Research Update Work, Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC)
www.woerrc.group.shef.ac.uk
Assessing the Impact of Changes to Employment Rights In December 2014 PROFESSOR JASON HEYES, along with Dr Paul Lewis from the University of Birmingham, co-hosted a one-day workshop on ‘Regulating work and employment: recent changes/future prospects’. The event was attended by representatives of ACAS, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the CIPD and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), as well as leading academics and early career researchers. It was the culmination of a two-year project, funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, which has assessed the consequences of labour market policy reforms in the EU since the start of the economic crisis in 2008. During the workshop Professor Heyes, Dr Lewis and Mark Beatson – chief economist at the CIPD – discussed the implications of employment rights reforms for workers and employers while DR TIM VORLEY (Sheffield), Professor Ute Stephan (Aston) and Professor Simon Down (Anglia Ruskin) spoke about the impact of employment regulations on small businesses. Mark Heath from the GLA and Professor Linda Dickens from the University of Warwick assessed long-standing and emerging challenges facing government agencies responsible for ensuring compliance with employment rights while Tony Thomas and Paula Lovitt provided insights into BIS’s review of employment status. Presentations are available on the WOERRC website: www.woerrc.group.shef.ac.uk/news-events Professor Jason Heyes
Professor Heyes and Paul Lewis have recently published some of their project findings in the journal Economic & Industrial Democracy. The paper can be found at bit.ly/heyes-lewis. The paper argues that the reductions in Employment Protection Legislation that have occurred since 2008 are unlikely to encourage a growth in good quality jobs. The findings point to the important role of employment protections in stemming job losses in the initial stages of the economic crisis. The paper also shows that increased participation in ‘involuntary non-standard employment’ since 2008 has resulted in an increased risk of in-work poverty.
WOERRC conducts cutting-edge research on issues relating to the labour market, the organisation of work and management-worker relations. We have undertaken research and consultancy projects for a variety of practitioner and policy-making bodies. For further information, please consult the Centre’s website www.woerrc.group.shef.ac.uk or contact WOERRC’s director, Professor Jason Heyes (j.heyes@sheffield.ac.uk).
Olderpreneurs suffer discrimination
People aged 50-plus face particular challenges in relation to work and employment. Responding to shortfalls in pension provision and uncertainty over the value of personal savings has prompted many to consider extending their working lives. However, age discrimination serves to restrict the employment opportunities available, with implications for older people’s wellbeing and social marginalisation. In this context, so-called ‘olderpreneurs’ have attracted attention as a possible solution – starting a business as a means for older people to secure their future. In new research findings* with Oliver Mallett of Durham University, DR ROBERT WAPSHOTT highlights how common assumptions of older people being well-placed to start a business through skills, networks and other resources mask the difficulties they can face. The paper discusses how popular images of entrepreneurs offer few appropriate role models for olderpreneurs, emphasise financial risk in ways unsuitable for those with potentially precarious finances and present success in narrow ways that contradict most entrepreneurs’ experiences. More generally, potential investors might not perceive older people as entrepreneurial or creating credible
The UK Gender Pay Gap 1998-2013:
What is the role of the public sector? Researchers from the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) were awarded nearly £200,000 from the ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative to examine the ‘Labour Market Implications of Changes in the Public Sector: Inequality and Work Quality’. PROFESSOR MELANIE JONES, a member of WOERRC, leads the work package on inequality and her recent work, coauthored with Vicki Wass and Gerry Makepeace from Cardiff Business School, focuses on the determinants of the gender pay gap over a period of public sector growth and austerity.
business ventures. As a consequence, older people might be dissuaded from starting their own business, feeling that they can’t measure up to the supposed ideal entrepreneur image. The research on olderpreneurs is part of a wider project on whether enterprise and entrepreneurship represent means of overcoming economic exclusion and the forms this might take. *Mallett, O. and Wapshott, R. (In press) Making sense of self-employment in late career: Understanding the identity work of olderpreneurs, Work, Employment & Society.
Three key findings emerge from analysis of data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. First, the gender pay gap, and that part which reflects unequal treatment, is greater in the private than public sector. Second, across both sectors there is a narrowing in the gender pay gap, which predominately reflects relative improvements in women’s productivity-related characteristics, particularly education, rather than changing treatment at work. Third, this long-term narrowing stalls in 2010 and while, in line with government austerity, there is evidence of a decline in public sector employment from 2010, the evidence does not suggest this is a key driver of this changing trend in the gender pay gap. The findings are likely to be of relevance to policy makers and practitioners interested in labour market inequality including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Public Sector Pay Review Bodies and Trade Unions. More details about the project are available at: bit.ly/jones-paygap. For further information contact Professor Jones: m.k.jones@sheffield.ac.uk
Strengthening Labour Administration PROFESSOR JASON HEYES and DR THOMAS HASTINGS are working with the International Labour Organisation on a project that is examining changes in national systems of labour administration. The project, which is funded by the ILO and an ESRC Impact Accelerator Award, will focus on key government ministries and agencies with employmentrelated responsibilities. The research will result in the identification and analysis of excellent practices that will be communicated to national governments through reports, ILO technical assistance missions and the creation of training tools.
