John Storey

The Open University · Open University Business School

Why is there a need to ‘innovate healthcare’? The basic reason stems from the sheer scale of the challenges now facing healthcare provision in the UK and across many other countries. The aim of this book is to interrogate past and current attempts to innovate in this arena and to draw-out the key lessons. Innovating Healthcare: The Role of Politic...

This paper examines how senior managers in a developing economy, Ethiopia, navigate between, and draw upon, the competing logics of ‘state’ and ‘market’ when seeking to explain their firm’s business strategies. This fault-line is especially critical in such contexts. The empirical work is based on qualitative analysis of interviews with 22 senior m...

This paper examines how senior managers in a developing economy, Ethiopia, navigate between, and draw upon, the competing logics of 'state' and 'market' when seeking to explain their firm's business strategies. This fault-line is especially critical in such contexts. The empirical work is based on qualitative analysis of interviews with 22 senior m...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the findings arising from a three year research project which investigated a major system-wide change in the design of the NHS in England. The radical policy change was enshrined in statute in 2012 and it dismantled existing health authorities in favour of new local commissioning groups built around...

Background: Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were established in England in 2013 to encourage GPs to exert greater influence over the processes of service improvement and redesign in the NHS. Little is known about the extent and the ways in which GPs have assumed these leadership roles. Aim: To explore the nature of clinical leadership of GP...

Background A core component of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (Great Britain. Health and Social Care Act 2012 . London: HMSO; 2012) was the idea of devolving to general practitioners (GPs) a health service leadership role for service redesign. For this purpose, new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were formed in the English NHS. Objective...

One of the many rationales advanced as justifying employee-owned enterprises is the idea that workers in such enterprises will be more engaged and more productive. We examine new evidence that reveals a mixed picture.

Whether ‘employee ownership’ takes the form of worker cooperatives, co-ownership or simply employee share ownership plans, there are normally high expectations that a range of positive outcomes will result. Yet many empirically based studies tend to find a much more complex picture. An influential segment of that empirical literature has posited th...

As a means towards revealing both the strategic and the day-to-day operational practicalities of managing a 'responsible business', this paper reports on research conducted over an extended period in the John Lewis Partnership (JLP). This is a major retail organization based in the UK which operates at scale (90,000 employees and annual sales of £1...

Leadership in Organizations balances theory and practice, including critical perspectives, to examine fundamental questions about the meaning and nature of leadership. Includes rich case examples of real-life tensions, challenges and successful outcomes. The book sets itslef apart through distinctive focus on leadership within wider contexts of pol...

The US/UK model of the firm, with its emphasis on shareholder value and its openness to the market in the buying and selling of businesses, is prone to a number of problematic consequences for employees, suppliers, society and share-holders themselves. The John Lewis Partnership, built on a stakeholder approach, represents a contrast to this model....

Human Resource Management (HRM) has become the predominant term to describe the theory and practices relating to the way people are managed at work. The label originated in the USA and it spread to the UK and beyond in the 1980s. In previous times, other terms have been used which, in varying degrees, broadly correspond. These other terms include p...

This introductory chapter sets the scene for the book by highlighting the nature, extent and reasons for the heightened interest in leadership in public and private sector organisations. It places ideas of leadership in histroic and social context and locates the leadership phenomenon in contemporary socio-economic context.

In tune with much international practice, the English National Health Service has been striving to transform health care provision to make it more affordable in the face of rising demand. At the heart of a set of recent radical reforms has been the launch of ‘clinical commissioning’ using the vehicle of local groups of General Practitioners (GPs)....

Employee-owned businesses have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest as possible ‘alternatives’ to the somewhat tarnished image of conventional investor-owned capitalist firms. Within the context of global economic crisis, such alternatives seem newly attractive. This is somewhat ironic because, for more than a century, academic literature on e...

A collection of agenda-setting chapters by leading authors. Contains analyses which have had lasting influence and impact on the understanding of the field.

In the light of public concern and of strong policy emphasis on quality and safety in the nursing care of patients in hospital settings, this paper aims to focus on the factors affecting the adoption of innovative quality assurance technologies. Two sets of complementary literature were mined for key themes. Next, new empirical insights were sought...

This report stems from a request from the NHS Leadership Academy and from Hay Group for a re-examination of the relevant literature on leadership. This request was in turn triggered by the launch of a new national suite of leadership development programmes and deep anxiety about the nature and adequacy of leadership in the NHS following the scandal...

This paper examines the erosion of autonomy among research and development (R&D) engineers in a global information technology company and the ways in which they responded. Over a 14‐year period, we examine the changing regime of control as knowledge workers in this firm are increasingly subjected to increased project and portfolio management interv...

