Purpose: This paper presents an exploratory study of 'speaking up' in international auditing firms. We examine two key questions: (i) what is the propensity of employees in training to speak up on workplace problems and (ii) how would management react to employees in training speaking up on workplace problems? Design: We compare and contrast the views of employees on training contracts with management including partners. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 8 managers/partners and 20 employees working in 6 large auditing firms in Ireland. Findings:We find that employees on training contracts have a high propensity to remain silent on workplace problems. Quiescent and acquiescent forms of silence were evident.Management expressed willingness to act on employee voice on workplace problems concerning business improvements and employee performance but were very resistant to voice in regard to a change in working conditions or a managers' performance. Employees and management couched employee voice in terms of technical knowledge exchange rather than being associated with employee dissatisfaction or having a say in decision making. Originality:We highlight how new professional employees are socialised into understanding that employee voice is not a democratic right and the paper provides insight on the important role of partners as owner/managers in perpetuating employee silence. Previous research on owner/managers has tended to focus on small businesses while the auditing firms in this study have large numbers of employees.

Bullying remains a pervasive problem in healthcare, and evidence suggests systems in place are not utilised due to perceptions of ineffectiveness and inequity. This study examines bystander responses to bullying and factors that influence decisions to intervene. We explore relationships between bystanders' perceptions of psychological safety across three levels (organisation, supervisor and colleague) and reactions to witnessing bullying. We suggest psychological safety would be positively associated with the decision to intervene. Findings indicate the most pervasive reaction to witnessing incidents of bullying is to discuss with colleagues, a low-involvement reaction. We find perceptions of supervisory and organisational safety/support are positively related to high-involvement decisions such as formal reporting of the incidents, highlighting the importance of support from those in power. However, perceptions of collegial support may lead to low-involvement responses, which risk reinforcing and underpinning dysfunctional organisational dynamics by providing informal social and emotional responses that may substitute more formal organisational responses to this persistent problem. This study highlights the importance of support from individuals in power if bystanders are to feel comfortable making high-involvement interventions. K E Y W O R D Sbullying, bystanders, decision to intervene, nursing, psychological safety

Zero hours work typifies work where there are no guaranteed hours offered by the employer. This article examines the relationship between the state and the emergence of zero hours work in an atypical liberal market economy, Ireland. Based on interviews with informed stakeholders with a focus on four sectors – retail, health, education and accommodation/food – the article concludes that the actions of the state have created a weak regulatory environment that has facilitated the emergence of zero hours work. The findings are discussed with a theoretical frame using the concepts of accumulation and legitimation.

Trade unions have experienced significant turbulence over the past three decades. In the UK and Ireland, a key change has been a substantial increase in the individual rights-based employment legislation, raising important questions about its impact on trade unions. Based on a survey and interviews with union officials in Ireland, we examine whether individual employment law acts to undermine or enhance the role of trade unions and whether trade union officials use employment law to achieve change in the workplace and to mobilise workers. We find that while unions believe in the superiority of collective bargaining to pursue individual rights, and consider the law as having an individualising effect, they also recognise its benefits in the current environment. Given the legal restrictions on collective action in individual disputes, union officials believe that employment law can be used to support and protect vulnerable groups of workers. The increasing resort to individual employment rights in Ireland is contrasted with an alternative system in Sweden which has a strong collectivist ethos. We conclude that the dilemmas faced by unions regarding the pursuit of rights are symptoms of Ireland's weak statutory framework.3

A frequent prescription for providing voice for employees with respect to bullying is a policy supported by a procedural complaint mechanism. Yet research points to a pervasiveness of employee silence in workplaces in situations of workplace bullying. We examine the efficacy of workplace bullying procedures as a voice mechanism for employees in countering bullying and explore the role of management in shaping employee propensity to speak out against bullying utilising procedures. In doing so, we advance knowledge on workplace bullying by using an industrial relations perspective and placing employer control as a conceptual lens. Based on a large survey of nurses in Ireland, the findings demonstrate that managerial actions have significant influence on employees' propensity to utilise bullying procedures. The findings also provide some empirical support for the premise that management seek to use bullying behaviours to constrain employees' contestation of management decision making.