Description
How does HRM operate in multi-employer networks? What are the challenges and opportunities? And how can HR improve people management policy and practice?
This report, written by researchers at the University of Manchester and funded by CIPD and the Department of Health, explores the complexities of managing people in situations where the delivery of services depends on multiple organisations working together. A range of interviews was conducted within four case study networks, all operating from multi-employer sites.
The researchers explored features of collaborative relationships - trust, dominance and modularity - and HR goals of alignment, integration and consistency, to come up with a new classification of HRM that is particularly relevant to multi-employer networks. In the report they focus on:
Managing the employment contract, pay, deployment and performance with consistency
Building worker identity and engagement when employees may have multiple loyalties and conflicting commitments
Developing individual and organisational capabilities when faced with competing motivations and goals of partner organisations
The case studies and analysis bring out the opportunities and the downsides of collaboration. The report envisages a key role for the HR function in helping to map out the terrain and in guiding senior management in considering any potential problems that might arise.
Benefits for you:
Shared ideas and initiatives from case study networks
Lessons for HR policy and practice
Implications for the contribution of the HR function
Authors
Michael Marchington
Marilyn Carroll
Sarah Pass
Damian Grimshaw
Jill Rubery
Reviews
In today's business world, managers have to know how to get things done through people working alongside them but employed by other organisations. This report draws on the experience of networked organisations in different sectors and shows that, although such collaboration is unlikely to be plain sailing, paying attention to some key issues pays dividends.
Tony McCarthy, Director People & Organisational Effectiveness, British Airways