Fragmenting Work: Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies

This major new book examines the way in which employment is managed across organizational boundaries. It analyses how public-private partnerships, franchises, agencies, and other forms of inter-firm contractual relations impact on work and employment and the experiences of those working in these increasingly significant forms of organization. It draws upon research undertaken in eight separate networks comprising over 50 organizations to explore the fragmenting effects of contemporary changes in the organization of work and employment relationships. It considers the consequences of increased reliance upon inter-organizational mechanisms for producing goods and especially for delivering services. It argues that established analyses continue to rely too heavily upon a model of the single employing organization whereas today the situation is often more complex and confused. Public-private `partnerships' are one high profile example of this phenomenon but private enterprises are also developing new relations with their clients and customers that impinge upon the nature of the employment relationship. Established hierarchical forms are becoming disordered, with consequences for career patterns, training and skills, pay structures, disciplinary practice, worker voice, and the gendered division of labour. The findings of the study raise questions about the governance of such complex organizational forms, the appropriateness of current institutions for addressing this complexity, and the challenge of harnessing employee commitment in circumstances where human resource practices are shaped by organizations other than the legal employer. Using an analytical schema of three dimensions (institutional, organizational, employment) and four themes (power, risk, identity, trust), the authors adopt an inter-disciplinary perspective to address these complex and critically important practical, policy, and theoretical concerns. Fragmenting Work will be vital reading for all those wishing to understand the contemporary realities of work and employment.

Table of Contents:
1: Damian Grimshaw, Mick Marchington, Jill Rubery, and Hugh Willmott: Introduction: Fragmenting Work Across Organizational Boundaries 2: Damian Grimshaw, Hugh Willmott and Jill Rubery: Inter-Organizational Networks: Trust, Power, and the Employment Relationship 3: Jill Rubery, Jill Earnshaw, and Mick Marchington: Blurring the Boundaries to the Employment Relationship: From Single to Multi-Employer Relationships 4: Marilyn Carroll, Steven Vincent, John Hassard, and Fang Lee Cooke: The Strategic Management of Contracting in the Private Sector 5: Damian Grimshaw and Gail Hebson: Public-Private Contracting: Performance, Power, and Change at Work 6: Mick Marchington, Steven Vincent, and Fang Lee Cooke: The Role of Boundary-Spanning Agents in Inter-Organizational Contracting 7: Jill Rubery and Jill Earnshaw: Employment Policy and Practice: Crossing Borders and Disordering Hierarchies 8: Fang Lee Cooke, Gail Hebson, and Marilyn Carroll: Commitment and Identity Across Organizational Boundaries 9: Irena Grugulis and Steven Vincent: Changing Boundaries, Shaping Skills: The Fragmented Organizational Form and Employee Skills 10: Gail Hebson and Irena Grugulis: Gender and New Organizational Forms 11: Mick Marchington, Jill Rubery, and Fang Lee Cooke: Prospects for Worker Voice Across Organizational Boundaries 12: Damian Grimshaw, Mick Marchington, Jill Rubery, and Hugh Willmott: Conclusion: Redrawing Boundaries: Reflections on Practice and Policy

About the Author :
Mick Marchington is Professor of Human Resource Management at the new Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester (previously the Manchester School of Management, UMIST). He is co-author of People Management and Development (CIPD 2002) and HRM: The New Agenda (Pitman, 1998). Damian Grimshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Employment Studies at the new Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester (previously the Manchester School of Management, UMIST), and co-author of Managing Employment: The New Realities of Work (OUP 2002). Jill Rubery is Professor of Comparative Employment at the new Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester (previously the Manchester School of Management, UMIST), and co-author of Managing Employment: The New Realities of Work (OUP 2002) and Employer Strategy and the Labour Market (OUP 1994). Hugh Willmott is Diageo Porfessor of Management Studies at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge, and co-author of Management Lives (Sage 1999) and Making Sense of Management (Sage 1996).