FRAGMENTING WORK

Blurring Organisational Boundaries and Disordering

Hierarchies

The impact of changing organisational forms on the reshaping of work

Rethinking/developing current debates

• Flexibility• HRM/trade union partnerships• Network firm

Flexibility debate

• Diversification of employment relationships

• Breakdown of bounded single employer-employee employment relationship

up to nowemployee → worker

our focussingle employer → multi-employer

Expanding the analysis of the employment relationship

Standard employment

Pseudo self employmentLong term temps

Temp agency worker

SecondmentTUPE transferJoint ventures/partnershipsFranchisesOutsourced services

Self employment

Multi employers

Singleemployer

Employees non employees

Employee commitment and partnership debates

• single employing organization

• well-defined boundaries

• control over internal policies (unless sectoral level bargaining/ regulation)

• Individualised organisational commitment-psychological contract

• Collective commitment-partnership

Introducing inter-organisational relations raises key issues

• What does employee commitment mean in a context of multi-employers?

• What type of employee representation and voice is possible/desirable in a multi-employer context?

• Partnerships- at the level of the single organisation or supply chain?

Network firm debates

Integrated organisation→ partnerships/ networks

Two forms of contracting• Transactional-arms length• Relational-hybrid form- between

markets and hierarchies

Disappearance of employment relationship a) from Transactional Contracting

In principle market-based, arms-length relationship

But no simple division strategic/non strategic tasks

Still issues of • coordination• operational efficiency/ reputation/

identity and commitment

Disappearance of employment relationship b) from Relational Contracting

Notion of inter-organizational trust• Requires organizations to be

conceptualized as coherent, unitarist with entity-wide attitudes and values

• Obscures role of employees in managing inter-organisational labour process disappears

• Oversimplifies relationships- ignores cross cutting of lines of authority /responsibility/ commitment

Putting employment back into inter-organizational relations

Figure 1a: Figure 1b inter-organizational trust putting employment back in

Organization A

Organization B

Employees

Managers

Employees

Managers

Two-way contribution

• Introduce inter-organizational relations into the analysis of employment

• Reinsert employment into analysis of inter-organizational relations

Building on existing contributions of the research group

Segmentation analysis: from intra-capital/labour competition to inter-organizational relationships

Labour process: from subjectivity and identity to multiple identities and resistance

Human resource management: embedding the firm within its environment

Employment law: the development of the employment relationship

8 case study sites or networks

• Airport• PFI hospital• Outsourcer- customer services• Public/private partnership- IT services• Teacher supply agency• Post office• Chemical company-supply chain• Ceramics- supply chain/industrial district

Characteristics of sites

• Multi-employers- agencies, multi-employer sites, franchising, TUPE

• Forms of contracting- public/private, multi client/multi-forms

• Greenfield, TUPE transfer, long established

• Unionised/non unionisedNumber of employing organisations:59Numbers of interviews:450

From single employer to multi-employer

Example: Aircraft dispatchMultiple lines of control - undersocialised labour process

Who is in control?• Pilot? -overall charge • Dispatcher?- in charge of process but no line

management authority, employed by handling agent• Airline representative?- employed to check up on

handling agent• Line managers? 8 or more different services, mostly

different employers

Organisational identity and commitment

Same act of labour- satisfy obligations simultaneously to two employers or agencies

Examples of control and commitment strategies exercised by employers and non employers

• Wear client uniforms• Selected by client for ‘promotion’• Financial incentive schemes• Training by clients/ job definition by client

Organisational identity and commitment

TUPE transfer• Commitment to employer or to site?• Sold once, fear of being sold on again

Limits to concept of organisational commitment

Commitment instead: • to public service; • to job well done;• to other employees

Managing human resources in a permeable organisation

HRM- streamline by concentrating on core competences Reality- juggling client demands/ internal hr policy

Working for different clients• Contract price not systematically related to quality• Terms and conditions depend on client (TUPE plus

contract price)• Employment security dependent on contract not worker

quality/experience• Skills/training/work organisation dependent on

client/contract conditions

External pressures- contradictions or contributor to internal restructuring?

• Inter-organisational relations introduce inconsistencies/ contradictions

• Conflicts with strong/ consistent hr policy?

But external market/ agencies

• May be used to resolve internal/client conflicts

• And even to restructure internal hierarchies

Putting employment back into inter-organizational relations

• No clear division between transactional and relational contracting

• Employment relationship remains central

• Notions of trust limited and confined to higher management levels

• Reliance on transferred staff for expertise

Bringing work back in to organisational analysis

• Work divides into relational and non relational work

• Managing inter-organisational relations part of relational work

• Coordination/cooperation across organisational boundaries dependent on employees not just managers

• Employees expected to balance cooperation with non employer against protection of employer interest

Need new approaches to:

Human resource management

Revisit psychological contract/ organisational commitment

Organisational analysis

Reject analysis of organisations as unified entities/ abstracted from work and employment

Need new approaches to:

Employment law

Who is the real employer? What responsibilities should the client/contractor take on?

Does fragmentation require higher minimum employment standards?

Industrial relations

Do we need to redefine communities of interests for collective bargaining?

Extend scope to business to business contracting?