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The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles and influence of shop stewards under workplace partnership regimes in five case study firms in the Republic of Ireland. It aims to assess the dynamics and potential longevity of partnership relationships.

A framework is utilised which analyses the scope, breadth and depth of union influence in terms of the structure of partnership processes and the capacity of agency to affect relations among shop stewards, union members and plant management.

The findings show that while union representatives view partnership in a positive light, there remain problems as to the longevity of partnership owing to management control and a disconnection between national (government) and local (workplace) support mechanisms for partnership. The paper concludes that social partnership is a process that remains anchored in a relationship of both antagonism and accommodation between capital and labour.

Much of the extant literature tends to focus on the outcomes of partnership in terms of the gains or losses to either management and/or unions. In this paper, the focus is on the way the “processes” of social partnership shape the behaviour and roles of workplace union representatives. A number of theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

There is a long line of human resource management and employee relations research that points to the important function that line managers play within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the level of line manager closest to the employees, the front-line manager (FLM), to understand the role they play in informal voice pathways.

The research project from which these data are drawn is of mixed method design in a multi-site case study organisation. The organisation is a quasi-military, public sector organisation with around 2,000 front-line employees. While this paper focuses primarily on one aspect of data collection, survey results are provided to allow a deeper contextual understanding while the qualitative data progresses the theoretical contribution.

The findings suggest that the FLMs play an important role in informal voice, however, the context of a strong and militant union means that the power dimension is different from previous studies into informal voice that have been conducted in the poorly unionised hospitality sector. In this context, informal voice with the FLM becomes just one pathway for employees to take when raising issues.

The single case study used is an exceptional case, therefore, has limited generalisability, nevertheless it does provide the opportunity to progress the theoretical understanding of voice pathways.

This paper has originality in that the research focus is the role of FLMs in informal voice in an organisation that is strongly unionised and militant. It provides a conceptual development of employee voice pathways that can be further developed and tested in the future.

This paper aims to examine the antecedent influences and merits of workplace occupations as a tactical response to employer redundancy initiatives.

The data are based on analysis of secondary documentary material reporting on three workplace occupations in the Republic of Ireland during 2009.

Perceptions of both procedural (e.g. employer unilateral action) and substantive (e.g. pay and entitlements) justice appear pivotal influences. Spillover effects from other known occupations may also be influential. Workplace occupations were found to produce some modest substantive gains, such as enhancing redundancy payments. The tactic of workplace occupation was also found to transform unilateral employer action into scenarios based upon negotiated settlement supported by third‐party mediation. However the tactic of workplace occupation in response to redundancy runs the risks of potential judicial injunction and sanction.

Although operationally difficult, future studies should strive to collect primary data workplace occupations as they occur.

The paper identifies conditions conducive to the genesis of workplace occupations and the extent to which the tactic may be of benefit in particular circumstances to workers facing redundancy. It also contextualises the tactic in relation to both collective mobilisation and bargaining theories in employment relations.

While an established stream of research evidence has demonstrated that human resource management (HRM) is positively related to organisational performance, explanations of this relationship remain underdeveloped, while performance has been considered in a narrow fashion. Exploring the relevant but often neglected impact of creativity climate, the purpose of this paper is to examine key processes (mediation and moderation) linking high-performance human resource practices with a broad range of organisational performance measures, including employee performance and HR performance.

The paper draws on a People Management Survey of 169 HR managers from top performing firms in the Republic of Ireland.

The findings provide general support for the role of creativity climate as a key mediator in the HRM-performance relationship. The impact of HPWS on performance is judged universal with little evidence of variation by strategic orientation.

Sophisticated HRM is found to directly impact a range of organisational performance outcomes. Creativity climate provides an understanding of the mechanisms through which such impact takes effect. Organisations should develop a clear and consistent HR philosophy to realise HR, employee and organisational performance.

The paper offers a more intricate understanding of the key factors shaping both the operation and impact of the HRM-performance relationship. Creativity climate offers an important vehicle to better understand how the HRM-performance relationship actually operates. The paper also highlights the potential of examining multiple organisational performance outcomes to offer more nuanced and considered insights.

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between human resource practices (HRP) and employee outcomes at two distinct levels of analysis. While significant evidence exists as to the occurrence of a relationship, the mechanisms and process through which this happens remain largely unexplored. This paper aims to test the impact of organisational climate (OC) as a mediating mechanism between HRP and employees’ outcomes as the expected routed to organisational performance.

The paper uses two related surveys to test the research propositions at two different levels. First a macro management-based survey of multiple top performing organisations provides the basis for locating a suitable case organisation to test the same propositions using an employee-based survey.

The findings indicate that OC is shown to be an important and neglected mediating factor in the causal relationship between HR and employee outcomes. The findings also indicate that the strength of the relationship is dependent on the level of analysis employed.