Professor Heyes, along with colleagues at the University of Birmingham, City University London, Oxford Brookes and Pompeu Fabra University, has also secured funding for an ESRC seminar series. ‘Understanding the post-crisis landscape: assessing change in economic management, welfare, work and democracy’. To find out more, contact Professor Heyes: j.heyes@sheffield.ac.uk
The organisation of work in the logistics sector DR KIRSTY NEWSOME has completed a research project concerned with exploring changes in the organisation of work and employment within the logistics sector. Focusing on retail warehousing and distribution, this research has revealed the role of the major retailers in shaping work and employment change in third party logistics organisations. In an attempt to safeguard the perpetual motion of ‘goods to store’ the evidence reveals a series of stringent performance targets and requirements placed upon these organisations, which were rigorously monitored. In addition to achieving these stringent performance requirements, distribution organisations were required to secure further cost savings and efficiencies. Time and motion studies were instigated to establish required levels of worker effort, with stringent performance management techniques adopted to ensure these levels were achieved. The findings also show that technological advances not only have the capacity to seamlessly link consumption to distribution and monitor the movement of products, but also offer the opportunity to monitor work activity and make effort levels more transparent. Overall the evidence reveals the growing downward pressures on job quality for workers within the sector. This research stems from Dr Newsome’s wider research interests which are concerned with analysing the missing link between work and employment change and wider global value chains analysis. Dr Newsome, also an Associate Partner of the Marie Curie ITN ‘Changing Employment’, has recently returned from an Annual Colloquium and Network School in Wroclaw, Poland, titled ‘Comparative European Social Models’. She is on the editorial board of the Changing Employment Working Paper Series and encourages interested parties to submit papers. To find out more, email Dr Newsome: k.j.newsome@sheffield.ac.uk
For a digital edition of this research update, visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/WOERRC-researchupdate
Quality of care and mistreatment in residential care homes DR DIANE BURNS, Lecturer in Human Resource Management/Organisational Behaviour (HRM/OB) at Sheffield University Management School, examined issues of quality care and mistreatment in residential care through two Department of Health and Comic Relief funded research projects as part of the PANICOA Programme: 1. Organisational Dynamics of Respect and Elder Care examined organisational dynamics of poor care identifying five interdependent organisational features associated with institutional abuse – organisational infrastructure; management and procedures; skill mix, training and numbers of staff; resident population characteristics and combined factors. Other members of the research team were Dr Anne Killett, Professors Fiona Poland and Richard Gray of the University of East Anglia and Professor Paula Hyde from Manchester Business School. Read the final report here: bit.ly/panicoa1
PROFESSOR PAULINE DIBBEN, Associate Dean for Research at Sheffield University Management School, is leading a threeyear project called SCA-Emp which investigates accounting and employment practices in the automotive and textiles industries in South Africa and Brazil. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC Grant reference: ES/ K006452/1), and aims to improve company practices and government policy in both countries. Other members of the research team include: Sheffield colleagues PROFESSOR JOHN CULLEN, PROFESSOR PHIL JOHNSON, and DR JULIANA MEIRA, as well as Professor Geoffrey Wood from the University of Warwick, Professor Luiz Miranda from Brazil, Dr Debby Bonnin from South Africa, and two PhD students, Caroline Linhares and Gareth Crockett. Members of the team have expertise in employment relations, supply chain accounting, supply chain management, and research methods. The team is also supported by a strong advisory board of academics and practitioners. Initial findings have revealed different approaches toward the sharing of accounting information, relationships with suppliers and approaches to equity according to industry and country. To find out more about SCA-Emp, visit the website: www.scaemp.group.shef.ac.uk. You can also contact Professor Dibben (p.dibben@sheffield.ac.uk) if you would like to be kept informed about the project’s findings.
2. Care Home Organisation Implementing Cultures for Excellence examined organisational cultures in care homes. Cultural processes for supporting positive care experiences were identified. For a full report of the findings, visit: bit.ly/panicoa2 Other members of the team were Professor Dawn Brooker, Jenny La Fontaine, Isabelle Latham, University of Worcester; Professor Alison Bowes, University of Stirling; Dr Fiona Kelly, Bournemouth University; Dr Anne Kiillet, University of East Anglia; and Dr Martin Jones, Cardiff University. To find out more see www.panicoa.org.uk. Also see www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/ staff/burns and contact Dr Burns (d.burns@sheffield.ac.uk) if you would like to keep in touch with developments and future research projects.
Supply chain accounting and employment practices in South Africa and Brazil