44. Summary of key changes (1)
• Decline and stalled growth
• Some growth in private sector but significant
decline in the public sector
• Increased pace, variety, complexity and
impact of organisational change
• Primacy of cost reduction driven change –
change is “all about” taking out costs but cost
reduction has its costs
• Directors have much rosier view – are they
out of touch and delusional?
45. Summary of key changes (2)
• Job satisfaction and employee engagement
have declined especially in the public sector
• Leadership styles – more bureaucratic,
authoritarian and risk-averse and compared
unfavourably to Australia in 2008
• Have people lost faith and trust in senior
management?
• Deterioration in many of our workplace
health measures especially those that impact
on managers’ ability to do their jobs
46. Summary of key changes (3)
• Managers are working harder, faster and
longer with less role autonomy and task
discretion
• Is managerial work being degraded despite
the hype about empowerment and job
enrichment?
• Strong relationship between organisational
health and employee health
• Trust relations with senior management and
line management have weakened
48. Some predictions (1)
• 2013 – “a hard year of slog”; a “groundhog year”; triple dip
recession? austerity to last to 2018?
• Pay will continue to lag behind inflation reducing
disposable income
• If disposable income is low and the government austerity
agenda continues, where can growth come from?
• “Workplace disgruntlement in the private sector will ….
take the form of simmering distrust of bosses, especially
those who adopt the trendy management speak mantra of
'employee engagement' while piling the pressure on
overstretched staff”
• Increased resistance/militancy in the public sector
49. Some predictions (2)
• “in 2013 increased hours of work and greater
work intensity, rather than job cuts or further pay
restraint, are forecast to be the main drivers of
higher productivity and unit labour cost control”
• “Job insecurity is forecast to remain at the
heightened levels prevailing since the financial
crisis first struck in 2008. People in work will
maintain ‘a grin and bear it’ attitude to their jobs
and work as hard as required by their employers,
indeed in many cases welcoming the opportunity
of longer hours to support squeezed incomes”
• Source: John Pilpott - http://media.wix.com/ugd//44bcc3_61cccb92b4a2187bd0edca623e70c5c3.pdf
50. Worrall L and Cooper C.L. (2013) Improving the Quality of Working Life: positive
steps for senior management teams. London: CMI
If you want to download the report or look at the Quality of Working Life
resources material go to:
http://www.managers.org.uk/quality-working-life-resources
If you want to contact me, my email address is leslie.worrall@coventry.ac.uk