From Great Expectations to Hard Times? Managing Equal Opportunities Under New Public Management

Cunningham, Rosie

doi:10.1111/1467-9299.00225

Cited by 21 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Although NPM is not unified, uniform or uncontested (Dent et al ., 2004), it is underpinned by scientific management and neo‐human relations discourses (Cunningham, 2000). Scientific management brings with it values of rational control and objectivity, priorities of financial management, and new forms of audit, control, surveillance and monitoring.…”

Section: Technologies Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Playing the Game: Strategies of Resistance and Co‐optation in Diversity Work

Swan

Fox

2010

Gender Work & Organization

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The article addresses diversity work as a specific form of management work that involves complex micro-political strategies of resistance. Diversity work stems from an activist agenda that has been adopted by mainstream management practice, especially new public sector management. But in being adopted, it has been critiqued for also being co-opted, and as a result de-radicalized. The article seeks to examine this critique. First, we examine the politics of diversity, discussing critiques of diversity work from political theory and referencing femocrats, an earlier movement affecting women in management. Secondly, we recognize that the ambivalence of diversity work can be understood in terms of co-optation and resistance. Here our central contribution is to understand these two processes in a much more nuanced way, drawing on our own and other organizational studies of diversity work in practice. We locate this more nuanced analysis of diversity work in the emergent context of new public sector management. We draw attention to three micro-practices that help to exhibit a complex understanding of co-optation and resistance: (a) discursive resources, (b) embodied resources and (c) management technologies as resources. Finally, we conclude by outlining the article's contribution: extending Meyerson and Scully's notion of the tempered radical in four key ways. We do this by emphasizing the importance of the specificities of occupational resources of resistance, arguing that resources of resistance move beyond the discursive, emphasizing the gendered, classed and racialized variegated nature of insider/outsider dynamics and finally, stressing that co-optation and resistance are temporal, dynamic, intermingled processes in diversity work.

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Section: Technologies Of Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Playing the Game: Strategies of Resistance and Co‐optation in Diversity Work

Swan

Fox

2010

Gender Work & Organization

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“…The public sector has traditionally sought to promote itself as in the forefront of equality and diversity employment policy and practice, not only as an ‘employer of choice’, but also on the grounds that a diverse workforce would be better able to provide services to a diverse community. However, a growing body of literature on equalities in the gender and race areas has been critical of the impact of the modernisation agenda on equality and diversity employment policy and practice in public service organisations (Dickens, 1999: 11; Cunningham, 2000: 701; Bailey and Jones, 2001: 1; Conley, 2003: 456; Creegan et al. , 2003: 635).…”

Section: Public Services: Lgb Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2003: 635). It has been argued that modernisation, rather than mainstreaming equality through a ‘business case’, in practice has meant that equality issues are too often sidelined within public service organisations (Bailey and Jones, 2001: 3) that feel besieged by the pressure to deliver services in a constantly changing and financially constrained environment (Cunningham, 2000: 701; Creegan et al. , 2003: 636).…”

Section: Public Services: Lgb Equalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Equality and diversity in the public services: moving forward on lesbian, gay and bisexual equality?

Colgan

Wright

Creegan

et al. 2009

Human Res Mgmt Journal

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A key change for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in the European Union has been the prohibition by the Employment Equality Directive (2000) of discrimination in employment on grounds of sexual orientation. This article focuses on the UK, which in 2003 introduced legislation making it unlawful to discriminate on these grounds. It explores the factors encouraging ‘good practice’ in sexual orientation equality work. It considers progress within the public services that have ‘pioneered’ sexual orientation equalities work, drawing on the views of LGB employees, management and trade union stakeholders. The recent legislation is considered to have provided a major impetus for change; however, an emerging ‘business case’ within the public service modernisation agenda is considered to have provided both opportunities and barriers to progress. A challenge for HR practitioners is getting organisational commitment to sexual orientation work, which is still perceived within organisations as a ‘sensitive’ area.

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“…M uch has been written on the implementation and management of equal opportunity commissions and the use of mechanisms to protect employees against discrimination or perceived discriminatory practices in the public services (Coyle, 1989;Cunningham, 2000;Hopkins, 1980;Lovenduski, 1989). Largely, however, few writers have attempted to examine or assess the mechanisms that have been introduced to protect the merit principle as it relates to recruitment and appointment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Difficulty of Protecting Merit in a Plural Society

Bissessar

2006

Review of Public Personnel Administration

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This article examines problems encountered in introducing and sustaining the merit principle in the public sector of an ex-colonial country. It offers a historical overview of the Public Service Commission, which was introduced as early as 1950 to protect public employees from undue political interference. The article contends that a number of problems have persisted, particularly in areas of recruitment, selection, promotions, and transfers. The article also suggests that the merit principle has been compromised further with the general loosening of vital controls that accompanied the introduction of new public management during the 1990s. It appears that the merit principle may experience a further decline with the advent of new public management.

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From Great Expectations to Hard Times? Managing Equal Opportunities Under New Public Management

Cited by 21 publications

References 11 publications

Playing the Game: Strategies of Resistance and Co‐optation in Diversity Work

Playing the Game: Strategies of Resistance and Co‐optation in Diversity Work

Equality and diversity in the public services: moving forward on lesbian, gay and bisexual equality?

The Difficulty of Protecting Merit in a Plural Society

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