The occupation of policing is in crisis. Criticism of police failings has created intense pressure for the traditional ‘occupational closure’ model of policing as a craft to be replaced by new ...‘professional’ models associated with ‘evidence-based policing’, harm reduction, risk management and vulnerability. Various change initiatives have amounted to the ‘re-professionalisation’ of policing, whereby previous models of police professionalism based on craft, discretion and judgement have been abandoned and replaced by new protocols, guidelines and enhanced external scrutiny. This article explores how these changes are interpreted by operational police officers, using qualitative interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to explore officers’ application and understanding of the new requirements. Whereas some literature argues that ‘police culture’ remains largely unchanged, our data illustrate how officers’ daily routines are in a state of enforced flux. While there was some limited support for the rationale for change, officers were highly critical of the practical implementation of policing vulnerability, were sceptical of the new doctrine of ‘professionalism’, and resentful of new managerial controls and priorities. This does not amount to the stubborn persistence of a ‘reform-proof’ police culture. Rather, officers described substantial change to the everyday culture and practice of policing, in ways they regard as confused, self-defeating and unworkable. We argue that professionalisation imposed ‘from above’ via dogmatic managerial logic can have detrimental implications for occupations and the public they serve.
Multiple dimensions of work intensity Granter, Edward; Wankhade, Paresh; McCann, Leo ...
Work, employment and society,
04/2019, Letnik:
33, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Working life in public sector professions is undergoing significant change and becoming increasingly demanding. This article explores work intensity in NHS ambulance services in England, describing ...four distinct but interrelated dimensions of intensity: temporal; physical; emotional; and organizational. We use the concept of edgework to explore the complexities involved in how emergency workers attempt to negotiate the rewards and risks associated with multidimensional work intensity. Although certain parts of ambulance work may be intrinsically intense and can provide an important source of validation, organizational elements have the potential to push work intensity to unnecessary extremes. Ambulance services are ‘professionalizing’, but as work in ambulance trusts continues to intensify, issues over dignity, staff retention and the meaning of work are becoming ever more challenging, just as they are in other public service professions.
Career narratives could make a potentially valuable contribution to an 'historic turn' in management and organization studies. This paper provides an historical narrative on the career of Robert S. ...McNamara, former President of Ford, US Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the World Bank. Based on a thorough exposition and deconstruction of historiographical and journalistic sources, the paper makes two contributions. Firstly, it argues that McNamara - a major figure in the disciplines of history, politics, and security studies - has been given a somewhat superficial treatment in management history despite being one the most high-profile managers of his generation. Where McNamara appears in management literature, the discussion has typically been historically inadequate, taking a simplistic line about his actions and approach, one limited to discrediting his 'outdated' forms of technique or management style and paying little attention to context and historiography. Secondly, the paper notes that management and organizations have in significant ways not moved beyond the McNamara approach now condemned by management writers. Many of the fundamental imperatives of commercial and governmental organizations that impacted McNamara's career persist today, problematizing ideological prescriptions about 'learning lessons.' The distancing of today's 'best practice leadership' from the 'bureaucratic' forms of administration associated with McNamara in the 1960s is therefore more rhetorical than real; a typical manifestation of a historical business school discourse that the historic turn tries to address.
Based on qualitative interviews (n = 64) within five UK organizations that have embarked on large‐scale restructuring (including delayering, downsizing, culture change, role redesign, lean ...production) we argue that middle managers are currently experiencing significant and progressive work and personal pressures. Performance is monitored more closely, hours and intensity of work are increasing, roles and tasks are changing frequently, and prospects for promotion are downscaled within flattened hierarchies. Whereas middle managers report increased levels of autonomy and skill, are often well remunerated, and frequently appear motivated (at least in the private sector), we suggest their burgeoning grievances over working hours, role pressures and promotion prospects have worrying implications for the future performance of UK industry. We argue further that the motivation for corporations to embark on such large‐scale restructuring is best understood with reference to the incessant demands of international capitalism. We conclude that such restructuring, and the personal managerial experiences that result from it, is in keeping with many, but crucially not all, of the trends predicted by Bravermanian labour process theory.
