News

Alec Rodger Memorial Lecture

Toby Wall gave the 2006 Alec Rodger Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, University of London on the 20th June 2006, entitled Management Practices and Company Performance: A Policy Perspective.

Overall the research shows that people-oriented initiatives are the vital ingredients for making lean production work. Empowerment and, to a lesser extent, employee development are crucial in their own right; while teamwork has a catalytic effect on all other practices, including the operational methods. The message is clear that without empowerment or teamwork the potential returns on investing in just-in-time, TQM and supply-chain partnering will not be fully realized.

HRM & Performance

Toby Wall and Stephen Wood´s paper `The Romance of Human Resource Management and Business Performance and the case for big science´, has been voted the best paper to appear in the 2005 volume of Human Relations.

Wall and Wood argue that the existing studies of the HRM-performance link at best provide only circumstantial evidence that HRM practices affect company performance. They conclude research on a much bigger scale than typically seen in social science is required to address this question.

The Romance of HRM and Business Performance: The Case for Big Science (Word document)

Job Design in Call Centres Presentation

Job design in call centres does vary between types of capitalism. Using Hall and Soskice´s distinction between coordinated economies, such as Germany and Sweden, and liberal market economies, such as the UK and USA, research at COI, involving a comparison of 17 countries, has shown that call centre operatives in coordinated economies on average are given more discretion in their jobs and their performance is less intensely monitored than are those in liberal market economies.

Labour turnover in call centres is negatively associated with the extent of both job discretion and performance monitoring. Labour turnover is considerably higher when workers have little discretion and are highly monitored. Also the positive effects of high discretion on turnover is reduced when performance monitoring is intense.

Similarly, call centres with high discretion jobs are associated with higher levels of performance, measured by the percent of calls answered in target time, but this relationship is again affected by the rate of performance monitoring. Where jobs are designed with low discretion, the performance monitoring has a positive impact on performance, but when they have high levels of discretion the performance monitoring reduces the positive impact this has on performance.

These results are consistent with the demand-resource theories of worker behaviour. They also largely account for any differences in the average levels of labour turnover and performance between coordinated economies and liberal market economies. Institutions appear to effect job design but not the way in which it affects employees´ behaviour.

Across the whole 17 countries, call centre operators typically work jobs with little discretion but relatively high levels of monitoring. It is not then surprising that call centre´s have above average rates of labour turnover. Equally significant is the overall lower level of customer service than what it could be if jobs were better designed.

These findings were presented by David Holman, Stephen Wood, along with Stephen Frenkel and Ole Sørensen, as part of a symposium on call centres at the annual conference of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics in Trier, Germany June 30th to July 2nd 2006.

Portfolio Working: The Smallest of Small Businesses

A qualitative study of portfolio work has shown that the characteristics of such self-employed work – the homeworking, variation of clients and work, and pressure to generate work - create high levels of autonomy amongst portfolio workers. But the advantages of this may be countered by high levels of uncertainty and social isolation. The extent to which portfolio workers are able to achieve satisfactory workloads and work-life balance and avoid the problems associated with stress is affected by these factors, as well as personal and situational factors such as their self-motivation and financial needs. The study will appear in 2006: M. Clinton, P. Totterdell and S. Wood, `A Grounded Theory of the Experience of Portfolio Working´, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.1-22.

A quantitative study in which portfolio workers completed an online diary questionnaire every week for six months found that elevations in the participants´ depression and anxiety correspond to weeks in which they experience high work demands, lack of control or autonomy over their work, or limited social support. When demands are high and autonomy is low, pessimistic individuals in particular are likely to experience psychological strain. The research shows that Karasek´s job strain model is relevant to variations in job characteristics over time (as well as to stable characteristics of jobs). The study will appear in 2006: P. Totterdell, S. Wood, and T. Wall, `An intra-individual test of the demands-control model: A weekly diary study of psychological strain in portfolio workers´, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol 78, No. 1.

