Project Archive
The following projects are have concluded. For information on current work, view Projects.
Efthimios Poulis
Overview
Nowadays, organisations face a more complex and dynamic environment, which they have to address using their internal capabilities. However, the academic literature offers theories and frameworks that are static and consequently they do not take into consideration the dynamic nature of both the external and the internal elements of an organisation’s environment. A more dynamic approach has to be introduced, enriching the existing knowledge.
Abstract
The management literature is in a constant quest to offer new theories and unfold innovative business practices, inviting ideas from all scientific areas. This study attempts to link the external environment of an organisation to the internal one. The contribution rests in the author’s perspective in both aspects of the environment. For the presentation and analysis of the external environment, a notion stemming from biology, namely complexity, is introduced. For the internal environment, the notion of dynamic capabilities is used. Following a qualitative approach, eight case studies were selected, providing 43 interviewing with top managers of the biggest multinational and local organisations in shipping, super markets and higher education in Greece. The results show that these two notions, when interrelated, inform both theory and practice in strategic management. Organisations can address dynamic environments using their dynamic capabilities in ways that could not be thought of before, in static terms.
Dr Paul Freedman, Dr Julia Kiely & Kathy Brennan
Overview
Collaborative ways of working for service delivery are on the increase. But collaboration is not easy because different service providers see things differently – they have different agendas and priorities.
Competition is no longer seen as the best way to improve service delivery. Collaborative partnership between a variety of organisations and professional bodies, each of which brings distinctive competencies and skills, is seen as the new way forward. With public service delivery in particular, collaboration offers the opportunity to bring together private and public sector groups to deliver ‘joined-up’ services. This study looks at the forces encouraging collaboration in terms of ideology and practical considerations. One of the key themes running through the academic literature on collaboration is the importance of trust. This theme is developed and explored through a framework for integrating trust and distrust. Through a detailed investigation of a complex partnership arrangement across time, the collaborative journey of individuals is tracked. The study informs on the meaning and impact of high trust in complex collaborative partnerships.
Dr Eddy Donnelly, Dr Paul Freedman & Barbara Wilczek
Overview
The recent influx of CEE migrants from the A8 countries into the UK has attracted considerable interest from policy makers, business communities, workers and civil society alike. Our studies explore the challenges and dilemmas arising from new migrants’ integration and assimilation into both the world of work and the wider community.
Further Details
This study aims to explore the assimilation of Polish migrant workers into UK workplaces. Their introduction into our own regional economy as a way of filling skills shortages is particularly striking and warrants further investigation. Of particular interest are their strategies for integrating themselves into local labour markets and the possible barriers to be overcome.
Accordingly, this regionally-focused research assesses likely effects on workplaces and identifies any associated issues confronting employer organisations unused to significant diversity in the composition of their workforces. Polish workers are the focus of the study since they represent the largest grouping of CEE in the locale.
This project is intended to complement comparable studies elsewhere that are likewise looking into the impact of migrant workers on both sectoral job markets and work relations. To this end, CRiM researchers are forming collaborative partnerships with other Centres similarly interested in undertaking comparative regional studies.
Field work is intended to contribute to broader debates surrounding both the integration and transience of migrant workers in British labour markets. More specifically, its purpose is to identify key relational challenges that employers and other actors need to address in order to assimilate Polish workers into indigenous workforces in a sustained way.
Dr Eddy Donnelly, Dr Paul Freedman, Dr Julia Kiely & Elizabeth Warren-Corney
Overview
The recent introduction of new forms of union representation around workplace learning has provided members of CRiM with the opportunity to explore its contribution to union organising within the South West region. The study specifically assesses whether workplace learning representation provides unions with partnership routes back into favour with workers and employers alike.
Further Details
New Activism in the Workplace: The Role of the Union Learning Representative (ULR) in the South West Region
Since 2002, the contribution that unions make towards workplace learning has been officially acknowledged through the legal establishment of a union learning representative system. In contrast, the last three decades have been marked by significant decline in the presence, role and status of union representation generally. This trend is highly suggestive of a wider malaise undermining union capacity overall. The near collapse of this representational system has opened up a gap that arguably needs addressing as a matter of some priority.
