| 11. |
- Carter, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
‘Stressed out of my box’: employee experience of lean working and occupational ill-health in clerical work in the UK public sector
- 2013
-
In: Work, Employment and Society. - : SAGE Publications. - 0950-0170 .- 1469-8722. ; 27:5, s. 747-767
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Occupational health and safety (OHS) is under-researched in the sociology of work and employment. This deficit is most pronounced for white-collar occupations. Despite growing awareness of the significance of psychosocial conditions – notably stress – and musculoskeletal disorders, white-collar work is considered by conventional OHS discourse to be ‘safe’. This study’s locus is clerical processing in the UK public sector, specifically Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, in the context of efficiency savings programmes. The key initiative was lean working, which involved redesigned workflow, task fragmentation, standardization and individual targets. Utilizing a holistic model of white-collar OHS and in-depth quantitative and qualitative data, the evidence of widespread self-reported ill-health symptoms is compelling. Statistical tests of association demonstrate that the transformed work organization that accompanied lean working contributed most to employees’, particularly women’s, ill-health complaints.
|
|
| 12. |
- Carter, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
Taxing times : lean working and the creation of (in)efficiencies in hm revenue and costums
- 2013
-
In: Public Administration. - : Wiley. - 0033-3298 .- 1467-9299. ; 91:1, s. 83-97
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The prevailing economic and budgetary climate is intensifying the search for methods and practices aimed at generating efficiencies in public sector provision. This paper investigates the increasingly popular bundle of techniques operating under the generic descriptor of lean, which promises to improve operational quality processes while simultaneously reducing cost. It offers a critical appraisal of lean as a fashionable component of public sector reform and challenges the received wisdom that it unambiguously delivers ‘efficiencies’. Quantitative and qualitative research in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) centred on employees' experiences has indicated the extent to which work has been reorganized along lean principles. However, employees perceive that changes in organizational processes and working practices have unintentionally generated inefficiencies which have impacted on the quality of public service. These suggested outcomes raise wider concerns as lean working is adopted in other public sector organizations.
|
|
| 13. |
- Carter, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
‘‘They can’t be a buffer any longer’ : Supervisors and class relations under white-collar lean production’
- 2014
-
In: Capital and Class. - : SAGE Publications. - 0309-8168 .- 2041-0980. ; 38:2, s. 323-343
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reasserts the value of the examination of class relations. It does so via a case study of tax-processing sites within HM Revenue and Customs, focusing on the changes wrought by the alterations to labour and supervisory processes implemented under the banner of ‘lean production’. It concentrates on the transformation of front-line managers, as their tasks moved from those that required tax knowledge and team support to those that narrowed their work towards output monitoring and employee supervision. Following Carchedi, these changes are conceptualised as strengthening the function of capital performed by managers, and weakening their role within the labour process.
|
|
| 14. |
- Carter, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
Uncomfortable truths : teamworking under lean in the UK
- 2017
-
In: International Journal of Human Resource Management. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0958-5192 .- 1466-4399. ; 28:3, s. 449-467
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A recent contribution in this journal – Procter, S. and Radnor, Z. (2014) ‘Teamworking under Lean in UK public services: lean teams and team targets in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC)’ International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25:21, 2978–2995 – provides an account of teamworking in the UK Civil Service, specifically Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), focused on the relationship between recently implemented lean work organisation and teams and teamworking. Procter and Radnor claim in this work that it delivers a ‘more nuanced’ analysis of lean in this government department and, it follows, of the lean phenomenon more generally. Our riposte critiques their article on several grounds. It suffers from problems of logic and construction, conceptual confusion and definitional imprecision. Methodological difficulties and inconsistent evidence contribute additionally to analytical weakness. Included in our response are empirical findings on teamworking at HMRC that challenge Procter and Radnor’s evidential basis and further reveal the shortcomings of their interpretation
|
|
| 15. |
|
|
| 16. |
- Djavan, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
Testosterone in prostate cancer: the Bethesda consensus.
- 2012
-
In: BJU International. - 1464-4096. ; 110:3, s. 344-352
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Androgen stimulation of prostate cancer (PCa) cells has been the basis for extensive studies evaluating the role of androgen in PCa but the diagnostic measurement of androgen as well as androgen values that potentially influence prognosis are unclear in patients with PCa. The 50 ng/dL threshold has been questioned as a result of reports indicating worse outcomes for levels between 20 and 50 ng/dL. Instead, a 20 ng/dL threshold for serum testosterone after androgren deprivation therapy in patients with advanced PCa was recommended. OBJECTIVE: • Androgen stimulation of prostate cancer (PCa) cells has been extensively studied. The increasing trend of using serum testosterone as an absolute surrogate for castration state means that the diagnostic measurement of testosterone and the values potentially influencing prognosis must be better understood. This is especially important when PCa progresses from an endocrine to an intracrine status. PATIENTS AND METHODS: • We performed a literature review using the MEDLINE database for publications on: (i) hormonal changes with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT); (ii) monitoring hormonal therapy with testosterone measurement; (iii) the efficacy of intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD) compared with continuous androgen deprivation; (iv) the underlying mechanisms of castration-resistance; and (v) novel treatments for castration-resistant PCa (CRPCa). RESULTS: • The optimum serum castration levels to be achieved with ADT are still debated. Recently, the 50 ng/dL threshold has been questioned because of reports indicating worse outcomes when levels between 20 and 50 ng/dL were studied. Instead, a 20 ng/dL threshold for serum testosterone after ADT in patients with advanced prostate cancer was recommended. CONCLUSION: • Understanding the mechanisms of androgen biosynthesis relating to PCa as well as prognostic implications might achieve a consensus regarding the role of ADT for both the androgen-sensitive and -insensitive disease state.
|
|
| 17. |
|
|
| 18. |
- Edwards, Bob, et al.
(author)
-
Commercialization and Lifestyle Sport: Lessons from Twenty Years of Freestyle BMX in ProTown, USA
- 2010
-
In: Sport in Society. - Abingdon : Taylor and Francis. - 1743-0437 .- 1743-0445. ; 13:7-8, s. 1135-1151
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent research on lifestyle sport and commercialization reveals a problematic and complex relationship. The analysis presented here examines the development and impact of commercialization on a unique and influential local BMX scene over a 20-year period. Three forms of commercialization - paraphernalia, movement and mass market - are identified and their varying influences on the mobilization and development of this lifestyle sport are analysed. Findings reveal that lifestyle-sport insiders actively collaborate in each form of commercialization, especially movement commercialization which has the potential to build alternative lifestyle-sport institutions and resist adverse commercial influences. This research conceptualizes freestyle BMX as a social movement within the resource-mobilization perspective and relies upon a combination of direct and participant observation recorded through field notes and augmented by 25 in-depth interviews. The combination of analytical tools and methodological approach can help shed further light on the complex dynamics of commercialization in lifestyle sports.
|
|
| 19. |
|
|
| 20. |
|
|
