Mike Noon

• PhD, MSc, BA
• Human Resources at Queen Mary University of London

This study explores the attempts by executives in an organisation with a strategic business case for diversity and inclusion to close the equality implementation gap—between what is espoused and what is achieved—through greater control over managers in order to direct their actions towards pro‐diversity objectives, with a specific focus on gender a...

This article contributes to developing intersectionality theory by deepening understanding of how patriarchy and racism interact with other structural factors to influence low‐paid migrants’ progression attempts. Using a critical realist approach and analysing interviews of 31 female and male migrants employed in five large organizations in Scotlan...

The latest fashion of ‘unconscious bias training’ is a diversity intervention based on unproven suppositions and is unlikely to help eliminate racism in the workplace. Knowing about bias does not automatically result in changes in behaviour by managers and employees. Even if ‘unconscious bias training’ has the theoretical potential to change behavi...

This article analyses the relationship between cultural difference, social connections and opportunity structures using interview evidence from low-paid workers and managers in local government, the health service, facilities management and housing. Exploring the operation of homosocial reproduction it reveals the double-edged nature of informality...

in partnership with CEMVO Scotland and Voice4Change England This report examines opportunities for progression from low-paid work among workers across a range of ethnicities. It draws on in-depth interviews carried out with 65 low-paid workers, 43 managers and eight workshops with key stakeholders. Case studies were undertaken into nine large organ...

Migration plays an important role in determining skills supply, and certain ethnic groups tend to be over-represented in low-paid work. This article considers the implications of the complex interplay of migration, ethnicity and workplace progression for skills policy by comparing and contrasting the opportunities faced by low-paid workers of diver...

Using bibliometric analysis of published work, we examine the discursive trends, patterns and implications of three different anti-discrimination solutions (equality, diversity and inclusion) over a 40-year period from 1970 to 2010. The findings reveal that the anti-discrimination discourses are consistent with management fashions, in terms of both...

The Realities of Work adopts a unique approach providing a critical examination of work from the employee's perspective. The book explores the effects of being managed and how employees themselves interact with and respond to the strategies, tactics, decisions and actions of managers. Packed full of features such as key concepts, real world example...

Multi site study of the relationship between in work poverty, low paid work and informal workplace cultures in nine case study organisations in the public, private and voluntary sector in Scotland and England. Drawing on in-depth interviews with low-paid workers from a range of ethnicities and senior managers, this study identifies factors that con...

This paper explores how formalization of employee selection procedures for the purpose of ensuring equality of opportunity can become so extensive that the intended outcome of fairness is undermined. Drawing on empirical evidence from a large media organization, the analysis reveals the detrimental impact of formalization in relation to the recruit...

This paper argues the case for a more progressive approach to diversity and inclusion that incorporates a form of positive discrimination in the selection process: ‘threshold selection’. It outlines the distinctive features of threshold selection and argues that it is an approach that resolves the tension between suitability and acceptability crite...

This article argues a case for reconsidering positive discrimination as a viable and necessary policy intervention to speed up the progression to equality in the workplace. It provides counter-arguments to the four main objections to positive discrimination: the failure to select the 'best candidate, the undermining of meritocracy, the negative imp...

This article assesses the success of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in negotiating the introduction of computerised editorial systems (direct input) into provincial newspapers. It employs a quantitative and qualitative analysis to suggest that the NUJ has been exemplary in using the New Technology Agreement (NTA) as a bargaining tool in or...

The article explores why provincial newspaper managers have shifted from a position of reluctance and uncertainty about new technology to enthusiasm and zeal for the process and product development opportunities it offers. the transformation is assessed in terms of changes in the industrial relations context, market conditions and technological dev...

Here the author explores the dynamics of workplace control in the provincial newspaper industry, and argues that direct input technology has led to structural changes that shift the locus of control from the printers (typesetters/compositors) to the journalists (sub-editors) by increasing the latter group's influence over strategic contingencies in...

Miguel Martinez Lucio and Mike Noon, who are Lecturers in Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour respectively at the Cardiff Business School, draw on a case study of Royal Mail to explore the reasons for decentralisation and the issues this poses for managers and employees. They argue that the restructuring of Royal Mail was the result o...

Mike Noon, who is Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Cardiff Business School, examines the responses of the UK's top 100 firms when faced with speculative enquiries from two bogus ‘candidates’ belonging to different ethnic groups. He finds that, although both candidates were likely to reveive a reply, the ‘white’ candidate tended to receive a...