The Role of Management Practices in Closing the Productivity Gap

The EPSRC has just announced the award of a grant to study the role of management practices in closing the productivity gap between the UK and the USA. The work is multi-disciplinary and will be shared between the Universities of Sheffield, Aston, Cambridge and Nottingham. The project will assess the role of management practices in the productivity gap in selected parts of the service sector in the UK. The total value of the award is £502K and the work will begin in October 2005.

More information on The Role of Management Practices in Closing the Productivity Gap project

Employee Innovation

A longitudinal study of a teamworking initiative for production workers shows that the factors shaping employee innovation vary as the team develops. The study over three and a half years shows that change in the extent of individual suggestion-making in the later stages of teamworking is associated with change in the level of job control over time. So, for instance, where there is an increase in job control there is also an increase in suggestions, possibly because as job control becomes more established it enhances the opportunity and necessity for employees to make suggestions. The factor that most affects an increase or decrease in individual idea implementation over the first two years is a respective increase or decrease in generalised support received from management over the same period. When the teamwork is more mature however, it is an increase or decrease in the level of support for innovation within the team that has greater effect on changes in the extent of idea implementation. This may be due to the greater responsibility that is devolved to the team and reduced reliance on management. The study is reported in Axtell, C. M., Holman, D. & Wall, T. D. Promoting innovation: A change study to appear in Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology in 2006.

Capturing Employees’ Ideas

A study of 182 UK organizations found that idea capture schemes, such as suggestion schemes, product development teams and quality circles, are significantly more likely to be successful if they are:

1. publicized widely within the organization, and that this publicity is regularly updated and refreshed;
2. planned thoroughly, involving employees and managers seeking information from outside the organisation;
3. supported by senior managers; and
4. well run, involving feedback to employees on their ideas and rewards.

Job Design, Human Resource and Performance in UK Call Centres

Research based on a survey of UK call centres shows that effects of work design on key performance indicators are more pronounced than those of human resource practices. The study tests the propositions of the strategic human resource management (SHRM) approach that: (a) there are coherent links through the SHRM chain from strategy, through operational requirements, to work design and human resource management, and (b) the fit between the human resource practices and market factors determines organisational performance. Little support for these hypotheses is found. But key operational requirements are linked to work design, which is itself related to a limited number of human resource practices and work design has significant performance effects. The research will appear in: Stephen Wood, David Holman and Chris Stride (‘Human Resource Management and Performance in UK Call Centres’) British Journal of Industrial Relations March 2006. A follow-up survey is reported in D. Holman, S. Wood and C. Stride, Human Resource Management in Call Centres, Institute of Work Psychology in association with The CCA Research Institute, UK, 2005. The report is now available at £50 ( £35 for BPS or CCA members and £15 for students). Cheques payable to University of Sheffield or payment by credit or switch card. To order your copy, please contact:
Karen Thompson: k.m.thompson@sheffield.ac.uk, or 0114 222 3229/30

Stepping Back from the HRM-Performance Vogue

Recent literature on Human Resource Management Systems has focused mainly on their links with performance. In a new study Stephen Wood and Lilian de Menezes step back from this trend and address the conceptualization and measurement of human resource management systems. Most studies have not examined the nature of the association between practices but rather created indexes or used cluster analysis to identify types of systems. Using data of managerial practices from Britain’s Workplace Employee Relations Survey of 1998 Wood and de Menezes compare results from cluster analysis with those yielded by an alternative, latent variable analysis. In particularly they examine whether a single managerial orientation underlies Bailey’s influential organization-skills-motivation model of ‘high performance systems’ or whether the three elements are separate dimensions. They find that the first two, organization and skills practices form a single dimension, which can be used to measure high involvement management. But, while motivational practices tend to be used together their use is not a reflection of this high involvement orientation. The results achieved through cluster analysis are dramatically different as the clusters that are unveiled split the sample according to the motivational practices. The high involvement management orientation is also shown to be related to Total Quality Management.

