Patricia Findlay

University of Strathclyde · Department of Human Resource Management

Stakeholders agree on the need to promote innovation in work organization in public services. This article deploys the concept of collaborative innovation to discuss employees' and managers' experiences of a major technology-driven work redesign project within National Health Service pharmacy services in Scotland. The authors draw on extant literat...

This article addresses recurrent trends in the forces shaping work and its meanings. Using evidence from large-scale surveys and qualitative case studies it maps the changing picture of work and employment, particularly in the UK and Australia. It does so by focusing on insecurity, demanding work, performance management, work–life boundaries and di...

This article focuses on demands and interventions to improve or maintain job quality. There is a need for better understanding of what can be done, by whom, and with what impacts. The article provides a framework for reflection focused on interventions within and outwith the workplace. Drawing on secondary data, it outlines the renewed policy and a...

This article examines employer choice in relation to job quality (JQ). Acknowledging the important role of market, institutional, and technological constraints, the authors highlight the role of employer agency in shaping JQ by reporting on an employer-led service redesign initiative in hospital pharmacy services in Scotland. This redesign initiati...

Este estudo traz uma reflexão acerca de questões relacionadas ao trabalho secretarial. O objetivo deste artigo é gerar reflexões e levantar perguntas para encorajar mais pesquisas na área. O artigo apresenta uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o contexto do trabalho secretarial tais como tecnologia e gênero. O contexto do trabalho secretarial apresenta...

This article considers employees' experiences of a major organisational redesign project, which sought to deploy robotics technologies to improve the performance of National Health Service pharmacy distribution in one part of the UK. The principles of Lean-type approaches partly informed the redesign project, with senior managers seeking to tap the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in undertaking occupational pay comparisons and why this matters for evidence-based reward management, union bargaining strategies and perceptions of pay equity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the extant literature on pay and undertakes detailed quantitative analysi...

Job quality is a timely issue because of its potential impact on individual, firm and national well-being. This renewed interest underscores the need for robust conceptualization of job quality. This article provides background to the renewed interest in job quality and, drawing on the contributions to the Special Issue, starts to map the dimension...

In order to boost learning, recent UK governments have invested in trade union‐led workplace learning. Investing in the supply of learning is useful but ignores the demand for learning by workers, about which there is little research. This paper addresses this lacunae by analysing worker demand for learning, which workers want learning, what learni...

This article examines the potential of union‐led learning through union learning funds to contribute to trade union revitalization. Empirical data are drawn from an evaluation of the Scottish Union Learning Fund. Findings suggest that union‐led learning can contribute to revitalization by enhancing relationship building with members, potential memb...

The persistence of gendered pay inequality raises questions as to what sustains it. Recent contributions highlight the role of low skills visibility and valuation in pay inequality in predominantly female occupations. This artical examines the skills and rewards of early years workers, the organizational processes through which their skills are mea...

The formal negotiations process remains perhaps the least-studied moment of collective bargaining. Drawing on ideal types of 'distributive' and 'integrative' bargaining and the ‘formal/informal’ distinction, this article reports non-participant observation and ethnographic research into the negotiations process that enabled a change agreement in a...

Here the author analyses trade union prospects in Scottish electronics firms, and suggests that despite having a positive reputation amongst managers in existing unionised firms, the dynamics of new firm startup and employment change in the industry have augured badly for trade unionism, as have the rise of individualist approaches amongst managers...

This paper investigates how information affect voting behaviour. There exist a large literature suggesting that uninformed voters can use informational shortcuts or cues to vote as if they were informed. This paper tests this hypothesis using unique Swedish individual survey data on the preferences of both politicians and voters. I find that uninfo...

Introduction Interest in volunteering and participation in voluntary organisations and activities has a long history. Considerable benefits arise at an organisational and societal level from the efforts of those who commit their time and energy, without compulsion or personal financial gain, to a huge variety of causes and activities from philanthr...

The literature on workplace electronic surveillance is dominated by abstract theoretical discussions, while the limited empirical study of surveillance has been confined to manufacturing. This paper offers a corrective firstly by locating surveillance in its legal context, and secondly by considering surveillant practices in complex, professional a...

This article considers the effectiveness of recruitment and organising approaches during ISTC's successful recognition campaign at FCI Ltd, focussing in particular on the role of 'shadow stewards'. The case study illustrates the positive impact of innovative grassroots campaigning associated with the organising model. However, it also highlights th...

Perspectives that emphasize links between workplace innovation and broader HR policies, particularly of a ‘mutual gains’ nature, have become increasingly influential. This paper analyses the links and tensions between workplace change and industrial relations systems in the context of attempts to create a shop-floor politics of partnership during a...

Much of the mainstream and critical literatures stress the potential of teamwork for normative integration through socialization and peer pressure. This article utilizes case studies in the large bottling halls of spirits producers in Scotland to explore the characteristics of and limits to such integration. A multi-dimensional model of team-work a...

Research on organisational learning is limited in three ways; in terms of the type of organisation and the type of employees which are seen to benefit from a learning culture; and in terms of the consensual assumptions made about the nature of learning within the workplace, assumptions which contradict the reality of the workplace for most people....

The paper focuses on the formation and implementation of new manufacturing strategies in two UK drinks conglomerates - United Distillers (UD) and Allied Distillers (ADL). Traditionally both companies have been marketingled and relatively indifferent to the achievement of marginal gains in operating efficiencies. But recently each has launched major...

This article draws on a research project, ‘The Manufacturing of Workplace Innovation’, funded under the ESRC Innovation Research Programme.The main focus is the developing roles of HR practitioners as they seek to fashion a strategic position in the change processIt looks at two large spirits companies—United Distillers and Allied Distillers Ltd—an...

The authors argue here that work on performance appraisal suffers form a narrow theoretical perspective and a variety of methodological limitations. the narrow theoretical base appears as a consequence of the treatment of performance appraisal within a largely neo-human relations perspective. More recently, however, a critical debate on appraisal h...

The occupation of the Bathgate plant of Plessey Capacitors in 1982 provides an interesting example of collective action taken by a mainly female workforce against their multinational employer. This particular dispute has important implications both for the involvement of women in industrial action, and for the debate about the most effective strate...

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