Theme 2: International and Comparative Research on HRM and Political Economy

Theme members: Professor Jonathan Payne, Dr Secki Jose, Dr Alexandra-Paraskevi Chytiri and Dr Hiu Man Chan

This theme brings together projects that examine work and employment in multinational firms, with a particular cross-national comparative focus.

The projects explore the complex interplay of national institutions, subnational regions, industrial sectors and organisational strategy in shaping work organisation, management practice, skill development and use, collective organisation by workers and the implementation of new technologies - along with their implications for productivity, quality of working life and inequality in the labour market.

The studies seek to illuminate policy options that may currently lie outside, or at the margins of, national policy thinking.

Project: Robots, jobs and skills:

The impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on jobs and job quality in hospitals and food manufacturing in the UK and Norway

Jonathan Payne (with Caroline Lloyd, Cardiff University)

The view that robotic technologies are transforming work in unprecedented ways is attracting increasing academic and policy attention. Some speak of a new ‘digital revolution’ akin to a ‘second machine age’, or of a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ - a paradigm shift which will radically change the nature of work, labour markets and society.

While a minority of workers are predicted to benefit, the concern is of a jobless future for the many. With studies often arriving at very different conclusions on the extent of change, such doomsday scenarios nevertheless remain strongly contested.

Technology is important for productivity and can promote well-being, but studies over many years indicate its use and impact upon jobs and skills often depends upon how it is implemented in the workplace, and the social processes within which it is embedded.

With a shortage of available research, this is the time for grounded studies which can examine the extent to which robotics and artificial intelligence are currently changing the nature of work, skills and occupations and how key actors view the real prospects of automation over the next five to ten years. In-depth qualitative studies have much to offer by probing the extent and impact of these technologies in the workplace.

Cross-national comparative study at a sector level is likely to be particularly insightful in terms of exploring the role of public policy and social actors in mediating these developments.

The two countries chosen for comparison are Norway and the UK, the choice is based on their contrasting models of capitalism and innovation systems. The project addresses three key research questions:

1. Are there differences across country and sector in the implementation of robotics in the workplace and why?

2. How do robotic technologies impact on work organisation and skill use in different contexts?

3. What role do institutions and regulations, public policy and social actors play in shaping outcomes?

Initial scoping interviews were undertaken in Norway and the UK in the summer of 2017 with policy makers, universities and technology institutes, employer organisations and trade unions. On this basis, two sectors were identified for comparison, namely health (hospitals) and food production. The research has been supported through DMU’s Research and Innovation Fund and has been extended with the support of a small grant of £9,640 from the British Academy.

The project is currently undertaking workplace case studies in both of these sectors, shedding light on how robotics are being introduced, and the ways in which skill demands and occupations are being reshaped.

The findings are also being used to develop an analytical framework for undertaking more extensive research on the impact of robotics on work and its policy implications.

Grant Award: The project has received a British Academy Small Grant of £9,640 for two years (2017-2019)

Outputs

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2019) ‘Rethinking country effects: robots, AI and work futures in Norway and the UK, New Technology, Work and Employment, 34(3): 208-225.

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2019) ‘Robots, AI and Work: Comparing the UK and Norway’, British Academy Review, No. 36, December.

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2021) ‘Fewer jobs, better jobs? An international comparative study of robots and ‘routine’ work in the public sector’, Industrial Relations Journal, 52: 109-124.

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. ‘Food for thought: Robots, jobs and skills in food and drink processing in Norway and the UK, currently under review in New Technology, Work and Employment

Project: Digital technologies and job quality: Can trade unions make a difference? 

Professor Jonathan Payne and Dr Secki Jose (De Montfort University) and (Professor Caroline Lloyd, Cardiff University)

Digitalisation raises many questions about the future of work, with intense debate surrounding the potential implications for employment and job quality. However, outcomes are not determined by technology and there is scope for social actors to shape how this plays out. Trade unions are potentially important actors but relatively little research has explored how unions are engaging with these challenges. Comparative research, focusing on particular occupations within a sector and across countries, is particularly scarce.

This is a two-year research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, involving researchers at De Montfort and Cardiff universities in the UK. The project compares the UK and Norway, countries with starkly contrasting institutions and union power resources, and explores how unions are engaging with digitalisation as they seek to shape better outcomes for workers.

The project addresses three research questions:

1. How far do unions at national and workplace level agree on how to respond to robotics/AI?
2. How far are unions able to influence their implementation in the workplace?
3. What opportunities and constraints do unions encounter in seeking to deliver better outcomes for workers?

The project focuses on lower-level and intermediate-level workers in four sectors:

• shop-floor workers in retail;
• operatives in food and drink processing;
• administrative and clerical workers in financial services; 
• administrative and clerical workers in hospitals.

The project is based on qualitative research involving interviews with trade unionists at national, regional and workplace level. 

The researchers seek to involve trade unions in shaping the research project and to use the findings to help inform union strategies around digitalisation. A series of seminars and interactive workshops have been organised with the relevant unions to discuss findings and options for future approaches. 

Grant award: Leverhulme Research Grant, £160,633, (May 2020-January 2023)

Project: Work organisation and performance in the service economy: 

Vocational teachers, fitness instructors and café workers in the UK, Norway and France

Jonathan Payne (with Caroline Lloyd, Cardiff University)

Across the developed world, most of us who work now earn our living in the service sector. However, the issue of what kind of service economy is sustainable and desirable, in both economic and social terms, is rarely debated.

