European Working Conditions Survey (2005) to address the impact of age on work-related self-reported health outcomes. More specifically, the paper examines whether older workers differ significantly from younger workers regarding their job-related health risk perception, mental and physical health, sickness absence, probability of reporting injury and fatigue. Accounting for the 'healthy worker effect', or sample selection – in so far as unhealthy workers are likely to exit the labour force – we find that as a group, those aged 55-65 years are more 'vulnerable' than younger workers: they are more likely to perceive work-related health and safety risks, and to report mental, physical and fatigue health problems. As previously shown, older workers are more likely to report work-related absence."