Purpose The purpose of this article is to delve into the precise leadership and governance roles required of general practitioners (GPs) in England as they are propelled into clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework which captures the complementary essences of both leadership and governance is develo...

Numerous policy papers and academic contributions across a range of countries emphasize the importance of clinical leadership in health services. This is seen as especially vital at a time of simultaneous resource constraints and rising demand. Most of the literature in this topic area concerns itself with conceptual clarification of types of leade...

The launch of the euro in January 2002 was enabled by the creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) in 1998. The establishment of these new institutions set in train a series of events and processes which has entailed the transfer of certain functions and powers from the National Central Banks (NCBs...

While many of the factors which help explain the rate and scale of innovative technology adoption have been identified, one important variable (the influence of insider, practitioner-developed versus commercial, externally-developed technology) has been under-explored. Focusing on healthcare in particular, the purpose of this paper is to explore th...

The article seeks to explore the practical and theoretical implications of the ways in which senior figures in the National Health Service (NHS) interpret the role of the centre in relation to the delivery units of the health service. This is important in the light of recent plans for reorganisation of the NHS advanced by the new Conservative-Liber...

This book describes, assesses and critiques governance arrangements within the NHS. It discusses the role and relationships of boards and it clarifies the nature of effective board practice. Beyond that it also examines the role of healthcare regulators. It offers practical tools for board members - most especially for non-executive directors.

This paper uses sensemaking and learning theory to gain insight into how senior Ethiopian managers are coming to terms with radically different political and economic forces. These theories have developed in mature western contexts and our research tested their applicability in an African context. The methods employed were detailed data gathering i...

This paper aims to explore the theoretical and practical management implications of a case involving the falsification of hospital patient waiting lists for elective orthopaedic surgery. This case study is based on qualitative schedule-structured interviews with 20 senior hospital staff (managerial and clinical), including the head of the investiga...

To map and describe the formal accountability relationships of foundation trusts in England and to explore the interpretations of these relationships by the key actors. Documentary analysis and interviews with chief executives, chairs, directors and governors in six acute trusts and two Strategic Health Authorities. Although vertical accountability...

First author's draft This article examines the political processes surrounding the development and demise of an ambitious, yet short-lived, policy-based learning initiative, namely a university for the UK National Health Service. Using a Weberian framework of political action, we explore the impact of intra-organizational and macro-political dynami...

The nature and value of knowledge transfer and inter-organisational learning processes within cooperative alliances are well known. Less attention, however, has been paid to inter-organisational learning processes within 'competitive collaborations'. Particularly, the nature and extent of information system use within inter-organisational knowledge...

Governing the New NHS describes, assesses and critiques the current, new and emerging systems of governance in the NHS. It maps the overall interrelated architecture of governance including the role of the regulators and it delves deeply into the practices of governance at board level. It also includes many practical tools to enable development of...

In recent years, corporate and governmental agency declarations of a commitment to, and exploitation of, ‘innovation’ has been pervasive and powerful. In this paper we show how executives rearrange such a dominant societal thematic in order to control their organization in a manner which fits with their interpretative schemas. Drawing upon in-depth...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways in which clinical executive directors and non-clinical executive directors are interpreting and responding to the extensive reforms and restructuring in the UK health service. The paper draws upon detailed research in two very large teaching hospital organizations in order to understand how a...

It is said that the practice of industrial relations in the private sector has been transformed over the past decade. An approach to people management that seeks commitment from employees, and not merely their compliance, has been created. How far can this analysis be applied to the public sector?

Reassesses the nature of managerial work using the lens of paradox. The analyses draws upon field research funded by the ESRC which examined the complex, sense-making work of management. At the heart of strategic management in particular is the handling of a series of ongoing dilemmas each requiring skilful judgement.

This book draws upon a wide cast of international contributors to analyse the nature and state of strategic human resource management across the globe.

The aspiration to involve, engage and win commitment from employees has long been high on the agenda of a select portion of enlightened management. However, there has been a notable resurgence of interest in employee engagement in recent times and it seems that the phenomenon has evolved and been redrawn. Distinctive posts are now advertised which...

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the links between organizational forms and human resource management. In recent years, many organizations have been seeking greater flexibility and agility, and as a result, they are relying more on market and market-like forms of coordination. The ways in which work contributions are brought together and a...

Markets are changing, with the demand for many products and services becoming increasingly uncertain in terms of magnitude, time, and place. The supply chains that produced the masscustomised products and services of the past do not have the capabilities to deliver the customised responses of the future. Building on a foundation of both literature...