This research appears in Lilian. M. de Menezes and Stephen Wood, ‘The reality of flexible work systems in Britain’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2006, Vol. 17, No. 1, 2006, pp. 1-33.

Musculoskeletal Disorders in Call Centres

Christine Sprigg will present a paper titled "Call center work: psychosocial risk factors and neck pain," co-authored with Chris Stride, David Holman and Phoebe Smith (Health and Safety Laboratory) at the American Psychological Association conference on Work, Stress, and Health: Making a Difference in the Workplace to be held in Miami, March 1st to 4th. Using data on 1,140 call centre workers, the research demonstrates that those with heavy workloads, high role conflict and role ambiguity are more likely to experience neck pain. It also shows that this link is mediated by both job satisfaction and general mental strain.

Further details of the conference see: http://www.apa.org/pi/work/wsh2006.html

Call Centre Work : psychosocial risk factors and neck pain (abstract) Word Document

Making Graduates fit for Work

Britain's largest companies have recently suggested that many graduates lack the basic skills required in the workplace ("Graduates unfit for work, say top firms", The Times, 7 February 2006). Among the shortcomings identified were inadequate social skills such as presentation and communication skills. Research conducted in a major engineering company by the Institute of Work Psychology verifies the increasing importance of such competencies in the modern workplace.

For further details contact Mark Robinson (0114 222 323242).
Also see: Robinson, M.A., Sparrow, P.R., Clegg, C., & Birdi, K. (2005). Design engineering competencies: Future requirements and predicted changes in the forthcoming decade. Design Studies, 26, 123-153.

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology's June edition was devoted to papers on Diary Studies. Edited by David Holman, Peter Totterdell, and Wendelien Van Eerde (Eindhoven University), the special issue contains five papers, each of which uses the diary method, to address a particular research issue. These are: work-family experience, affective events, social interaction at work, gossip, and stress/coping.

Nanotechnology Debate

Stephen Wood with Richard Jones, Professor of Physics at University of Sheffield, continue to contribute to the debate about Nanotechnology. They have just completed an overview of the debate since 2003, when they wrote their report for the ESRC. Their earlier report and evidence to the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering is available at:-

Wood and Jones' Evidence
ESRC Report on the social and economic challenges of nanotechnology
Prince Charles preying on nanotechnology (Word document)
Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering Report

See also www.softmachines.org/wordpress

Stephen Wood figured prominently in a Radio 4 programme on Nanotechnology in the Analysis series: Grey Goo's Sticky Mess. The programme ended with him saying:-

"We talk about nanotechnology as if it can emerge overnight but particularly in the English context we know that organisations are very poor at managing technology and we are not very good at the commercialisation of science. If you want to take advantage of these technologies - push them in the right direction - it may well be the engagement of the public in this debate is less important than ensuring we develop institutions and organisations that can really take advantage of these developments."

The Essentials of the New Workplace

The Essentials of the New Workplace (edited by in D. Holman, T. D. Wall, C. W. Clegg, P. Sparrow, and A. Howard) provides an assessment of research into the social, psychological and organizational aspects of the new working practices that are shaping the workplace. In addition to covering issues that have been are at centre of organisational psychology, such as employee involvement and teamworking, it includes chapters on lean production, knowledge management, supply-chain partnering, call centres, virtual working, and systems integration. It ends with two chapters on the impact of such practices on organizational performance, one in the manufacturing sector, the other in services. It is designed to be relevant to a range of disciplines, including work psychology, ergonomics, operational management, knowledge management, work sociology, economics, information technology, as well as the general manager and management student.

"It is reassuring that researchers across the globe continue to develop and refine theories and models that can help us to make sense of the HRM role, and that can underpin and support our work. This is an invaluable book for both CIPD students and the academic HRM community."

Media Quotes

COI’s work was widely covered in a recent article in IRS Employment Review (21st April 2006, pages 21-4) by Paul Suff on Innovation. Quotes from Birdi and Wood include:

“An innovation culture the active support of management at all levels, together with systems that allow the smooth transition from the first emergence of ideas to their implementation” (Kamal Birdi).

