The British partnership phenomenon: a ten year review

This article presents a detailed review of the vast partnership literature that has emerged in the UK between 1998 and 2008. It begins by examining definitions of partnership, and suggests that while academic definitions are vague, practitioner definitions tend to conflate partnership processes with partnership outcomes. An alternative definition based upon processes and practices is offered. This is followed by a review of the conceptual advocates/critics debate, and the key themes of empirical partnership studies. It is proposed that while recent empirical evidence identifies a variety of outcomes and presents various typologies of partnership, there is an absence of debates on typologies in the literature. The article then identifies several limitations of the existing literature, including ideological positions, a lack of sensitivity to context and to different types of partnership, and a focus on outcomes. The article concludes by suggesting avenues for future partnership research.     

Policy mechanism choice for environmental management by non-commercial “lifestyle” rural landholders

For some environmental assets in rural areas, the landholders who are having the biggest impact are people with small holdings and an emphasis on lifestyle rather than commercial gains from their land. This paper aims to better understand the motivations and likely responses to policy for lifestyle landholders in Australia, in order to assess which policy mechanisms, if any, are likely to be most efficiently used to influence their land management. Through face-to-face interviews, we find that lifestyle landholders have important differences from commercial farmers, including much smaller properties, a stronger interest in environmental outcomes, a lack of land-management skills and a lack of time for land-management activities. From the perspective of environmental policy programs, engaging with lifestyle landholders is likely to involve higher transaction costs, and there are likely to be higher learning and transition costs per unit area. A framework for selection of policy tools is modified to take account of these findings. It is concluded that the prospects for worthwhile public investments in land-use changes by lifestyle landholders are lower than for commercial landholders.     

The meanings and purpose of employee voice

In this paper we present and assess an analytical framework for examining the different ‘meanings, purposes and practices’ of employee voice. The data were collected from eighteen organizations in England, Scotland and Ireland. Managers defined voice very much in terms of the perceived contribution to efficiency and tended to downplay notions of rights; however, the linkages between voice and performance outcomes remain problematic. Overall, employee voice is best understood as a complex and uneven set of meanings and purposes with a dialectic shaped by external regulation, on the one hand, and internal management choice, on the other. The evidence suggests that the degree to which voice practices are embedded in an organization is much more important than reporting the extent of any particular individual or collective schemes for employee voice.     

A Study of the Association between Level of Slack Reduction Following Downsizing and Innovation Output

Over the years scholars put forward a number of theories to explain the association between slack and innovation. This study extends this body of research by focusing on the effects of reduction in slack level following downsizing on innovation output. We developed two hypotheses to examine the total effects and varied yearly effects. We tested the hypotheses with data from a panel of UK firms that downsized between 1997 and 2003. The results show that the level of downsizing has only temporary effects on innovation output. We discuss the implications of these findings and avenues for future research.     

Competition and co-operation: toward understanding industrial districts 1

The central feature of the ‘industrial district’ is the balance between competition and co-operation among firms. This paper addresses the role of competition and co-operation in the organization of economic activity. We first compare Alfred Marshall's notion of industrial district and that of contemporary writers. We then discuss the limits of competition in the presence of such problems as asset specificity, measurement problems and externalities. We argue that under such circumstances industrial success depends on the effectiveness of collective institution-mediated co-operation. We further discuss various factors that might foster for hinder development of such institutions.     

A place for visual research methods in the field of leisure studies? Evidence from two studies of older adults’ active leisure

Few researchers have explored perceptions of the local environment as a potential precursor to older adults’ active leisure participation; fewer still have employed visual research methods as a tool for examining the modalities of environmental influences on leisure behaviour. This article introduces leisure researchers to the visual research techniques of Q method with photographs and photovoice and highlights the opportunities and challenges resulting from the use of visual techniques with populations of older adults. Data obtained in two visual research studies undertaken in 2008 and 2011 reveal the importance of home and local environment as a nexus for leisure participation and identify conditions that may facilitate activity participation in later life. Environmental conditions that are particularly significant in the case of older adults include the home garden, natural and aesthetically pleasing settings, the local social network and functional neighbourhood facilities. Visual research methods were used to generate these findings. Such research methods provide rich and nuanced data in studies concerning environment-behaviour interactions, which may be difficult to attain using conventional research methods.     

Critical incidents of partnership: five years' experience at NatBank

Despite a rich partnership literature in the UK, relatively little is known about the processes of decision making under partnership regimes. This study examines the first five years of a high‐profile agreement in a British retail bank. Inspired by critical incident technique, this article explores the way key issues such as globalisation, offshoring, and work organisation were handled and decisions were made. It is argued that one cannot fully understand the outcomes without exploring both the context and process in detail. Benefits for management, unions and employees are also explored, and some of the main challenges to partnership are considered. The article suggests that partnership requires a clear understanding of the purpose and the rules of engagement, and highlights a possible gulf between academic and actor expectations. It also highlights the importance of exploring the partnership processes and reveals evidence of the dialogue exerting a moderating effect over decision making, with management, union, and employee actors all in favour of the collaborative partnership approach.