In line with broader debates over ‘union renewal’,the study aims to assess the potential for recently introduced union learning representatives (ULRs) to provide new outlets for activism in the workplace and to help unions raise their profile with members and non-members alike. This qualitative research is specifically designed to address a number of debates over what constitutes a proper role for ULRs within union structures, what difficulties might lie in their way and what characteristics might dispose them towards their identification with workplace activism beyond simply learning.
The focus of this work is on those representatives servicing the learning needs of those working in the retail, distribution and manufacturing sectors of the South West regional economy.
Dr Rhona Johnsen
Small and medium-sized suppliers face a ‘catch 22’ situation in developing their capabilities. Large international customers often demand a narrow core of capabilities from suppliers to support their own growth under increasing global competition, but this means that suppliers have difficulty in developing the dynamic full-service capabilities required to successfully compete internationally themselves.
Dr Rhona Johnsen’s area of expertise is in international business-to-business marketing, specialising in supplier-customer relationships, networks and the internationalisation of small and medium-sized companies. Her current research interests are the management of larger customer-smaller supplier relationships and suppliers' capability developments for internationalisation.
Rhona has forged strong international research networks with several institutions across Europe. She is a visiting Professor of International Marketing at Jönköping International Business School in Sweden where she is studying supply chain internationalisation, with an emphasis on how large European companies develop networks in China, with Swedish and UK colleagues. She is also working with French colleagues leading research on managing capability development and customer relationships in small and medium-sized suppliers in the UK and France.
It is believed that the results of these research projects will lead to a better understanding of how smaller suppliers can cope with the challenges of internationalisation whilst developing capabilities to assist them in creating a strong position and superior customer value in their business networks.
Prof. Colin Armistead & Dr Paul Pettigrew
How do professional managers working in multi-sectoral and multi-organisational partnerships conceive ‘leadership’ in these complex milieux? Do they consider ‘leadership’ to be different in partnership contexts as distinct from single organisations? How best can we conceptualise leadership to encompass partnership-working?
These are just some of the questions we have been exploring as part of an on-going action research inquiry conducted by the Centre for Research in Management at the Business School. The context for our studies is the UK government’s mission to effect a step-change in the quality of public services. Such transformation has increasingly depended on organisations working together from across the public, private and voluntary sectors in complex partnerships. The aim is to improve service levels and citizen choice …and partnerships are seen as the means to deliver these public benefits.
For our purposes we have taken a working definition of partnership as: a cross-sector, inter-organisational group, working together under some form of recognised governance, towards common goals which would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve if tackled by any single organisation. We have mainly been concerned with partnerships which are strategic in bringing together the public, private and community/voluntary sectors to address shared issues, e.g. in health, economic regeneration, education/skills, etc.
Questions of leadership emerge within any discussion of the experiences of working in partnerships and while there are many sources addressing leadership in single organisations there is no definitive work on leadership in multi-sectoral partnerships. We have tried in our work to close that gap by exploring the nature of these types of partnership their views on leadership and the effect partnerships have on the delivery of services within the public domain.
Beyond Diversity
Traditionally organisations have welcomed diversity programmes because they are less confrontational than previous equal opportunities programmes and affirmative action. However, organisations are slowly realising the limitations of basic diversity programmes to attract and retain new people and new skills. The problem is diversity programmes in themselves do not challenge individual people’s self-image which has led to certain groupings voluntarily segregating and categorising themselves as ineligible for certain postings and progression.
What does diversity actually mean for people and organisations? Can organisations challenge these internalised feelings? Do they actually want to? How can they promote policies that get at the grass roots of diversity rather than fulfilling basic legal requirements? Can we link diversity to organizational performance? These are the questions that I, and others, are addressing in CRiM in order to move this contemporary debate forward.
Pension Trusteeship and Diversity
Who have you elected to serve as your representative pension trustee?
The recent increase in numbers of elected pension trustees by the pension regulator has coincided with a move to include more representatives of members’ voices to improve the integrity of pension schemes. But why would people be prepared to volunteer to take on this challenging, highly responsible role. Who should come forward to take on this burden and how can an increased numbers of people from different occupational and life experiences background improve pension trusteeship?
