Implications of the EU Information and Consultation Directive and the Regulations in the UK – prospects for the future of employee representation

The EU Directive on informing and consulting employees (I&C Directive) is now established on the employment relations agenda with the provisions coming into force in the UK in April 2005. The I&C Directive potentially has far reaching consequences for the way UK employers inform and consult employees over a wide range of organizational issues, with the potential to transform the UK industrial relations environment. The initiatives contained in the I&C Directive and the subsequent introduction of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations will take place in an employment relations environment in a period of significant change. Pressures of globalization have intensified competition in product and labour markets, emphasizing the need for greater efficiency and productivity. This has led to a greater focus on the link between employee participation practices and business strategy and organizational performance in search of an elusive (or illusory) fit? This paper is a commentary on the origins and rationale of this new legislation in the UK context, drawing on existing knowledge and academic debates in the area. In addition, the paper discusses the potential implications of the I&C Directive and the likely impact of the ICE Regulations on UK representative voice arrangements.     

Information but not consultation: exploring employee involvement in SMEs

Most research on employee involvement (EI) has focused on large or ‘mainstream’ organizations. By adopting those schemes which ‘appear’ to work well in larger organizations, smaller firms assume there will be enhanced employee commitment beyond formal contractual requirements. The main question in this paper is whether EI schemes designed by management will suffice under the 2004 Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations. The paper focuses on SMEs which tend to favour informal and direct EI, and it remains unclear how these methods will be played out under the new regulatory environment. Evidence from four case studies is presented here and it suggests that the ICE Regulations impose new challenges for smaller firms given their tendency to provide information rather than consult with employees. It also appears organizational factors, workplace relations history and the way processes are implemented at enterprise level may be far more important than size itself.     

Learning power in the workplace: the effective lifelong learning inventory and its reliability and validity and implications for learning and development

An organisation's ability to learn, to harness collective intelligence and to translate that learning rapidly into action in response to environmental challenges is the ultimate competitive advantage in the constantly changing context of the information age. It is an indicator of the organisations' resilience and adaptability in the face of uncertainty and change. Improving an organisation's capacity to learn will only have the desired impact on performance if it improves employee engagement at the same time. In this paper, we introduce the concept of learning power into the context of the workplace, drawing on what has been learned from its application in education and recent studies in the corporate and community sector in the UK and beyond. The seven dimensions of learning power were identified by Deakin Crick, Broadfoot and Claxton (2004, Assessment in Education Principles Policy and Practice, 11, 247–272) in the development of the effective lifelong learning inventory (ELLI), an assessment tool designed to enable learners to become aware of their own learning power and to turn diagnosis into strategies for improvement. We present the psychometric properties and the validity and reliability statistics of ELLI as the Learning Power assessment tool for learners in the world of work and community, based on an adult workplace population of over 5000. Finally, we explore the implications of these ideas and practices for learning in corporate organisations.     

The impact of varying types of performance-related pay and employee participation on earnings

Using matched employer-employee data from a nationally representative sample of British establishments, the paper examines the impact of different types of performance-related pay (PRP) on earnings and whether this is moderated by the presence of employee involvement and financial participation schemes. It supports previous work that has suggested that there are strong and complex interactions between employee involvement schemes and compensation mechanisms. In particular, the results indicate that employees' earnings are highest where both individual and work-group PRP schemes are present at a workplace, and where there are congruent PRP and employee participation schemes.     

Work enrichment and employee voice in human resource management-performance studies

Studies assessing the link between human resource management and performance were spawned by the high commitment or high involvement models. We show that work enrichment and employee voice were central to these models, yet as resource-based theory was increasingly used to justify the association of such models with high performance the seeds for a diminishing role for employee involvement were set. We then assess the associated empirical work, and show how employee involvement is neglected in favour of alternative emphases on skills and knowledge, labour flexibility and extrinsic motivation. It is proposed that future work should abandon the dominant approach of testing a single null hypothesis and instead examine competing models of the HRM–performance relationship.     

Incentive and Dilution Effects of Employee Stock Bonuses and Stock Options: Evidence from Taiwan

Employee stock bonuses (ESBs) and employee stock options (ESOs) are the means for high-technology companies in Taiwan to reward their employees. This research connects the Ohlson (1995 Ohlson, JA. 1995. Earnings, book values, and dividends in equity valuation. Contemporary Accounting Research, 11: 661–687. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) model and Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) model to investigate these effects of ESBs and ESOs, respectively, for a sample of high-technology companies in Taiwan. I generate two empirical generalizations. (1) The incentive effects of ESBs are significantly associated with performance, thus enhancing firm value; in addition, the incentive effects of ESBs are greater than the dilution effects. (2) The incentive effects of ESOs are also significantly associated with performance, whereas the dilution effects of ESOs are insignificant. Although evidence supports the incentive effects of providing ESOs and ESBs, it is debatable whether ESOs and ESBs dilute shareholders’ equity.     

企业员工压力管理探索

过度压力成了现代职场的一大危害。压力的存在是通过一系列的信号和症状反映出来的,并有其特定的社会、组织和个体压力根源和复杂的作用过程。对企业员工的压力管理着眼于通过缓解过度压力并达到适度压力来实现变压力为动力的目的。     

团队动态能力、创新与研发绩效的关系研究

文章基于复杂产品研发的视角,结合文献分析,将团队动态能力概括为团队学习能力和团队研发能力,将创新分为探索性创新和开发性创新,探讨了动态能力、创新与研发绩效之间的关系,提出了研究假设,构建了理论模型,运用SPSS软件和AMOS软件对102个复杂产品研发团队的问卷调查数据进行统计分析,从而对理论假设进行了实证检验。研究结果表明：团队学习能力和团队研发能力对复杂产品研发绩效有直接作用;团队学习能力通过探索性创新对研发绩效产生间接作用;团队研发能力通过探索性创新和开发性创新对研发绩效产生间接作用。     

浅析企业员工关系管理

随着企业不断发展,管理者越发认识到人才的稳定及团队的和谐对组织战略目标的实现所起的重要作用。企业对员工的要求逐渐从注重外在的知识技能转向关注更深层次的内部系统,而员工则更注重自身价值的实现、和谐的人际关系和获取平等的人格。企业要通过提升从业者的综合素质,逐步完善员工关系管理的职能,留住关键员工并让其发挥自身价值,从而达到双方共赢的最终目标。     

基于人本管理思想的酒店边缘员工的防治及其管理

酒店员工的边缘化问题已经越来越得到酒店管理者的重视。通过对酒店边缘员工的分析和原因的归总,可以从人本管理的角度来提出相应的防治策略,从而可以有效应对酒店员工的边缘化,采取人性化的措施、有效内化边缘员工。