The research reported in this chapter explores the knowledge work practices of directors and other senior managers. It examines the ways in which senior managers use knowledge and the ways they help to adapt and create knowledge. Through close and detailed examination of senior managers’ doing and knowing, it becomes possible to shed some light on...

The idea of ‘Enterprise’ has been extensively used in recent years as a way to understand the principles underlying the reinvention of organizations and employees. It tends to be used as a counterfactual to ‘bureaucracy’. However, we argue that while this approach has produced some rich insights, an over-emphasis on the notion of enterprise may exa...

The purpose of this article is to advance critical debate in relation to a very critical issue in current healthcare management--namely "patient safety". This is currently a very high profile issue. In its various guises such as clinical governance, integrated governance and healthcare governance the question of avoiding or at least minimising harm...

Inter-organisational information systems (IOIS) have been introduced to support collaborative retail supply relationships, yet how these systems are used is not well understood. This paper presents analysis of an ideographic case study of a dynamic United Kingdom grocery sector supply network. Using Archer's (1995) social change theory we explore h...

The extensive range of far-reaching managerial initiatives which are constantly reported might seem to signal a transformation to a totally new order of human resource management. This article examines some entrenched structural features of the British context which can help explain the limits to this pattern of change

Despite their often overlapping subject areas, management science and social science reveal only occasional promise of a fruitful interlink. However, recent developments in the study of managerial control suggest that this problematic could well be used as a suitable bridge.

Amongst the growing literature on the technical and social aspects of microelectronics in work organizations, a considerable portion has direct or indirect pertinence to the question of managerial practice. That segment of the literature relating to new office technology is perhaps especially conscious of this angle — not least because this sphere...

Purpose To explore senior managers’ knowledge and thinking about strategy and organisational capabilities, and developments of both during a time of transition. Design/methodology/approach Interpretive case research based on semi‐structured interviews with 44 senior managers in a number of business organisations in Ethiopia supplemented by seconda...

The purpose of this paper is to examine critically the concept of "leadership transmission", considering what theoretical and practical value this metaphor brings to the healthcare modernization agenda. The paper develops understanding of the transmission metaphor, whilst theoretical perspectives on leadership are reviewed, including debates, which...

John Storey, the Guest Editor of this special issue, is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Human Resource and Change Management Research Unit at Loughborough University. In this introductory article he reviews the wide span of issues raised by the idea of ‘Making European Managers’ and he places the contributing articles in context. This scene-set...

This article reports on the first phase of an MIT-sponsored study of changing employment practices in banking. It gives an overview of the key issues and dynamics affecting employment management in this rapidly-changing sector. an analytical framework (based on the five dimensions of market characteristics, products and services, delivery systems,...

John Storey and Nick Bacon discuss trade union reactions to HRM initiatives with John Edmonds and Phil Wyatt. John Storey and Nick Bacon are respectively Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Research Fellow at Loughborough University Business School. John Edmonds is General Secretary and Phil Wyatt Research Director of the General, Muni...

This paper presents a critique of the normative, buyer–supplier literature and in addition suggests that the more empirically based literature needs to expand its scope of attention beyond its traditional confines. Four main deficiencies are identified within much of the existing buyer–supplier literature. Firstly, collaborative buyer–supplier theo...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically assess current developments in the theory and practice of supply management and through such an assessment to identify barriers, possibilities and key trends. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a three‐year detailed study of six supply chains which encompassed 72 companies in Europe...

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the managerial challenges arising from the deployment of cross‐company boundary‐spanning teams to improve on‐shelf availability. Design/methodology/approach The study focuses on two supplier‐employed teams, each merchandising their employers' timber‐products within the stores of two leading UK DIY retail grou...

There has been a shift in the last few years from prescriptive models of supply chain strategy to more embracing frameworks that accommodate a range of different approaches. However, there has been a tendency for these models to differentiate by product type. In order to achieve alignment between demand creation and fulfilment this basis for differ...

The article discusses a research that analyses the knowledge work undertaken by the executives of top management teams in ten organizations. The study was based on three methods: in-depth one-to-one interviews with each member of the respective executive teams; second, direct observation of management board meetings; and third, scrutiny of secondar...

Changes in organizational structures, logics and employment practices in the media industries – critically the outsourcing of labour, whereby employees become freelance workers – supply an ideal context in which to explore the extent to which, and the ways in which, ideological and structural pressures encourage workers to accept the logic and impe...

Purpose It has been suggested that “customer responsive supply‐chain management” and “agile supply‐chain management” are necessary for the new competitive conditions. However, there is an enormous gap between the idealised prescription and actual practice. The aim of this paper is to examine, in some detail, the factors that can help to explain thi...