Lean thinking has recently re-emerged as a fashionable management philosophy, especially in public services. A prescriptive or mainstream literature suggests that lean is rapidly diffusing into ...public sector environments, providing a much-needed rethink of traditional ways of working and stimulating performance improvements. Our study of the introduction of lean in a large UK public sector hospital challenges this argument. Based on a three-year ethnographic study of how employees make sense of lean ‘adoption’, we describe a process in which lean ideas were initially championed, later diluted and ultimately eroded. While initially functioning as a ‘mechanism of hope’ (Brunsson, 2006) around which legitimacy could be generated for tackling longstanding work problems, over time both ‘sellers’ and ‘buyers’ of the concept mobilized lean in ambiguous ways, to the extent that the notion was rendered somewhat meaningless. Ultimately, our analysis rejects current prescriptive or managerialist discourses on lean while offering support for prior positions that would explain such management fashions in terms of the ‘life cycle of a fad’.
The end of the traditional management career has been heralded with supporting, albeit largely anecdotal, data. The ‘old’ career was set within internal labour markets in large organizations and ...characterized by long‐term stability. The ‘new’ arrangements have apparently shifted responsibility from employer to employee, with careers being developed across organizations. Such change is premised on new organizational forms and is often associated with a growing sense of employee insecurity. We explore the reality of this ‘new’ scenario through interpretation of in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted with middle and senior human resources managers in large firms in Japan, the UK, and USA. The data indicate that most of our case study organizations had downsized and delayered, with hybrid structural forms emerging. Career prospects were diminished, with fewer vertical promotions and a greater emphasis on lateral ‘development’; middle managers were generally resentful of such factors and forces. Although not directly reflective of ‘Anglo‐American’ business practice, similar changes to career trajectories were witnessed in Japan as in the UK and USA.
Managerialism versus professionalism is a central axis of conflict across many occupations. ‘The profession of arms’ is no exception. This article explores the contested yet symbiotic relationship of ...management and the military via a discussion of the Vietnam conflict and contemporary debates over restructuring the US military to fight so-called ‘New Wars’. It portrays a complex picture of the organization and measurement of destruction, arguing that managerialism has long been an important ideological element of civilian and military practice. While management systems such as the infamous ‘measurements of progress’ in the Vietnam War were practically dysfunctional, they were effective up to a point in their managerialist goal of portraying civilian and military organizations as effective, evidence-based, progressive and ethical. This logic also pertains to contemporary debates over ‘progress’, and its measurement in the Iraq and Afghanistan counterinsurgencies and the campaign against Isil. Despite its practical limitations, managerialism is highly prevalent as ideology in warfare, fixating on tactical and operational levels, thereby excluding broader strategic, political or ethical discussions. ‘Progress’ and its mismeasurement in Vietnam and the New Wars are therefore best understood not simply as reasons for military and civilian failures in prolonged and inconclusive conflicts but as evidence of the success of managerialism in restricting public scrutiny and accountability of the business of war.
Based on extensive original research in the Republic of Tatarstan, in the Central Volga region of Russia, this book examines the economic development path followed by Tatarstan since the collapse of ...the Soviet Union and the Russian financial crash of 1998. It argues that the roles of global capitalism and globalisation are somewhat exaggerated in much contemporary academic literature. In the case of Tatarstan, a strong state role, tightly-knit local elite networks, and the inheritance of the Soviet politic and industrial systems are the most important socio-economic formations in explaining the region's development.
The transition of Russia to a 'developed market economy' has been slower, more contradictory and less predictable than expected. This book examines contemporary Russian socio-economic development, ...and explores the degree to which Russian experiences can be incorporated into current social science theories. In particular, it questions how far the concept of 'globalization' is applicable to the situation in Russia.
The prolonged, 10-year, economic downturn in Japan has had far-reaching implications for structure and human resource management (HRM) practices in Japanese organizations. In particular, the demise ...of hierarchical and group structures has been predicted, together with the end of distinctive HRM features such as lifetime employment and seniority-based pay. Using interview-based empirical data with a variety of Japanese organizations, this paper argues that such organizations are indeed moving towards flatter, less hierarchical structures. Moreover, there are marked shifts in HRM practices. In particular, the seniority-based pay system has been subject to reform. However, other practices have proved considerably more robust than the popular literature would suggest. For example, the lifetime employment system, although under significant pressure, remains largely intact. Indeed, we will argue that certain other key practices are being sacrificed to maintain job security.
This symposium of Public Administration explores the impact of the ‘Great Financial Crisis’ (GFC) on public services provision and delivery. This introductory article discusses the political and ...media ‘framing’ and ‘counter‐framing’ of what the GFC means for reforming public service bargains. The dominant frame is that service reform and cutbacks to provision are inevitable and unavoidable. This is contrasted with the counter‐frame that the GFC is being used as ‘cover’ for ‘ideologically driven’ reforms that policymakers would have wanted to introduce even if the crash had not occurred. Reform processes, however, are highly context‐specific and frames and counter‐frames are rhetorical and subjective. They emanate from deep‐seated yet fragile assumptions about the economic, social, and moral capacities of markets and governments, and are therefore best understood as ‘mechanisms of hope’ rather than distinct and rational policy prescriptions.
Much has been written about the relocation of services jobs away from OECD nations by offshoring. But what happens to those who remain employed at workplaces where offshoring has been carried out? ...Based on survey and interview data of UK insurance and banking staff, this article explores employees' subjective understandings of the impacts of offshoring. The article brings together literature on Global Commodity Chains and Labour Process Theory, as it expands the focus of research on offshoring from macro/meso discussions of globalization and firm strategy into more micro‐level analysis of employee interpretations of workplace change. The data indicate a collapse in morale and work dignity for UK financial services workers and suggest that offshoring is not associated with a rise in skill levels of surviving jobs. Many staff reported a climate of detachment and cynicism after offshoring. Detachment and disaffection applies to employees' feelings towards their employer and their union, and is discussed as a paradoxical by‐product of the growing incorporation of services work into Global Commodity Chains or Global Production Networks.
How is medical labor power, that being the capacity to assemble, adjust, or arrange medical subjects, converted into medical practice? Drawing on three qualitative case studies in the United States, ...Canada, and the United Kingdom, we argue that this conversion is shaped by pressures channeled through the relations that medical workers enter into with patients “from below” and managers “from above.” We demonstrate this by examining a common empirical object: ambulance labor. In addition to providing a unique window into the varieties of medical work, paramedicine offers a strategic venue for examining the kinds of productive relations that medical laborers enter into. Our research shows how the labor process is shaped by patient requests that can either conform or contradict workers’ shared sense of vocation. We also detail how this same process is simultaneously pressured by managers who are generally focused on increasing both the flexibility and the visibility of their workers. Many of these pressures, we argue, can be linked to common forces of neoliberalism across our three nations. Our analysis of the medical labor process inspires some practical recommendations to reform ambulance-based care. However, our primary aim is to advance a labor-centric approach to studying medicine.
•Examines medicine as a labor process through three case studies of ambulance work.•Unique pressures shape the conversion of medical labor power into medical practice.•Ambulance workers in U.S., Canada, and UK are pressured by patients “from below.”.•Those same workers are also pressured by managers “from above.”.•These pressures are linked to common forces of neoliberalism across our cases.
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