Suchergebnisse

Employment relations within the health sector have undergone radical reform over recent years. This book is an important new study that examines the responses of managers and workers to these different reforms, at both national and local level.Bringing together analyses of both employment relations and public sector management, the book focuses on understanding why certain initiatives have been adopted, how managers have responded to them and the consequences of the HR modernisation agenda. Topics covered include:HR strategy and structure at the workplaceemployee involvement and union influenc

Examines the reform of NHS employment practices focusing on managerial attempts to alter pay and working practices within NHS Trusts. It draws on case study evidence to illustrate the difficulties that have confronted managers in making radical changes in employment practices. It is argued that, despite important changes in working practices, the possibilities for a more strategic approach towards the management of staff in the NHS remains heavily constrained by central government intervention which reduces management autonomy at Trust level. After considering the implications for NHS employment practices of the NHS reforms, case study evidence from an acute trust hospital of pay determination and work organisation reform is assessed. Concludes by placing these findings in a wider context, including the prospects for employment practice reform under a Labour government.

This paper examines the strategies and dilemmas faced by local employers and trade unions in Britain in responding to austerity measures. Drawing on two local authority case studies this paper extends strategic choice analysis highlighting the use of pro-austerity and anti-austerity frames by local actors to advance their strategies. We challenge the dominant interpretation of austerity as signalling the triumph of neo-liberalism in which there is no scope for the exercise of strategic choice with the assumption Conservative and Labour councils pursue similar policies of outsourcing and wage cuts. Our findings consider austerity as practice as well as ideology and indicate variable responses at local level by employers and trade unions. These differentiated outcomes underline the divergent policy responses to the economic crisis between and within countries.