Policies, promises and trust: improving working lives in the National Health Service

Abstract

In recent years the UK National Health Service (NHS) has been characterised by radical and continuous change at every level. Within the literature, and the NHS itself, it is argued that successfully changing such an organisation requires the sustained commitment, trust and goodwill of staff. As part of developing and maintaining mutual trust and commitment it is widely argued that employers must meet the employee expectations which form part of the psychological contract, an important element of which, Armstrong (1999) argues, is being able to trust in management to keep their promises. Within this paper we argue that policies can be seen as a visible manifestation of management promises and present the Improving Working Lives (IWL) policy within the NHS as an example of one such 'promise' that has been made to staff in relation to areas which are important to them at a personal level. Using an anonymous questionnaire that explored areas central to IWL, data was collected from staff in five Primary Care Trusts within one Strategic Heath Authority in relation to their experiences and awareness of what was being done to address these issues. The research found that although the IWL Standard makes very public promises about work-life balance, harassment, equality and the valuing of staff, at best these have only been partially delivered.3

The Role of Gender in Varying Forms of Flexible Working

“…, 2002), that is, the number of people who take flexible working options is much smaller than the number who desire greater work–life balance. Among the barriers typically identified is that there is a lack of awareness of flexible working policies (Skinner et al. , 2004).…”

HRM and trust, or trust and HRM? An underdeveloped context for trust research

“…Within each organization, choices are made by HR professionals and senior managers about which HR strategies and policies are deployed. While legal requirements create some constraint, nevertheless the final array of organizational policies will involve active decisions, with policies providing statements of intent towards employees (Skinner et al, 2004). Their mere presence will have some impact , but so too might their omission.…”

“…In addition to policy content, how it is implemented provides employees with tangible evidence of the extent to which management's intentions are genuine and can be trusted (Skinner et al, 2004). Recent longitudinal research reveals how informational justice shapes employees' subsequent perceptions of managers' benevolence and integrity (Colquitt and Rodell, 2011).…”

Employee Trust in Organizational Contexts

“…Such policies can be seen as statements of intent, and to employees the nature of their implementation or delivery forms a measure of the extent to which management's intentions are genuine and can be trusted (e.g., Skinner, Saunders, & Duckett, 2004). While the content of HR policies is typically the domain of HR professionals, their delivery is often the responsibility of line managers.…”