“An innovation culture tolerates errors and risk-taking. It also fosters learning from mistakes by instigating regular reviews” (Stephen Wood).

Stephen Wood, commenting of the Labour Government’s programme of employment legislation,

“The reforms could add up to something quite distinctive. The government may be seen to be playing a long game and workers' rights have improved significantly in some areas. However, as yet the reforms have not contributed greatly to the competitiveness and innovation agenda."

"The government has been able to significantly improve workers' legal protection and rights without undermining the UK's competitive and entrepreneurial edge,"
(Guardian, Work).

The coverage of our call centre work has been widespread, e.g.:

"It might seem obvious, but in the battle of the call centres it is prescient that the Institute of Work Psychology ... says its research has established a link between the low average levels of job discretion and ... levels of customer satisfaction and higher quit rates."
(Nick Pandya, Guardian, Jobs and Money)

David Holman, portrayed as defender of open-plan offices, on the basis that they offer social interaction and social support:

“the fact that (call centre workers) their team members sitting next to them is a good thing, because you can imagine the job would be much worse if they were sitting in an office all on their own, cut off from others”.
(Guardian, Office Hours)

Stephen Wood, in a round table debate with the Employment Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, organised the DTI and People Management, was quoted as saying that when organisations try and involved employees more that managers can not sit back and relax:

"I don’t think it’s widely recognised that it is harder for managers – they have to do more when staff are empowered. It is especially challenging for middle managers and it’s perhaps this group more than any other that is responsible for the problems that many organisations in the UK continue to experience."
People Management

Wissam Magdaley, IWP doctoral student, promoted special “creativity centres” for workers as more conducive to the production of new ideas than office brainstorming sessions. At a British Psychological Society conference in Warwick he said that the ideas generated at the centre were of a better quality than those in an office.

“Being away from an office cleared people’s minds and allowed them to focus.”
The Scotsman

Stephen Wood was quoted in an article during National Ideas Week:

“Good (idea capturing) schemes are well planned, well publicised, supported by top management, give you feedback about the results of your ideas and offer rewards. Evdience suggests that people do not make suggestions for the monetary reward: the biggest incentive is recognition not monetary reward. Suggestions also give you the chance to improve on those niggling things that create frustration on their own patch".
Whitney, L. ‘What’s the big idea? It could be one of yours’, Daily Mail, March 17th, 2005, p 76.

Recent Additions to the "What Is?" Series

A Creativity Retreat Centre (pdf document)
Emotional Influence (pdf document)
High Involvement Management (pdf document)
A High Performance Work System (pdf document)
Industrial Relations (pdf document)
Innovation Culture (pdf document)
The Employment Interview (pdf document)
Job Analysis (pdf document)
A Psychological Test (pdf document)
Workplace Bullying (pdf document)

Full List of the "What Is?" Series of Fact Sheets

Recent Publications

Axtell, C.M., Fleck, S.J. and Turner, N. (2004). Virtual Teams: Collaborating Across Distance. In C.L. Cooper and I.T. Robertson. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 19. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 205-48. ISBN: 0273655442

Birdi, K. (2005). No idea? Evaluating the effectiveness of creativity training. Journal of European Industrial Training, 29(2), 102-111.

Burke, M., Holman, D. & Birdi, K. (2006). A Walk on the Safe Side: The Implications of Learning Theory for Developing Effective Safety and Health Training in G. Hodgkinson & K. Ford (Eds) The International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.

Clegg, C.W. (2004). Sociotechnical theory. In N. Nicholson, P. Aidia, & M. Pilluta (Eds), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell.

Clegg, C.W., Chu, C., Smithson, S., Henney, A., Willis, D., Jagodzinski, P., Hopkins, B., Icasati-Johanson, B., Fleck, S., Nicholls, J., Bennett, S., Land, F., Peltu, M. and Patterson, M. (2005). Sociotechnical study of e-business: Grappling with an octopus. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 3, 53-71.

