End-users, Public Services, and Industrial Relations: The Restructuring of Social Services in Ontario

Hickey, Robert

doi:10.7202/1013196ar

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The 1980s represented the rapid integration of market forces into the provision of public services, with the NPSS sector central to this goal (Alcock, 2010;Hickey, 2012). The influence of NPM governance was clear, as non-profits were placed on a market-based footing, delivering services through top-down accountability controls and contractually-driven obligations (Carmel and Harlock, 2008).…”

Section: Austerity and Precarity In The Npss Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

Cunningham

Baines

Shields

2017

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Though not monolithic, the non-profit social services sector has been an arena where workers and management participated in various forms of shared planning, service development and organizing the labour process. This included: 1- formal participation processes such as collective bargaining with union representation, and 2- practice-profession or task participation. Drawing on 34 qualitative interviews undertaken with a variety of actors (Chief Executive/Senior Directors, senior operational management, Human Resource Managers, frontline staff, and, where available, union representatives) in two non-profit social service agencies in Ontario (Canada), the article traces how these forms of participation have changed as a result of government austerity policies alongside the expansion of precarious employment and funding in the non-profit sector.Using exemplar quotes and qualitative analysis, the article shows that worker’s participation in each form has declined, while management simultaneously has extended greater control over the labour process and removed or reduced forums and opportunities for input from staff. In terms of task participation, measurement and governance structure of New Public Management (NPM) and austerity have led to less autonomy and choice, especially in the area of working time. The study also found that unitarist approaches, intolerant of staff voice and possible dissent, have displaced earlier representative participatory approaches that either utilized the management chain, or embraced and worked constructively with unions. Though these pressures existed prior to the introduction of austerity policies, the data show that decreased worker’s participation coincides and is further undermined by the financial and governance processes associated with NPM and austerity-linked cuts in government and other forms of funding. Overall, the data and analysis suggest that participation in the Non-profit Social Services (NPSS) may be another casualty of this current wave of neoliberalism.Bien que non monolithique, le secteur de l’économie sociale s’est avéré une arène dans laquelle travailleurs et gestionnaires participent, sous diverses formes, à la planification partagée, au développement de l’offre de services et au processus d’organisation du travail. On y retrouve : 1- des processus de participation formelle, telle la négociation collective avec représentation syndicale; et 2- la participation à la formation pratique ou aux tâches. À partir de 34 entrevues qualitatives réalisées auprès d’une diversité d’acteurs (directeur général, directeurs séniors, gestionnaire opérationnel sénior, gestionnaires en ressources humaines, personnel de première ligne, et, là où c’était possible, représentants syndicaux) de deux agences de services sociaux sans but lucratif en Ontario (Canada), cet article retrace comment ces formes de participation ont évolué à la suite de la mise en place de politiques gouvernementales d’austérité, parallèlement à l’évolution de l’emploi précaire et du financement dans le secteur s...

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Section: Austerity and Precarity In The Npss Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

Cunningham

Baines

Shields

2017

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“…In Canada for instance, the emergence of customers as an interest group in social services in possession of individual budgets, has led to management incorporating their involvement into managerial roles, and also formerly recognising and negotiating their rights into collective agreements (Hickey, 2012). Yet, any increased influence of customer sovereignty on collective bargaining and traditional management control systems, will probably see employees and unions seeking recognition and protection of their rights.…”

Section: Managing Tensions In the Social Ordermentioning

confidence: 99%

Personalisation, austerity and the HR function in the UK voluntary sector

Cunningham

2016

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

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Using the customer orientated bureaucracy (COB) construct, this qualitative study investigates changes to the Human Resource (HR) function's status in eight Scottish voluntary organisations delivering public services at a time of contradictory government calls for greater customer service (personalisation) and cost control (austerity). HR attempts to build and sustain social orders that encourage worker commitment to customer service, leading to business facing and 'business partner' strategic roles in areas of recruitment and skills. The study, however, challenges the ability of unitarist 'business partner' HR roles to resolve emerging organisational tensions concerning industrial relations, worker concerns over their own security, lack of opportunities to up-skill and service quality. It further questions whether the HR function can be strategic in this and other COB contexts as it can be powerless to resolve workplace tensions because its own status is undermined by budget cuts by government and it faces challenges to its expertise from internal and external actors such as consultants and customers.

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“…Kessler and Bach (2011: 593) argue that "end users should not be considered as a homogeneous actor" and point out that not all individual end-users have the same resources and opportunities to develop effective action. Hickey (2012), for his part, showed that organizational reforms in the public sector, pursued in the context of new public management, could lead to efforts by management to co-opt and control end-users. To analyze user/patient action, we draw on Giddens' structuration theory and Bellemare and Briand's (2011) adaptation of it for the industrial relations field. Thus, in line with Giddens' hypothesis on the duality of structure, we consider that an IR system involves both the conditions for and results of the interaction of actors.…”

Section: End-users As Work Relations Actors: An Analytical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3. While user/patient representatives can certainly express users/patients' opinions, users/patients are heterogeneous and their claims vary from one disease to another (Chalamon et al, 2013;Hickey, 2012); 4. Moreover, the researchers did not directly observe the interactions between the chosen actors (users/patients and nursing staff; user/patient representatives and union representatives).…”

Section: Conclusion Limitations and Research Avenuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Users / Patients as Industrial Relations Actors: A Structurationist Analysis

Bellemare

Briand

Havard

et al. 2018

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Summary This paper presents a structurationnist analysis model that aims to revise the classic industrial relations theories. The model, primarily based on the re-definition of the notion of actor in industrial relations (Bellemare, 2000), proposes to reconsider the frontiers of the industrial relations system (Bellemare and Briand, 2006; Legault and Bellemare, 2008), to replace the notion of “system” by the concept of “region,“ and to extend the model to the study of issues related to “life politics” (Giddens, 1991). The proposed model is illustrated by the study of the influence of users/patients on the work organization and on the decisions of the governing bodies of a French university hospital, and on the French health system (public policies, research priorities and methods, etc.). The results of the study show that the users/patients have become actors in the work relation regions through their mobilization on issues related to life politics: they have challenged the border between expert knowledge and common knowledge, and they have gained greater control over their health and the care they receive. Patients’ associations and individual patients, for their part, have modified the work relations regions at the organizational and worksite levels. Our results pave the way for future investigations that will integrate the dynamic conceptions of “actor” and of “regions of work relationships,“ as well as issues related to the life politics, in order to validate the generalizing scope of the model proposed.

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End-users, Public Services, and Industrial Relations: The Restructuring of Social Services in Ontario

Cited by 12 publications

References 42 publications

“You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

“You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

Personalisation, austerity and the HR function in the UK voluntary sector

Users / Patients as Industrial Relations Actors: A Structurationist Analysis

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