Dealing with insiders and outsiders in workplace transformation How - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Dealing with insiders and outsiders in workplace transformation How managers enact labour relations in the blended workforce

Marie-Rachel Jacob

• ce research center

jacob@em-lyon.com

19th of October 2017 Workshop 1 International Francqui chair Prof. S. Vallas

Definitions

▪ Fordist regime of employment (Kalleberg, 2000) ▪ Standard workers have an indefinite full-time employment contract and perform work at their employer’s workplace under direct supervision => social protection and labour relations systems ▪ Nonstandard workers are temporary workers with fixed-term employment contracts, temporary agency workers, contract workers and part-time workers ▪ Post-Fordist/Flexible regime of employment ▪ Permanent workers and organizational insiders => permanent employees ▪ Temporary workers and organizational outsiders => external workers ▪ Blended workforce ▪ mixing permanent employees with external workers (Ashford et al., 2007)

Theoretical Background

Managerial issues

• f the blended

workforce Workplace transformation & workers’ participation

• Consequences of the blending for permanent

employees (Davis-Blake et al. 2003; Broschak et al. 2006) and nonstandard workers (George & Ng 2011)

• Importance of perceived mobility (George et al. 2012)
• Managerial strategies & power relations with

nonstandard workers (Smith, 2001; Olsen, 2006)

• Workplace transformation as a relational

phenomenon (Vallas 2003a,b;2006)

• Unions’ difficulties with teamwork (Pulignano, 2002)

and action at a broader level than workplace

(Pulignano, 2017)

• Front-line managers manage employment relations

with permanent employees and external workers

(Townsend, 2013) and face blended workforce issues

Methods: in-depth case study

▪ French context ▪ High level of labour regulation ▪ Types of employment contracts

▪ Contrat à Durée Indéterminée: indefinite employment contract ▪ Contrat à Durée Déterminée: fixed-term contract ▪ Apprenticeship contract: student working part-time for a company while achieving education ▪ Temporary agency contract: worker employed with a fixed-term contract by a temporary help agency and placed in a client company’s workplace

▪ Other types of contracts

▪ Contract work: worker employed by a service provider/consultancy company (with a CDI or a CDD) and place in a client company’s workplace ▪ Students having internships with a company

▪ The case: the French headquarters of a large Belgian-French company

Data collection

The Facilities Department merged with the Corporate Real Estate Department ▪ 120/180 permanent employees ▪ 30/50 external workers: temporary agency workers, contract workers, students in apprenticeship/internship ▪ Department-level: change process & consulting process

• f the employees’ representatives

▪ Team-level: change in members and internal dynamics of four teams ▪ Individual level: individual records, work and informal conversations with both permanent employees and external workers

Findings: 3 mechanisms

Improving work and employment conditions for external workers is not related to their employment status (intern/temporary agency worker/contract worker), but rely on 3 mechanisms:

Work-related mechanism Organization- related mechanism Social-related mechanism Work role and perceived performance of the external worker in the workplace External worker’s embeddedness in the formal

• rganizational structure

External worker’s relationship with a sponsor in the organization

Work-related mechanism

Sara, temporary agency worker from 2008 to 2011

Joined the safety and security team to monitor the access control (badges to get into buildings offices) Cleared a chaotic situation and was recognized as very efficient New headquarters were set up and the access controls were out of control: “Seeing as with the work, I handled it well, they gave me another rise so that I could go to [the new headquarters], because they wanted me to be here […] seeing as he’d heard about me, and he was quite happy with the work […] they asked me to come and sort out a bit and save the

• rganization” (excerpt of interview)

The manager told the researcher: “We need Sara in the new headquarters”

Organization-related mechanism

Cédric, contract worker from 2010 to 2011

Mail signature: His name is included in the team organizational chart and he is a contact for the users in the workplace. “I don’t really know what is the contract between my employer and the

• department. I don’t know if I need to achieve key performance

indicators or just spend time in doing things. I don’t really care about it, I’m fine with the client, I’m happy in this workplace” (excerpt of an informal conversation)

Cédric WARZACK – Phone number – Mobile phone number cedric.warzack@external.client-company.com

Name building - 20ème étage – office 20-073-B

Providing facilities service (employer’s name)

Corporate Real Estate and Logistics Department

Regine Rhesus – Phone number – Mobile phone number regine.rhesus@client-company.com

Name building - 19ème étage – office 19-073-B

Corporate Real Estate and Logistics Department

Social-related mechanism

Cecilia (2008-2010) and Amanda (2008-2011), two students in apprenticeship with Regine as a tutor. Regine is permanent employee and manager of a team. She made both Cecilia and Amanda be hired as temporary agency workers with the maximum wage-level compared to their educational attainment. She found additional temporary assignements in other teams of the department. => Regine had an informal source of power and once she lost it, this role of sponsor stopped.

Negotiating precarity

Serge Paugam’s distinction between ▪ Precarious work ▪ Precarious employment