In recent decades, problems of over-qualification, skills wastage and poor job quality have become increasingly difficult to ignore. This raises important questions as to what kind of service jobs will be on offer to meet the aspirations of a more qualified workforce and what role governments can play in raising the skills and quality of jobs and services.

Central to this is the organisation of work in shaping the skill content of jobs and the opportunities available for workers to deploy their skills and capabilities.

We therefore need to know more about what shapes work organisation in the service sector and the role played by national institutions, sector dynamics and employer approaches.

The project, in collaboration with Professor Caroline Lloyd (Cardiff University), explores the impact of national and sectoral institutions on work organisation and job quality through a comparison of three service sector jobs (vocational teachers, fitness instructors and café workers) in three European countries (UK, France and Norway).

It draws on 245 interviews between 2009 and 2012, with key stakeholders at sectoral level and multiple workplace case studies involving interviews with those doing the job and their direct supervisors and managers.

Initial findings were published in a number of journal papers, with the full data from all three sectors and countries providing the basis for a research monograph, Skills in the Age of Over-Qualification: Comparing Service Sector Work in Europe, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press.

More recent outputs from this project include a paper in the European Journal of Industrial Relations exploring the impact of occupational regulation on fitness instructors in the three countries.

The paper considers whether licensing or other forms of occupational regulation can be used to support skill development and higher wages lower down the labour market. This is one of the few studies to use cross-national comparison and helps shed light on how outcomes are dependent upon their interaction with other elements of the skill formation system and industrial relations institutions.

While licensing offers some beneficial outcomes in the French case, the relationship with other institutions is found to be critical.

A further extension of this project has been an examination of the relationship between pay and working time in the café sector. While low pay is recognised as a problem in many advanced economies, there are also concerns about insecurity in working time and its effect on incomes and job quality.

This has made us go back to our data and consider whether, in a sector often seen as synonymous with low pay and insecurity and noted to be challenging for union organisation and the enforcement of legal regulations, there are different country approaches to pay and working time regulation.

What differences exist, do these impact on worker outcomes, and what might be the lessons for public policy? This work is currently ongoing.

Recent outputs

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2018) ‘Hard times in latte land: analysing pay and working time in the café industry in France, Norway and the UK’, Economic and Industrial Democracy, online first, 1-23.

Lloyd, C. And Payne, J. (2017) Licensed to skill? The impact of occupational regulation on fitness instructors, European Journal of Industrial Relations, online first.

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2016) Skills in the Age of Over-Qualification: Comparing Service Sector Work in Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lloyd, C. and Payne, J. (2013) Changing job roles in the Norwegian and UK fitness industry – in search of national institutional effects, Work, Employment and Society, 27, 1, 3-20.

Lloyd, C, and Payne, J. (2012) Delivering better forms of work organization: Comparing vocational teachers in England, Wales and Norway, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 33, 1, 27-47

Project: HRM practices in the hospitality industry: Differences between local and foreign firms

Dr Alexandra-Paraskevi Chytiri (with Dr Fragkiskos Filippaios (University of Kent, UK)

The present study aims to capture and describe current and future trends in the implementation of recruitment and selection practices in the Greek hotel industry, as well as, to attempt a comparison of this implementation between Greek hotel units and foreign hotel units (MNEs) operating in Greece.

The study’s objective is to capture differences on the variety of methods and tools used, the way they are implemented and the level of effectiveness in this implementation. It also attempts to identify the impact of organizational factors on the choice of the mix of recruitment and selection methods and tools used.

The  research also aims to examine the level of transfer of HRM practices from the parent company/hotel headquarters to the subsidiaries as well as the organizational  factors  influencing the transfer.

The final objective is not only to depict these differences in transfer trends but also to explain them based on the relevant literature and set the basis for future research in the field.

The study attempts to provide answers to several important issues concerning recruitment and selection practices and transferability of HRM practices.

Therefore, the aim of this research is two-fold. On one hand it examines the current and future trends in recruitment and selection in an important service industry,  tourism and hospitality. More specifically, the hotel sector, which is characterised by high turnover and in which employees have direct face-to-face contact with customers.

It is therefore important for hotels to have loyal employees across the years, who customers will know and trust and who will be committed in producing positive results for the company. It also aims to identify the differences in recruitment and selection process among local and foreign subsidiaries in a country. Thus, the goal is to compare local and foreign hotels on their implementation of recruitment and selection processes. 

On the other hand, it aims to examine the level of transfer of recruitment and selection practices from the parent to the subsidiaries of MNEs operating in another country, as well as the level to which organisational factors impact on the extent of the transfer and on how diverse is the mix of recruitment and selection practices implemented.

Outputs

Chytiri, Alexandra-Paraskevi and Filippaios, Fragkiskos and Chytiris, Leonidas (2018) Hotel Recruitment and Selection Practices: The Case of the Greek Hotel Industry. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 7(3): 324-339

Dr Alexandra-Paraskevi Chytiri, Dr Fragkiskos Filippaios (2018) (working paper), Recruitment and Selection Practices: Greek hotel chains/units vs foreign hotel chains/units operating in Greece