Premium
‘Everybody's talking at me’: the dynamics of information disclosure and consultation in high‐skill workplaces in the UK
Author(s) -
Danford Andy,
Durbin Sue,
Richardson Mike,
Tailby Stephanie,
Stewart Paul
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
human resource management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.44
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1748-8583
pISSN - 0954-5395
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2009.00110.x
Subject(s) - embeddedness , extant taxon , bureaucracy , work (physics) , public relations , dynamics (music) , management styles , survey data collection , psychology , business , marketing , political science , sociology , engineering , mechanical engineering , pedagogy , evolutionary biology , politics , biology , statistics , mathematics , anthropology , law
This article examines the dynamics of direct and indirect consultation processes in three high‐skill work establishments in the UK. Drawing on a mix of case study survey and interview data, it analyses the experiences and attitudes of predominantly well‐qualified professional employees. Adopting the concept of ‘embeddedness’ of employee consultation at the workplace level, we find that despite considerable breadth and depth of practice, many employees remain dissatisfied with the extent of their individual and collective influence over management decision‐making processes. Four underlying contributory factors are presented: extant hierarchical and bureaucratic management styles, the negative impact of work overload, the individualisation of consultation through computerisation, and the weakness of cooperative forms of union engagement.