Organisation Development in Health Care by Huw T.O. Davies Mo Malek Rosemary K. Rushmer

Author:Huw T.O. Davies, Mo Malek, Rosemary K. Rushmer [Huw T.O. Davies, Mo Malek, Rosemary K. Rushmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138704855
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The Role of Middle Managers in Realising Human Resource Strategy: Evidence from the NHS

Graeme Currie and Stephen Procter

Introduction

The Interaction of Personnel with Middle Managers in the NHS

The discussion of the interaction of middle or line management with the personnel function was fuelled by the debate about the emergence of human resource management (Poole, 1990; Sisson, 1990; Storey, 1992). Storey (1992, p. 214), for example, says that ‘contrary to speculative reports about the demise of the middle manager, occupants of these roles were exercising authority across a greatly expanded territory’.

More recently, the idea that the personnel function carries out its role in collaboration with line managers has gained more prominence from publicity afforded to Ulrich’s (1997) book, Human Resource Champions. Ulrich sets out multiple roles that the personnel function should take on. These are operational as well as strategic, with the potential for the latter dependent upon effective discharge of the former. This model carries with it implications for the personnel professional’s relationship with line management. Most importantly, Ulrich recognises the role line managers can play in the delivery of HR policy. Thus although in this model the personnel function is responsible for the accomplishment of the deliverables, it does not have to do all the actual work. Instead, the work will be shared to a significant extent with line managers.

Ulrich’s framework for realising human resource strategy has been highlighted as a prescriptive model for the personnel function in the NHS by Hugh Taylor, its Director of Human Resources, in numerous speeches across the country to health service personnel practitioners. Despite this, it does not appear to be the case that the importance of middle managers, as part of the cadre of line managers, is recognised by the personnel function in the NHS.

The process of reform following the Griffiths Report (DHSS, 1983) appeared to offer both the personnel function and middle managers a good chance to take on a more strategic role. The role of management was in general being enhanced, trusts were being established and were encouraged to act autonomously, and labour costs, flexibility and pay were high on the agenda. However, a more strategic role for the personnel function went unrealised (Bach, 1994; Caines, 1990; Guest and Peccei, 1992,1994), as did an enhanced role for middle managers. Important in this were attacks upon middle managers in the NHS since the mid-1990s (Hancock, 1994; Health Service Journal, 1994a, 1994b), which reflect more general organisational trends to restructure and ‘thin out’ layers of management (Drucker, 1988; Kanter, 1989; Peters, 1987, 1992).

What has not been apparent in the NHS is the hope expressed by, amongst others, Frohman and Johnson (1993) and Smith (1997), that, following delayering, the remaining middle managers can have an enhanced role. To illuminate this within the area of human resource strategy we turn to the strategic change literature and the typology of middle management involvement developed by Floyd and Wooldridge (1992, 1994, 1997).

The Conceptual Framework

Approaches to strategic change in the NHS have traditionally separated the formulation of

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