The originality/value of the findings argue that employees are better placed to report on items such as the impact of human recourse management practice and OC outcomes on performance indicators over and above their managerial counterparts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of line managers in managing attendance at work in the lean regime of grocery retailing. The increasing competitiveness within the sector, coupled with the sophisticated control systems in place put pressure on managers to keep labour costs low. Attendance, therefore, becomes a critical factor, particularly as staffing levels become leaner. Taking this into account, it is necessary to understand the parameters of the line managers’ role in managing attendance, especially within the lean food retail market and the antagonistic terrain of the supermarket shop floor. The paper discusses the impact of lean retailing on line managers’ authority and provides a fresh sociological analysis regarding their role in managing attendance, offering insights into managerial practices on the UK supermarket shop floor.

The paper draws on qualitative research evidence from two case study grocery retail organizations in the UK. It reports on 44 semi-structured interviews and provides a multi-level analysis aiming to understand the different perspectives on the problem examined.

The paper reveals the existence of a centralized absence management policy and highlights the greater involvement of line managers in this procedure. Line managers though were subjected to forces of bureaucratic control, intensification and degradation of their work. Despite having an active role within the attendance management process and high responsibility for the implementation of rules and procedures handed down by head office, they had limited authority over the process. Line managers perceived the latter as routine and a box-ticking exercise and had developed coping tactics to deal with the control from above.

This paper provides practical and theoretical considerations over the role of line management in the labour process, investigating their role in managing attendance at work within the lean terrain of food retailing. This research contributes to the ongoing academic discussions related to the devolvement of HR responsibilities to the line, highlighting the great involvement of line managers in the absence policy. It also provides a sociological perspective over line managers’ authority and discretion in managing attendance, revealing that they were subjected to direct and bureaucratic control within their role in attendance management. However, the research reveals that line managers were not passive in the face of direct control from above and had developed tactics to cope with the monotony and the repetition of this process, attempting to somehow escape the top-down control they were subjected to.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the role of front line managers (FLMs) and their contribution to the reported gap between intended and actual human resource management (HRM).

The findings draw on case study research using 51 semi-structured interviews with managers across two UK retail organisations between 2012 and 2013.

This paper argues that FLMs are key agents in people management and play a critical role in the gap between intended and actual employee relations (ER) and HRM. The research found that these managers held a high level of responsibility for people management, but experienced a lack of institutional support, monitoring or incentives to implement according to central policy. This provided an opportunity for them to modify or resist intended policy and the tensions inherent in their role were a critical factor in this manipulation of their people management responsibilities.

The data were collected from only one industry and two organisations so the conclusions need to be considered within these limitations.

Efforts to address the gap between intended and actual ER/HRM within organisations will need to consider the role tensions of both front line and middle managers.

This research provides a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between FLMs and the gap between intended and actual HRM within organisations. It addresses the issue of FLMs receiving less attention in the HRM-line management literature and the call to research their role in the translation of policy into practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, from the perspective of knowledge workers (KWs), the factors which underpin worker performance. Although a broad array of factors is examined, the role played by the front-line manager (FLM) appears pre-eminent.

Using data collected in 2012 from a sample of 73 New Zealand KWs, the authors adopt a phenomenological approach to understanding how the FLM influences their performance motivations. A two-pronged research design was employed; stage 1 involved a paired statement exercise, which was immediately followed by stage 2, an in-depth interview.

The behaviour and support afforded to KWs by their FLM emerged as an important influence on their individual performance. Specifically, behaviours which convey value, trust and respect, and afford support, recognition and an appreciation for work completed seemingly empower and motivate KWs to superior performance.

The distinctive qualities of KWs and what constitutes their effective management needs to be given consideration in research. Identifying the depth and breadth of the FLM role contributes to this understanding.

FLMs need contemporary development and continued support across the broad spectrum of people management activities, to enable them to build positive relational ties, which are so important to KWs.

This paper contributes much needed empirical data to the understanding of how FLMs contribute to KW performance.

Using a single case study approach this paper provides empirical evidence about managerial practices in a small, non‐unionised firm which represents many of the features characteristic of the black‐hole of “no unions and no HRM”. The efficacy of recent union organising strategies is explored against the “context” of pleasant and unpleasant employee experiences, paternalistic management and labour and product markets. It is argued that the ideology of a “family culture” is a significant barrier to a new organising model of unionism. Consequently, the evidence supports the case that small family‐run firms can be exploitative and state support may be necessary to extend voice and collective representation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the orientations of line managers in handling workplace conflict. In particular it examines the tension between the traditional preference of frontline managers for informal approaches and the perceived certainty of written disputes procedures.

The paper draws upon findings from 12 organisational case studies, focusing on interviews conducted with HR and managers.

As line managers undertake more responsibility for people management, their preferences for informal approaches to workplace issues appears to be being replaced by a more rigid adherence to policy and procedure. This is largely driven by a lack of confidence and expertise in conflict management and a fear of the repercussions (both legal and organisational) of mishandling difficult issues. Written procedure therefore provides managers with both a systematic guide but also a protective shield against criticism and litigation.

It is not possible to generalise from a limited sample, therefore this suggested change requires further exploration to assess whether it has been evidenced in organisations more widely.

For practitioners this research highlights the critical requirement for organisations to develop key skills among line managers to enable them to respond effectively to problems at an early stage.

For policy-makers, the barriers to line managers implementing informal resolution should be considered.

This paper enriches understanding of line managers’ current role in people management and the challenges they face in doing so informally.