This paper sets out to investigate whether the recent wave of organisational restructuring has contributed to the further decline of the internally promoted manager or produced a new model of managerial employment in large organizations. Our research, which is based on in-depth case studies of eight major British-based employers, finds no evidence of the kind of transformational change associated with the introduction of a new model. Instead, we find that the traditional model of managerial employment has been eroded rather than replaced. The most notable changes include less job security - especially for those older than fifty - more emphasis on `managing your own career', fewer opportunities for upward promotion, and an increased emphasis on lateral career moves. We conclude by arguing that this restructuring adds further impetus to the decline of the internally promoted middle manager.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Blauner, R. (1964) Alienation and Freedom, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
2.
Brown, P. and Scase, R. (1994) Higher Education and Corporate Realities: Class, Culture and the Decline of Careers, London: UCL Press.
3.
Brown, P. (1995) `Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion: Some Observations on Recent Trends in Education, Employment and the Labour Market', Work, Employment and Society, 9, 1, 29-51.
4.
Bridges, W. (1995) Jobshift: How to Prosper in a Workplace without Jobs, London: Nicholas Brealey.
5.
Doeringer, P. and Piore, M. (1971) Internal Labour Markets and Manpower Analysis, Lexington, Massachusetts: Heath.
6.
Dore, R. (1973) British Factory-Japanese Factory, Oxford: University of California Press.
7.
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1991) `Building Theories from Case Study Research', Academy of Management Review, 14, 4, 532-550.
8.
Goldthorpe, J. H. (1982) `On the Service Class, its Formation and Future', in A. Giddens and G. MacKenzie (eds) Social Class and the Division of Labour, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9.
Goffee, R. and Scase, R. (1992) `Organisational Change and the Corporate Career: the Restructuring of Managers' Job Aspirations', Human Relations, 45, 4, 363-385.
10.
Guest, D. and Mackenzie Davey, K. (1996) `Don't Write Off the Traditional Career', People Management, February 22, 22-25.
11.
Guest, D., Conway, R., Briner, R. and Dickmann, M. (1996) `The State of the Psychological Contract in Employment', Issues in People Management No. 16, London: IPD.
12.
Handy, C. (1989) The Age of Unreason, London: Business Books.
13.
Heckscher, C. (1995) White-collar Blues: Management Loyalties in an Age of Corporate Restructuring, New York: Basic Books.
14.
Herriot, P. and Pemberton, C. (1995a) New Deals: The Revolution in Managerial Careers, Chicester: Wiley.
15.
Herriot, P. and Pemberton, C. (1995b) `A New Deal for Middle Managers', People Management1, 12, 32-35.
16.
Hirsch, P. (1993) `Undoing the Managerial Revolution?', in R. Swedberg (ed.) Explorations in Economic Sociology, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
17.
Kanter, R. M. (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation, New York: Basic Books.
18.
Kanter, R.M. (1989) When Giants Learn to Dance, New York: Simon & Schuster.
19.
Lockwood, J., Teevan, P. and Walters, M. (1992) Who's Managing the Managers? The Reward and Career Development of Middle Managers in a Flat Organisation, Corby: Institute of Management.
20.
McGovern, P. (1996) `The Unwritten Rules of the Game research: A Review and an Assessment', Working Paper No.68, Centre for Organisational Research, London Business School.
21.
McGovern, P. and Hope-Hailey, V. (1997) `Inside Hewlett-Packard: Corporate Culture and Bureaucratic Control', in S. Sackmann (ed.) Cultural Complexity in Organisations, Beverly Hills: Sage.
22.
McGovern, P., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., Stiles, P. and Truss, C. (1997) `HRM on the Line?', Human Resource Management Journal, 7, 4, 12-29.
23.
Mumford, E. (1971) `Job Satisfaction: A Method of Analysis', Personnel Review, 1, 3, 11-19.
24.
Newell, H. and Dopson, S. (1996) `Muddle in the Middle: Organizational Restructuring and Middle Management Careers', Personnel Review, 25, 4, 4-20.
25.
Nicholson, N. and West, M. (1988) Managerial Job Change: Men and Women in Transition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26.
Osterman, P. (ed.) (1996) Broken Ladders: Managerial Careers in the New Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
27.
Rajan, A. (1997) `Employability in the Finance Sector: Rhetoric versus Reality', Human Resource Management Journal, 7, 1, 67-78.
28.
Redman, T., Wilkinson, A. and Snape, E. (1997) `Stuck in the Middle? Managers in Building Societies', Work, Employment and Society, 11, 1, 101-114.
29.
Roomkin, M. J. (ed.) (1989) Managers as Employees: An International Comparison of the Changing Character of Managerial Employment, New York: Oxford University Press.
30.
Rosenbaum, J. (1984) Career Mobility in a Corporate Hierarchy, New York: Academic Press.
31.
Savage, M., Barlow, J., Dickens, P. and Fielding, T. (1992) Property, Bureaucracy and Culture: Middle-class Formation in Contemporary Britain, Routledge: London.
32.
Scase, R. and Goffee, R. (1989) Reluctant Managers: Their Work and Lifestyles, London: Unwin Hyman.
33.
Scott, J. (1997) Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34.
Scott-Morgan, P. (1994) The Unwritten Rules of the Game, New York, McGraw-Hill.
35.
Schein, E. (1978) Career Dynamics: Matching Individual and Organisational Needs, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
36.
Stiles, P., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., McGovern, P. and Truss, C. (1997) `Performance Management and the Psychological Contract', Human Resource Management Journal, 7, 1, 57-66.
37.
Stovel, K., Savage, M. and Bearman, P. (1996) `Ascription into Achievement: Models of Career Systems at Lloyds Bank, 1890-1970', American Journal of Sociology, 102, 2, 358-399.
38.
Truss, K., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., McGovern, P. and Stiles, P. (1997) `Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management: A Reappraisal', Journal of Management Studies, 34, 1, 53-73.
39.
Wheatley, M. (1992) The Future of Middle Management, Corby: Institute of Management.
40.
Weber, M. (1948) `The Position of the Official', in H. H. Gerth and C. W. Mills (eds) From Max Weber, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 198-204.