This article uses data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to explore the extent to which the characteristics and job-related activities of specialists who use the title 'human resources' differ from those who use the title 'personnel'. The results demonstrate that specialists using the HR title are better qualified than those using t...

Quality management (QM) is now a mainstream management initiative, but few researchers have explored worker experiences of it. An exception is found in the work of Edwards et al. (1998) who make an important contribution by offering the ‘disciplined worker thesis’ (meaning that workers prefer an ordered and disciplined work environment over disorga...

This article evaluates the nature and incidence of equal opportunities (EO) policies in the UK using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS 98).The article identifies the types of workplaces that are more likely to adopt formal gender, ethnicity, disability and age policies. It then assesses whether the policies are ‘substanti...

The workplace is a crucial locale for understanding three important issues in contemporary debates on gender and organizations; the processes by which work becomes gendered, the origins and nature of gender segregation and the role of trade unions in delivering gender equality. This article presents data from a study of workplace transformations in...

The article examines whether ethnic minority employees report poorer treatment at work than white employees, and evaluates the impact of three key features - gender differences, formal equal opportunities policies and trade union recognition. The analysis reveals that ethnic minority men and women receive poorer treatment than their white counterpa...

Commentaries are presented pertaining to the article written by Rynes an Trank involving organizational behavior and human resource management teaching in schools, as well as Nancy Kurland and Lisa Pelled's conceptual model of workplace gossip and its effects on the power of employees who initiate it.

The concept of equal opportunities is increasingly being replaced with the notion of the management of diversity. It has been a gradual drift, emanating from writers and organisations in the USA, travelling across to the UK and seeping into mainland Europe. In both theory and practice it offers a new challenge to both conceptualising and tackling t...

The paper offers empirical insight into how traditional thinking can continue to dominate contemporary change initiatives, and suggests that the propensity to repackage and sell ‘old’ management theory as new techniques reflects the persistence of fundamental, insoluble dilemmas in the nature of organizing. Empirical evidence is drawn from a detail...

This article examines how flexibility and rigidity equally pose a dilemma for management and trade unions. It explores the issue by examining a range of features within the employment relationship at the Royal Mail in the UK. It seeks to demonstrate how, in practice, both management and trade unions can require, pursue and argue for different and c...

In Britain, welfare-to-work has been hailed as a radical initiative to help those that are socially and economically disadvantaged in society. The New Deal promises to offer young long term unemployed people the opportunity to train and experience the world of work in a bid to make them more attractive to employers. It is especially pertinent to et...

This article addresses the impact for ethnic minorities of the employment training policy for long‐term unemployed adults in England and Wales. Drawing on evidence from detailed research in one Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) area, it reveals that although ethnic minorities join training schemes in representative proportions, they are less su...

The public sector in the UK has become the object of constant reform and change as part of the government’s project to increase the remit of the private sector and the role of markets. There is much debate about the effect such a move to market relations has on public services. There is increasing concern with the way market–based reforms are linke...

This article presents the results of an investigation into the participation and outcome rates of ethnic minorities on Employment Training (ET). It demonstrates that ethnic minorities are joining schemes in representative proportions, yet are not enjoying the positive outcomes experienced by their white counterparts. It presents qualitative data wh...

Examines how a TQM programme has been implemented within the context of Royal Mail. Demonstrates that within the organization TQM has been “negotiated” around four main factors: the complexities of utilizing the discourse of the customer; the organization′s market dominance in the collection and delivery of door-to-door mail; its industrial relatio...

In analysing change in the public sector, and in particular the imperatives for change, there has been a tendency amongst some observers to isolate privatisation as a governmental strategy and divorce it from the wider political agenda, ignoring the political contingencies that have characterised this key development. So while the scale of privatis...

This paper offers an interpretation of the importance of organizational gossip. It draws together theory and research from various disciplines in order to explore four main propositions: that gossip is a phenomenon worthy of serious study/analysis; that gossip in organizations has been under-researched; that analysis of gossip reveals important asp...

This article aims to show through a case study analysis how a UK company has adopted policies that in practice appear to signify a move towards HRM techniques. The analysis discusses first the industrial setting that encourages the flourishing of HRM; second, organisational changes at corporate and company level; third, a model of HRM; fourth, the...