“Working together – involving staff”. Partnership working in the NHS
| Pages | 277-289 |
| Published date | 01 June 2002 |
| Date | 01 June 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450210428444 |
| Author | Anne Munro |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
``Working
together ±
involving staff''
277
Employee Relations,
Vol. 24 No. 3, 2002, pp. 277-289.
#MCB UP Limited, 0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450210428444
``Working together ±
involving staff''
Partnership working in the NHS
Anne Munro
School of Management, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Keywords Employee involvement, Partnering, National Health Service, Collectivism,
Case studies
Abstract Contributes to debates about employee involvement and social partnership by
exploring the ways in which individualist and collectivist aspects interrelate in a single initiative in
the National Health Service. Identifies a particular form of employee involvement in which
partnership is integral. Draws on a case study of one NHS Trust over a period of 18 months,
using individual and group interviews with senior and line managers, union officials, shop
stewards and staff. Argues that tension between collectivism and individualism becomes more
acute lower down the organisation where line managers are responsible for implementing change.
Highlights how understanding of involvement and partnership change over time and how a
climate that is more amenable to union organisation can be created.
Introduction
The National Health Service (NHS) has presented dual concerns for successive
governments. Quality of health provision is central to the political agenda, yet
the cost of funding the service, particularly staffing costs, has escalated since
the formation of the NHS in 1948. In the early 1990s, Conservative governments
sought efficiencies through the introduction of market relationships. A
distinction was established between purchasers (health authorities and general
practitioners) and providers (the newly formed NHS trusts). Trusts, run by
boards of directors, were given the freedom to determine their own terms and
conditions of employment outside of the national system of Whitley Councils
and pay review bodies (Lloyd and Seifert, 1995). This represented a shift from
the notion of the public sector as the ``good employer'' and established private
sector practices as central to efficiency in the public sector (Stuart and Martinez
Lucio, 2000). At local level trusts pursued a range of human resource
management practices but found it harder to move away from the Whitley
machinery and the tradition of working with trade unions (IRS, 1993). With its
election in 1997, the Labour Government removed the purchaser/provider
divide and began a new process of modernisation of the NHS with partnership
as a central element.
In this context a taskforce was set up to explore the concept of employee
involvement in the NHS and to make recommendations to ministers on actions
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This research has been made possible by the access provided by the project management team.
The author would like to thank them, as well as all the staff, managers and union
representatives who took part in the research. They would also like to thank Iain Henderson
and the referees for their detailed comments.
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