Most quantitative studies analysing the nature and impact of employee involvement and participation (EIP) have used data that differentiate between its absence and presence. However, the application of EIP practices varies substantially, and impact may depend on how embedded EIP is at workplace level. Developing the concept of 'embeddedness' as a combination of measures of the breadth and depth of EIP practices, we use WERS98 to examine the impact of EIP on employee perceptions. Our results show support for propositions that greater breadth and depth of EIP practices are associated with higher levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction.

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This study is a review of literature on the factors affecting the retention and turnover of hospital consultants and midwives. While there is widespread concern and acknowledgement of staff retention problems for professional occupations within the NHS, far less research has analysed the causes of the staff retention problems for the occupations in question. This study shows that there is a dearth of literature in this area and that systematic comparative analysis of retention and turnover factors through both primary and secondary research is urgently required in order that policy-making can take place on the basis of informed choice. Tentative initial findings were that lack of appreciation or perceptions of not being valued are key factors influencing turnover for both occupations. Working hours, workload and work schedules are also common concerns to both groups. In addition, career development, promotion and appreciation of contribution were important retention factors for midwives, while a supportive professional environment, reduction in workload and working hours and more flexible work patterns were important to consultants.

This article draws on Kelly's mobilization theory to identify potential stages in developing gendered collective articulation of grievances and discusses the barriers to such articulation within two case sites in the UK telecommunications sector. It focuses on employee concerns surrounding pay and working time issues arising from organizational change in two case studies from the UK telecommunications sector. Findings showed that organizational change had brought work intensification that exacerbated long hours cultures and that concerns were common to both sexes, although organizational variations in career ambitions and sense of entitlement occurred. In contrast, there was evidence that women were less willing to articulate concerns over unfair pay practices, shaped partly by a low sense of entitlement and also perceived weaknesses in potential for collective redress. The activation of grievances was severely limited by the gendered occupational and organizational structure of both workplaces and union organization within them. We conclude that there are opportunities for unions Journal of Industrial Relations 718 to pursue a two-pronged approach to worker mobilization by mainstreaming concerns about working time that are common to workers of both sexes with families and to activate gendered concerns around pay at workplace level.

This article considers how two new strategies for improving pay and skills development have been used in the UK National Health Service (NHS) to develop labour capacity and capability by stimulating the development of relatively coherent internal labour markets for workers at the lower end of the occupational hierarchy. Drawing on data from 13 NHS trusts, we scrutinise the implications of the new national pay system, Agenda for Change, for healthcare assistants and cleaners and find substantial one‐off improvements in pay for these groups as a direct result of the new national pay framework. However, the detailed case‐study data reveal there is considerable uncertainty regarding the extent, depth and durability of pay improvements. In particular, opportunities for pay progression in reward for acquisition of new skills and qualifications were more variable as a result of the stronger role of management choice and strategy at the organisational level in implementing the new national strategy for skills development, the Skills Escalator. Moreover, management strategy shaped the demand for, and distribution of, intermediate‐level skills (through new job design, for example), which was critical to the effectiveness of trusts in pulling lower grade employees up through an internal career trajectory.