Clegg, C.W. and Walsh, S. (2004). Change management: Time for a change. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 217-239.

Clegg, C.W., & Walsh, S. (2004). Soft systems analysis. In M.S. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T.F. Liao (Eds), Encyclopedia of Social Science Methods, Sage: Oregon, USA.

Clinton, M., Totterdell, P. and Wood, S., (2006) ‘A Grounded Theory of the Experience of Portfolio Working’, International Small Business Journal, 24 (2), 1-22.

Holman, D. (2005). Call centres. In D. Holman, T.D. Wall, C. Clegg, P. Sparrow, and A. Howard (Eds), The Essentials of the New Work Place: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, pp. 111-132. ISBN: 0470022159

Holman, D., Wall, T.D., Clegg, C., Sparrow, P. and Howard, A. (2004). (Eds), The Essentials of the New Work Place: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices . Chichester, John Wiley and Sons. ISBN: 0470022159

Leseure, M.J., Bauer, J., Birdi, K., Neely, A.D. & Denyer, D. (2004). Adoption of Promising Practices: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 5-6, pp. 169-190, September 2004.

Machin, S. and Wood, S. (2005). Human Resource Management as a Substitute for Trade Unions in British Workplaces. Industrial and Labor Relations Review ,58 (1), 201-18.

de Menezes, L. M. and Wood, S. (2006) ‘Identifying Human Resource Management in Britain Using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey’. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17 (1), 1-33.

Neal, A., West, M.A. & Patterson, M.G. (2005). Do organizational climate and competitive strategy moderate the relationship between human resource management and productivity. Journal of Management, 31, 492-512.

Norfolk, T., Patterson, F., Birdi, K. & Walsh, D. (under review). Developing therapeutic rapport in the GP consultation: a competency-based model. Social Science and Medicine.

O’Creevy, M. Fenton and Wood, S.(2005) ‘Benefiting from a multi-channel approach’, in J. Storey, (ed.) Adding Value Through Information and Consultation, Palgrave McMillan, 59–68.

Patterson, M.G., West, M.A., Shackleton, V. J., Dawson, J. F., Lawthom, R., Maitlis, S., Robinson, D.L., & Wallace, A.M. (2005). Validating the organizational climate measure: links to managerial practices, productivity and innovation. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 379-408.

Patterson, M.G., West, M.A. and Wall, T.D. (2004). Integrated manufacturing, empowerment and company performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 25, 641-665.

Patterson, M.G., Warr, P.B., and West, M.A. (2004). Organizational climate and company productivity: The role of employee affect and employee level. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology , 77, 193-216.

Robinson, M.A., Sparrow, P.R., Clegg, C. W., & Birdi, K. (2005). Design engineering competencies: Future requirements and predicted changes in the forthcoming decade. Design Studies.

Shepherd, C., Holman, D., Axtell, C.M., & Clegg, C.W. (2005). Changes in modern manufacturing practices. In Karwowski, W. (Ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors, Vol. 2. London: Taylor and Francis.

Shipton, H., Fay, D., West, M., Patterson, M. & Birdi, K. (2005). Managing people to promote innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 14(2), 118 – 128.

Sprigg, C. A., & Jackson, P. R., (2006). Call centers as lean service environments: Job-related strain and the mediating role of work design. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11(2), 197-212. Totterdell, P. (2004). Work schedules. In J. Barling, K. Kelloway, and M. Frone (Eds), Handbook of Work Stress. London: Sage Publications, pp. 35-62. ISBN: 0761929495

Totterdell, P., Wall, T.D., Holman, D., Diamond, H. and Epitropaki, O. (2004). Affect networks: A structural analysis of the relationship between work ties and job-related affect. Journal of Applied Psychology , 89, 854- 867.

Unsworth,K., Wall, T. D., & Carter, A. (2005). Creative requirement: A neglected construct in the study of employee creativity? Group and Organization Management, 30, 541-560.