Traditional understandings of care-giving assume care practices are clear to others and unambiguously altruistic, reflective of the selfless and humane bearing of care professionals. However, a range ...of organisational research has noted the complex and often contradictory ways in which enactments of care are interwoven into organisational relations of power and control. Through a narrative analysis of interview data, our paper focuses upon practices of inaction and concealment as ‘veiled’ care set within the power-laden complexities and contested meaning-making of organisational life. Our notion of veiled care extends debates about care as a social practice in everyday work relations in two ways. Firstly, it provides a greater focus on the less discernible aspects of care-giving which are significant but possibly overlooked in shaping subjectivities and meanings of care in work relations. Secondly, it develops the discussion of the situated ambiguities and tensions in enacting care that involves overcoming care-recipient resistance and an arguably less heroic but nonetheless important objective of non-maleficence, to avoid, minimise or repair damage.
Purpose - This paper aims to explore the culture of working life in British financial services multinationals in the period leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. ...Design/methodology/approach - Informed by labour process theory, the paper is based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with technicians and junior managers in British insurance and banking MNCs. Findings - The data demonstrate widespread employee disaffection with a new culture of corporate life that has emerged in the last two decades. Employees faced work intensification and were highly critical of what they saw as detached, ruthless, and often incompetent top leadership. Senior management is described as operating in an "echo chamber", insulated from the "realities" of the workplace. Research limitations/implications - The paper argues that the unpleasant work culture experienced by employees at middle and lower levels closely mirrors the broader excesses and failings of banks and insurance firms during the recent financial crisis. Excessive risk-taking, short-termism, and inattention to detail are widely given as causes of the crisis. This paper argues that senior leadership failings are also manifest in short-sighted, undignified, and ethically unsound treatment of staff, leading to severe problems with staff morale. Originality/value - The paper provides detailed qualitative data on the realities of working life in financial services before the recent financial crisis, and suggests ways for labour process theory to consider how restructuring is not only challenging for employees but can also be debilitating for the organisation itself.
Managing from the echo chamber McCann, Leo
Critical perspectives on international business,
10/2013, Letnik:
9, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
– This paper aims to explore the culture of working life in British financial services multinationals in the period leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
...Design/methodology/approach
– Informed by labour process theory, the paper is based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with technicians and junior managers in British insurance and banking MNCs.
Findings
– The data demonstrate widespread employee disaffection with a new culture of corporate life that has emerged in the last two decades. Employees faced work intensification and were highly critical of what they saw as detached, ruthless, and often incompetent top leadership. Senior management is described as operating in an “echo chamber”, insulated from the “realities” of the workplace.
Research limitations/implications
– The paper argues that the unpleasant work culture experienced by employees at middle and lower levels closely mirrors the broader excesses and failings of banks and insurance firms during the recent financial crisis. Excessive risk-taking, short-termism, and inattention to detail are widely given as causes of the crisis. This paper argues that senior leadership failings are also manifest in short-sighted, undignified, and ethically unsound treatment of staff, leading to severe problems with staff morale.
Originality/value
– The paper provides detailed qualitative data on the realities of working life in financial services before the recent financial crisis, and suggests ways for labour process theory to consider how restructuring is not only challenging for employees but can also be debilitating for the organisation itself.
Female empowerment is a prerequisite for a just and sustainable developed society. Being the most developed non‐western country, Japan offers an instructive window onto concerns about gender ...worldwide. Although overall gender equality is advancing in Japan, difficulties remain, especially in achieving equality in the workplace. We draw on theories of ontological commitment and the psychology of fiction to critically analyse the role of popular culture — in this case manga — in the reproduction of gender inequality in the Japanese workplace. We present examples of four of the most popular mainstream manga aimed at working men and women in Japan and show how women are depicted. We argue that the hyper‐mediated fictional realism of representative tropes generates an ontological commitment to characters and narratives among consumers that reinforces the reproduction of a culturally exceptionalist national political economic space, one of whose essential defining characteristics is a gendered workplace. Our research suggests important implications for researching the relationship between culture, in all its forms, and spatial variation in persistent institutional biases among varieties of capitalism.
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