This article examines the impact of the 2008–9 recession on training activity in the UK. In international terms, the UK is assumed to have a deregulated training market which is sensitive to changing economic conditions. However, national datasets and qualitative interviews suggest that,...

Closing the productivity gap with other nations has become a mantra of public policy in the UK. Promoting participation in learning and training is seen as the principal means of narrowing the gap. While tracking episodes of training is relatively easy, it is not clear what is learnt, by whom...

It is frequently suggested that working at home will be the future of work for many people in the UK and that trends in this direction are already well underway. This paper examines these claims by analysing data from the Labour Force Survey which has, at various times, asked questions about the...

This paper presents evidence to show how vocational qualifications act as boundary objects in the stimulation of learning at work and how they, in turn, become the catalyst for the creation of artefacts that have a purpose and existence beyond the life cycle of an accreditation process....

This paper examines two competing systems of organising theconstruction process and their consequences for learning. Under the adversarial system, contractors compete solely on price, risks are shifted onto those next in line and disputes are institutionalised through complicated, but inevitably...

Ordering and managing stock is a key function to organisationalperformance in the retail sector in general and in food retail in particular. The advent of such technologies as EDI (electronic data interchange) and EPOS (electronic point of sale scanners) has allowed retail companies to...

Sales work is a key feature of the contemporary service economy which has prompted considerable academic debate. This has centred on the processes of standardization exemplified by sales routines and scripts. It is frequently suggested that these management devices are unproblematically embraced...

This paper explores the nature of the relationship between Head Office and stores in a large British supermarket chain. It focuses on the role played by a range of technological tools available for managing the stock and connecting different parts of the productive system and the implications...

Places of work constitute processes of management by facilitating 'visibility' (the possibility for supervisors and others to observe workers) and 'presence' (the ability for workers to participate in relations with co-workers and others). Working at home creates problems for both these aspects...