Organisational changes and the evolution of working quality life A comparison between the private sector and the state civil service (France)

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Organisational changes and the evolution of
working quality lifeA comparison between the
private sector and the state civil service
(France)
Maëlezig Bigi, Nathalie Greenan, Sylvie
Hamon-Cholet,Joseph Lanfranchi,
Sofia, Bulgaria / 18 19 October 2012,
International Conference Adressing Quality of
Work in Europe
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Mutual benefits vs. Critical perspectives
Public sector
Private sector

•  New Public Management  (NPM)
• Goal decrease public spending and improve the
  quality of public services
• Set of managerial tools borrowed from the private
  sector
• ICT tools

•  High Performance Work Organisation  (HPWO)
• Goal improve productivity through employee
  involvement
• Several managerial tools
• ICT tools

• The proximity of the tools that are spread across
  the two sectors in order to "modernize" is the
  foundation on which we build our comparison
• Do the same tools relate to the same effect in
  both sectors ?
• It is difficult to construct performance
  indicators comparable in the two sectors, it is
  easy to use a common grid to assess the impact
  perceived by employees

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Our analytical approach

• Two families of tools
• management of productive activity
• ICT
• Three dimensions of work experience
• intensification
• enrichment
• involvement at work
• A dynamic approach to the relationship between
  managerial strategies and work experience
• A comparative analysis between
• the private sector
• the State Civil Service

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COI surveys
for employers
for employees

• A survey developed first in the competitive
  sector in 1997, reedited in 2006
• Extended to the State Civil Service in 2006,
  central government departments
• Common principles for measuring changes
• Same questionnaires architecture
• Same method of survey
• But questionnaires adapted to each sector
• A steering committee composed of experts from
  each sector
• Identified respondents in each sector

• A survey also developed in first place in the
  competitive sector in 1997, reedited in 2006 on
  the broad scope of employers
• A single questionnaire for all employees of all
  the sectors surveyed
• Factual and objectives questions on the
  conditions of work activity
• Retrospective questions for measuring changes

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Studied populations
Banking and insurance Business Services and medias
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Measuring changes(1)

• Tools used by the organisation models of
  organized action
• Adoption or droping of tools employers
  intentions of change
• Extension of the COI survey to the State Civil
  Service Changes in the public sector are
  partly instrumented by tools also adopted and
  implemented in the competitive sector

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Measuring changes(2)

• From COI survey, two synthetic indicators
• Management tools
• ICT tools
• gtgtgtgt This distinction allows identifying
  interactions between the two types of change.
• Comparable indicators overtime and between the
  private sector and the State Civil Service

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The tools retained
Management
ICT

• Quality certification
• Environnemental and ethical certification
• Methods of problems solving
• Tools for labelling goods and services
• Satisfaction surveys of customers
• Management of production just in time
• Tools for tracing goods and services
• Contractual commitment to provide a product or a
  service or customer service within a limited time
• Requirement for suppliers to meet tight deadlines
• Long term relationships with suppliers
• Call and contact Centres
• Teams or autonomous work groups
• IT management integrated to the customer
  relationship

1. Web site
2. Local area network
3. Intranet
4. Extranet
5. Electronic data interchange system
6. Database(s) on the management of human resources
7. Database(s) for research
8. Tools for data analysis
9. Tools for interfacing databases
10. Tools for automated data archiving
11. ERP
12. Software or firmware for the management of human
    resources
13. Software or firmware for research
14. Groupware
15. Workflow software

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More changes
in the public sector than in the private
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Dimensions of Working life Quality
Work Intensification Enrichment Commitment to work
Constraints on pace of work (increasing, stable, decreasing) Use of skills (increasing, similar, decreasing) Being involved at work (more, similarly, less)
Activity peaks (more, no peak, fewer) Learning new things at work (yes or no) Work recognized at fair value
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A work intensification frequently reported by
employees
... A reduction of activity peaks less often
reported by civil servants
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Civil servants declared more often learning new
things in their work ...
... and having increased their skills.
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Civil servants declare more often a a stable
level of involvement ...
... Employees of the restricted private sector
and the public sector are comparable in terms of
the level of fair work recognition.
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How we measure
the effects of organisational changes
Indicator of management changes
Non linear effects
Indicator of ICTchanges
Non linear effects
Possible effects of complementarity between the
two families of change
Error term
What we want to measure aggravation /
mitigation of indicators of evolution of working
life quality
Employee control variables gender, seniority,
age, qualification, marital status, sposes
emplyment, weekly working hours, part time work,
employment status, pay
Employer control variables size,
sector/ministry

• on the evolution
• of working life quality

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Results for intensification
Intensification
Private sector No significant impact on the evolution of constraints on the pace of work or activity peaks A small effect of management tools on the evolution of activity peaks
Public sector No significant impact on the evolution of constraints on the pace of work Increased activity peaks with a high level of ICTchanges
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Results for enrichment
Enrichment
Private sector Positive effect of ICT and management changes on the evolution of skills uses, except when the changes in ICT tools are very high A small positive effect of complementarity on the evolution of skills uses No effect on learning new things except negative with a high level of change for ICT tools
Public sector No effect on the evolution of skills A little positive effect of changes in ICT tools on learning new things
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Results for commitment
Commitment
Private sector Positive effect of management changes on involvement Positive effect of management changes (but negative if too high) and little negative effect of ICT changes on the feeling of fair work recognition
Public sector Negative effect of changes on involvement Negative effect of changes on the feeling of fair recognition
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Conclusion

• ICT changes more intense than changes in
  management tools in the competitive sector
• Major changes in both areas in the public sector
  and ICT already heavily disseminated at the
  beginning of the observed period of time
• Compared to the competitive sector , changes in
  average more intense in the public sector

• No significantly substantial effect on the work
  intensification
• Increasing use of skills in the private sector
  with no implication in terms of learning new
  things / No link changes enrichment in the
  State civil service
• An increasing involvement for the employees of
  private sector with changes, but civil servants
  show discouragement facing change, and in
  particular if ICT and management changes are
  combined
• A positive significant effect of management
  changes on the feeling of fair work recognition
  in the private sector, mitigated if combined with
  ICT changes / the combination of the two types of
  changes leads mostly to the perception of
  effort-reward imbalance in the public sector

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Four hypothesis
to explain those differences

• The mechanisms of self selection of employees to
  join one or the other sector could generate
  differences in attitude face to change
• We could also assume that employees in troubles
  with changes in the private sector leave their
  firms, thus maintaning an high involvement for
  those who stay
• The process behind the changes is not the same in
  both sectors market pressures play a
  fundamental role in the private sector, while the
  political pressure is crucial in the State civil
  service
• The preparation of the changes, the communication
  around their implementation, forms of employee
  participation, the human resource policies are
  not the same between the private sector and the
  public sector

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Thanks for your attention ! Questions ?
Sofia, Bulgaria / 18 19 October 2012,
International Conference Adressing Quality of
Work in Europe