Public‐sector Employment Relations Reform under Labour: Muddling Through on Modernization?

Abstract

The year 2001 in the UK was dominated by the difficulties the Labour government confronted in developing a coherent programme of public-sector modernization. This review examines recent developments in the public sector, focusing on government attempts to involve the private sector and its continuing reforms of pay determination arrangements. It highlights the tensions that this programme of reform aroused as the government struggled to respond to recruitment and retention problems and widespread perceptions of public-sector 'crisis'. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2002.

Voluntary sector HRM: examining the influence of government

“…Taken together, the HRM practices reported in the WERS data suggest a departure from traditional approaches in the voluntary sector that have tended to lack sophistication in the eyes of some (Lloyd, 1993;Butler and Wilson, 1990) and a more participatory, social-justice orientation in the eyes of others (Baines, 2010;Evans and Shields;2002;Van Til, 2000). Our conclusions are also in line with the findings of recent studies that have identified change in HR approaches adopted in parts of the voluntary sector (see for example, Kellock Hay et al 2001;Parry and Kelliher, 2009).…”

The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity

“…The voluntary sector was encouraged to compete for contracts to provide public services which allowed growth but also provided the ability to continue to campaign and lobby for improved public welfare services (Kendall 2003 p.54). New Labour in 1997 mainstreamed the Third Sector institutionalising and extending its role as a partner in public policy and welfare provision, provided this was accompanied by modernisation around an essentially private sector model of good practice in public service delivery (Kendall 2000, Bach 2002). …”

Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management

“…Integral to Labour's 1997 modernisation agenda (Ahmad and Broussine 2003) was a desire to managerialise the sector and to impose a 'new public management' (NPM) based on embedding the discipline of 'the market' into public services (Bach 2002;Ferlie et al 1996). NPM became the prevailing management nostrum of the 1990s: a central element was that public sector organisations should 'import managerial processes and behaviour from the private sector' (Boyne 2002 p.97).…”