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The management of human resources and the governance of employment: 

the ‘space’ between?

Leonard Holmes

leonard.holmes@roehampton.ac.uk

www.re-skill.org.uk

• “Human Resource Management (HRM) [is] the management of work and people in organizations” (Boxall et al, 2007)

• organisation-centric

• ‘people’ = paid employees

• employment as dominant institutionalised mode of social organising of work

• other forms

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Societal organising of work as

Employment

HRM:the management of

work and people in

organisations

Governance perspective

• a.k.a. ‘socio-political governance’

• Emerging as nature and role of government being re-thought

• End of ‘big government’

• But increased role of markets did not deliver

• Neither government nor markets

• Other actors and networks in civil society

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Governance

• increased use of term in recent policy studies

• contrasted with ‘government’

• covering “the whole range of institutions and relationships involved in the process of governing.” (Pierre and Peters, 2000)

• different from use in “corporate governance”

Governance approach

• ‘government failure’ and ‘market failure’

• nature of state, relationship with economy and civil society

• capacities & limitation of governments under conditions of complexity and uncertainty

• emphasis upon governing

• etymology: Latin for ‘steering’

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Development in social theory• From determinism to contingency

• From simplicity to complexity

• From stasis to dynamism

• Positivism no longer ‘only game in town’

• ‘Why?’ → ‘How?’

Governing

• “more or less continuous process of interactions between social actors, groups and forces and public or semi-public organizations, institutions or authorities” (Kooiman, 1993, p. 3).

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Governance approach recognises

• complexity

• distributed

• dynamism

• processual

• emergence

• contingency

of arena of social, economic, political context under study

Governance

• Process: governing

• Distributed between a multiplicity of actors, acting in and through various modes

• Hierarchy, markets, networks, communities

• No single mode; different ‘mixes’

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Governance of employment

• Labour market

• Labour markets

• Government regulation

• ‘Social partners’:

– employers and employer associations

– trades unions and associations of TUs

• Professional bodies and associations

• Providers of VET (and associations)

• Credentialising agencies

Labour markets• Internal (firm-specific) vs external

• Geographical

– Local

– Regional

– National

– International

• Occupational

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Industrial training

a.k.a.:

• (Continuing) vocational education and training

• Workforce development

• National HRD

• Skills agenda

• etc

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Governance of UK NHRD

• A matter of public concern and government action for 50+ years

• Periodic reviews, enquiries, reports, policy change, re-organisation etc

• Failure to achieve settled form of governance

Industrial training in UK: 50 years of reforms

• 1958: Carr Report

• 1964: Industrial Training Act (ITBs)

• 1973: Employment & Training Act (reform of ITBs, MSC)

• 1981: New Training Initiative; abolition of most ITBs

• 1986: Review of Vocational Qualifications

• 1988: abolition of MSC; Training Agency

• 1989: TECs & LECs

• 1996: Beaumont Review of NVQs; National Training Organisations

• 1999: ‘Learning to succeed’ White Paper

• 2001: Learning & Skills Council; Sector Skills Councils

• 2006: Leitch Review

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Industrial training in Ireland

• 1959 Apprenticeship Act (An Cheard Comhairle)

• 1967 Industrial Training Act (AnCo)

• 1987 Labour Services Act (FÁS)

• 1999 Qualifications (Education and Training Act)

• 2011/12 SOLAS set up; FAS to be disbanded

Elements of policy

• exhortation

• regulation vs ‘voluntary’ arrangements

• central agency?

• sectoral agencies?

• local agencies?

• fiscal arrangements

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National bodies established by government in UK

• 1958 Industrial Training Council

• 1964 Central Training Council

• 1973 Manpower Services Commission (MSC)

• 1986 MSC + NCVQ

• 1988 Training Agency +NCVQ

• 1997 QCA +Department for Education and Skills

• 2001 Learning and Skills Council + QCA

• 2007 LSC + Commission for Employment & Skills + QCA

Sectoral agencies initiated and/or sponsored by government

• 1964 Industrial Training Boards (ITBs) (+ non statutory bodies)

• 1981 some ITBs + Non-Statutory Training Organisations (NSTOs)

• 1986 onward: ‘lead bodies’ for development of NVQs

• 1997 National Training Organisations (NTOs)

• 2001 onward Sector Skills Councils

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Local agencies

• 1960s Group Training Schemes (under ITBs)

• 1980s Area Manpower Boards (plus local authority alternatives, eg Greater London Training Board)

• 1989 Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) (in Scotland, Local Enterprise Companies, LECs)

• 2001 regional LSCs

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Factors promoting & inhibiting training in organisations (Pettigrew et al, 1987)

‘Opening the space’

• Social science theorising capable of examining the ‘space between’?

• Possible candidates?– Neo-institutionalism

– Figurational sociology

– Actor Network Theory

– Assemblage Theory

– ‘Hybrid theory’