Wall, T.D., & Clegg, C.W. (2004). Job design. In N. Nicholson, P. Aidia, & M. Pilluta (Eds), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell.

Wall, T.D., Michie, J., Patterson, M.G., Wood, S.J., Sheehan, M., Clegg, C.W. and West, M.A. (2004). On the validity of subjective measures of company performance. Personnel Psychology , 57, 95-118.

Wall, T.D., Wood, S.J. and Leach, D.J. (2004). Empowerment and Performance. In C.L. Cooper and I.T. Robertson (Eds), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology . New York: John Wiley, pp.1-46. ISBN: 0273655442

Wall,T.D. & Wood, S.J. (2005). The Romance of Human Resource Management and Business Performance and the case for big science, Human Relations¸ 58 (4): 1-34.

Walsh, S., & Clegg, C.W. (2004). Soft Systems Analysis: Reflections and Update. In C.M. Cassell and G.J. Symon (Eds.), Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, London: Sage, pp. 334-348. ISBN: 0761948872

Warr, P.B. (2004). Work, well-being and mental health. In J. Barling, K. Kelloway and M. Frone (Eds), Handbook of Work Stress. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 547-573. ISBN: 0761929495

Warr, P.B., Butcher, V., Robertson, I.T., and Callinan, M. (2004). Older people’s well-being as a function of employment, retirement, environmental characteristics and role preference. British Journal of Psychology , 95, 297-324.

Warr, P.B., and Pearce, A. (2004). Preferences for careers and organizational cultures as a function of logically-related personality traits. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 53, 423-435.

Wood, S. (2004). Organisational Performance and Manufacturing Practices. In Holman, D., Wall, T.D., Clegg, C.W., Sparrow, P. and Howard, A. (Eds), The Essentials of The New Workplace. London: Wiley, 2005, pp. 197-218. ISBN: 0470022159

Wood, S. J. (2004). Job Deskilling In N. Nicholson, P. Aidia, & M. Pilluta (Eds), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour. Oxford: Blackwell.

Wood, S. (2005) Overview of the impact of employment relations law: post-1997, London: Department of Trade and Industry.

Wood, S and Moore, S. Crafting a Statutory Union Recognition Procedure that Works for the UK, in A. Verma and T. A. Kochan, (Eds) Unions in the 21st Century: An International Perspective, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 75-90. ISBN: 140393505X

Wood, S., Stride, C.B., Wall, T.D. and C.W. Clegg, (2004). Revisiting the Use and Effectiveness of Modern Management Practices. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing , 14, 415-432.

Wood S. J. and Fenton O’Creevy, M. P. (2005). Direct involvement, Representation and Employee Voice in UK Multinationals in Europe, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 11 (1): 27-50.

In Press

Axtell, C. M., Holman, D. & Wall, T. D. Promoting innovation: A change study. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Axtell, C. & Fleck, S. Virtual Teams, In, Rogelberg, S. (Ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. SAGE.

Birdi, K. Learning Organizations. In S.Rogelberg (Ed) Encyclopedia of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Sage Press.

Leach, D., Stride, C. and Wood, S. (2006). ‘The effectiveness of idea capture schemes’, International Journal of Innovation Management, 10 (3).

Leach, D.J., Wall T.D., Rogelberg, S.G. and Jackson, P.R. Team autonomy, performance and member job strain: Uncovering the teamwork KSA link. Applied Psychology: An International Review.

Shipton, H., West, M.A., Dawson, J., Patterson, M. & Birdi, K. HRM as a predictor of innovation. Human Resource Management Journal.

Wood, S. and de Menezes, L. M. (2006). ‘Family-Friendly Management, Equal Opportunity Policy And High Involvement Management In The UK’, in P. Boxall, J. Purcell, and P. Wright (eds) Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Wood, S., Holman, D. and Stride, C. (2006). ‘Human Resource Management and Performance in UK Call Centres’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 44 (1), 99-122.

Wood, S. and Wall, T. (2006). HRM, Work design and Voice. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 17.

Full list of publications from 2002