Worker responses to HR practice in adult social care in England

Abstract

In this article, we consider care worker (CW) responses to enacted HR practices and CW attitudes in adult social care (ASC) in England. Our findings derive from a project that examined HR practices and comprised interviews with 18 managers and 58 CWs. We argue that both HR practice and employee attitudes are more robust than other research in this sector has suggested. Our contributions are threefold: first, we present the under‐reported CW perspective. Second, we contribute to understanding of HR practice in low‐wage sectors, research in ASC being limited despite increasing elsewhere in low‐wage sectors. Finally, we question the likely effectiveness of regulation in achieving its aims of enhancing labour supply and ensuring high quality care delivery.

Employee perceptions of HRM and well-being in nonprofit organizations: unpacking the unintended

“…As a result, employees are aware of and have a positive perception of the workings of the basic, rudimentary HR practices being offered. As evidenced in prior research (Atkinson and Lucas, 2013;Piening et al, 2014), nonprofit employees respond favorably to this low level of support when their prior exposure to and experience with HR practices has remained low. Piening et al (2014) interpret these positive employee perceptions as a reflection of the low level of employee expectations towards their employer.…”

“…Adding to these findings on employee outcomes, the current study provides evidence of a negative impact on psychological and physical wellbeing. As such, this study adds to a growing body of nonprofit research on the underreported employees' perspective in HRM that is seen as crucial to understanding the HRMperformance chain (Atkinson and Lucas, 2013;Eaton, 2000).…”

“…As such, this study adds to a growing body of nonprofit research on the under-reported employees' perspective in HRM which is seen as crucial to understanding the HRM-performance chain (Atkinson and Lucas, 2013;Eaton, 2000). The study concludes with the practical implications the findings bear for under-resourced NPOs looking to enhance their employee wellbeing.…”

“…Examining these insights in the nonprofit sector, studies have increasingly focused on employee perceptions of HRM to shed light on employees' responses to enacted HR practice (Atkinson and Lucas, 2013). Recent research by Piening et al (2014) in social services NPOs points to the discrepancies that arise between the implementation of HRM and employee perceptions thereof when employees, for example, receive inconsistent messages about the implemented HR practices, are unaware of the available HR practices or view these as lacking in fairness and continuity of usage.…”

“…For example, favorable responses to HRM in low pay social care work have been accounted for by social norms that privilege altruism, thereby mitigating employees' negative responses (Atkinson and Lucas, 2013). Additional studies point to nonprofit employees' seemingly self-perpetuating commitment regardless of wages and working conditions along with their astounding resilience and ability to tolerate increasing levels of stress and even increased violence and harassment at the workplace (Baines, 2010;Baines, 2006;Nickson, Warhurst, Dutton and Hurrell, 2008).…”