The rise of the ‘network organisation’ and the decline of discretion

Abstract

This article explores the implications of ‘networked’ and ‘flexible’ organisations for the work and skills of professionals/ Drawing on material from four different case studies, it reviews work that is outsourced (involving IT professionals and housing benefit caseworkers), work that is done by teachers contracted to a temporary employment agency and work organised through an inter‐firm network (chemical production workers). In each case work that was outsourced was managed very differently to that undertaken in‐house, with managerial monitoring replacing and reducing employees' discretion. New staff in these networks had fewer skills when hired and were given access to a narrower range of skills than their predecessors. By contrast, the production staff directly employed on permanent contracts in the inter‐firm network were given (and took) significant amounts of responsibility, with positive results for both their skills and the work processed. Yet, despite the negative impact they have on skills, outsourcing and subcontracting are a far more common means of securing flexibility than organisational collaboration.

Human resource management in the project-oriented company: A review

“…Clark and Colling [63], who have conducted in depth case studies in the engineering contracting industry, find that the role of the HRM function is changing and that these changes are not reflected in the HRM literature because there is a lack of engagement between project management literature and HRM literature on the role of HRM practices in project-oriented companies. We share these observations, as for example in the literature on HRM in flexible firms such as the network organization [64], where there is no explicit mention of projects or their impact on HRM in project-oriented companies. The HR implications of project management as a core business process of organizing work and the project-oriented company as such are not objects of consideration in the leading HRM publications we have investigated which is surprising given increasing evidence that project oriented working is becoming increasingly important [16,65,66], and that this is a development that need to be considered carefully and critically in terms of the implications from non-managerial as well as managerial perspectives [67].…”

Service Management and Employment Systems in U.S. and Indian Call Centers

“…11 Grugulis, Vincent, and Hebson (2003) examined outsourcing in three functions requiring radically different levels of skill and complexity and found that in each 338 Brookings Trade Forum: 20057. Pine (1993.…”

Really dealing

“…Also, there were strongly institutionalized practices that were common to both organizations and these increased the scope for cooperation, creating wide-ranging benefits and increased potential for mutual organizational learning (Hunter et al, 1996; also see Grugulis et al, 2003). Here, inter-organizational cooperation was increased by resource dependencies existing between the organizations, a situation likely to occur elsewhere.…”