Jane Bryson - Beyond Skill: Institutions, Organisations and Human Capability

Institutions, Organisations and Human
Capability

Edited By

Jane Bryson

Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington

Jane E. Bryson 2010

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First published 2010 by
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ISBN 978-0-230-23057-6 hardback

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beyond skill : institutions, organisations and human capability / edited by Jane Bryson.

p. cm.

The chapters in this book were based on invited papers presented at a symposium on Developing human capability in, and for, the workplace ISBN 978-0-230-23057-6

1. Organizational learningCongresses. 2. Work environmentCongresses. I. Bryson, Jane.

HD58.82.B495 2010

331.2592dc22 2010011563

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

The chapters in this book were based on invited papers presented at a symposium on Developing human capability in, and for, the workplace. Thanks are due, not only to the authors, but also to the policy officials, trade union representatives, business and other industry stakeholders who provided lively discussion of the papers at the symposium. Much of the New Zealand research reported in this book would not have been possible without the support of various agencies, in particular the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, the Department of Labour, and our host universities. The research reported from Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States is likewise indebted to agencies with the foresight to fund this type of intellectual and practical enquiry into the larger world of work.

I am most grateful to all the workers, business owners, managers, consultants, union officials, industry associations, policymakers, and others who so generously took part in the developing human capability research which gave rise to the symposium and that I report on, in two chapters. This book is for you.

The editor and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

Department of Labour

Department of Labour (1999) Human Capability: A Framework for Analysis, Report by Department of Labour, Wellington: NZ Government. ()

Institute for Employment Studies

Tamkin. P., Giles, L., Campbell, M. and Hillage, J. (2004) Skills Pay: The Contribution of Skills to Business Success, SSDA, Research Report 5. ()

Ingrid Robeyns

Robeyns, I. (2000) An Unworkable Idea or a Promising Alternative? Sens Capability Approach Re-examined, Discussion Paper Series 00.30, Centre for Economic Studies, University of Leuven. ()

Russell Sage Foundation

Mason, G. and Salverda, W. Table 1, Incidence of low pay, 20032005, in Gauti, J. and Schmitt, J. (eds) Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World. 2010 Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with permission ().

Mason, G. and Salverda, W. Figure 1, Trends in the incidence of low pay, % of employees below the low pay threshold, 19732005, in Gauti, J. and Schmitt, J. (eds), Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World. 2010 Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with permission ().

Bosch, G., Mayhew, K. and Gauti, J. Table 2, Bargaining coverage 1980, 1990, 2000, in Gauti, J. and Schmitt, J. (eds), Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World. 2010 Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with permission ().

Bosch, G., Mayhew, K. and Gauti, J. Table 3, Union and employer density and extension of agreements, in Gauti, J. and Schmitt, J. (eds), Low Wage Work in the Wealthy World. 2010 Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with permission ().

Sage Publications

Schmid, G. Is full employment still possible? Transitional labour markets as a new strategy of labour market policy, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 16(3): 429456, 1995 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted with permission ().

Vandenberg, R.J., Richardson, H.A. and Eastman, L.J. The impact of high involvement work processes on organizational effectiveness: A second-order latent variable approach, Group & Organization Management, 24(3): 300339, 1999 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted with permission ().

Leda Blackwood is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. From 20052008 she was a senior research fellow on the Developing Human Capability: employment institutions, organisations and individuals research programme at Victoria University of Wellington. Prior to this she held positions in the Australian public service. Her research interests focus on intergroup and intragroup processes involved in (a) collective action and the politicisation of identity; and (b) social movement building.

Peter Boxall is Professor of Human Resource Management and Associate Dean for Research in the Business School at the University of Auckland. His research is concerned with the links between HRM and strategic management and with the changing nature of work and employment systems. He is the co-author with John Purcell of Strategy and Human Resource Management, co-editor with John Purcell and Patrick Wright of the Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management, and co-editor with Richard Freeman and Peter Haynes of What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo-American Workplace.

Jane Bryson is a Senior Lecturer in the Management School at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She was one of two objective leaders in a recently completed research project Developing human capability: employment institutions, organisations, and individuals which explored the range of influences on the development of human capability in, and for, New Zealand workplaces. This research was funded by the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology (FRST). She is now involved in another FRST funded research team investigating firm level productivity in particular the impact of HRM and OD on productivity. Jane is an organisational psychologist, and prior to joining the University staff she worked for 15 years as a consultant in organisation development and HRM. Her research interests focus on the investigation of HRM, organisational and individual capability; and on professionals, managers and occupational change.