Change at Work

Voices of Guinness ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190645090.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 105-128

Author(s):

Tim Strangleman

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Workplace Culture ◽

Shop Floor ◽

Oral Histories ◽

Financial Problems ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Autobiographical Accounts

In the early 1980s, Guinness found itself facing serious financial problems as a result of the recession, falling profits, and mistaken diversification decisions. This chapter tells how the company confronted these challenges by appointing a new managing director, Ernest Saunders, who transformed Guinness into a multinational beverage conglomerate and changed the culture of the organization forever. In the process, he also committed serious financial misdemeanors. This chapter tells the shop floor workers experienced these changes, in particular how the reorganizations and layoffs affected workplace culture and identity. Drawing on a series of oral histories and autobiographical accounts, the author places what happened at Guinness in the 1980s and 1990s within the wider context of the brewing and spirits sectors in the United Kingdom and globally.

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Remembering the Work of the Long Boom

Voices of Guinness ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190645090.003.0005 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 77-104

Author(s):

Tim Strangleman

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Workplace Culture ◽

Shop Floor ◽

Oral Histories ◽

Work Identity ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Workplace Identity

This chapter looks at the experience of work from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. It draws extensively on oral histories carried out by the author with former shop floor workers, supervisors, and managers. It details the type of labor carried out by production workers and in particular explores the idea of an independent shop floor culture and identity at Guinness Park Royal. It looks at issues such as boredom, humor, and authority as well as the nature of unionization at the plant. The chapter looks at questions of industrial citizenship and how a strong workplace identity allowed workers a great deal of autonomy over what they did and how they did it. This Guinness workplace culture is put in context with a broader discussion of work identity in the United Kingdom during the long boom.

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Risky Business? The Value of Employing Offenders and Ex-Offenders: An Interview With James Timpson, Chief Executive of Timpson

Journal of Management Inquiry ◽

10.1177/1056492619836167 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 240-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jenna Pandeli ◽

Nicholas O’Regan

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Chief Executive ◽

Innovative Approach ◽

Workplace Culture ◽

Vulnerable Group ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

The Impact ◽

Risky Business

This interview with James Timpson, Chief Executive of Timpson retailers, explores his innovative approach to recruitment and empowerment in the workplace. James Timpson is passionate about the employment of ex-offenders, working closely with the prison service in the United Kingdom and creating a workplace that invests in its employees. This interview offers some interesting insights into how organizations can contribute positively to society and engage seriously with improving our communities. Drawing on James’s insights, we provide a commentary on the impact that James’s work can have on ex-offenders in terms of reducing reoffending and improving the lives of a vulnerable group of people through creating a workplace culture that emphasizes empowerment. James shows how organizations can support ex-offenders and simultaneously ensure the success of the company. In fact, he shows how these two things can go hand in hand.

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Financial debt amongst older women in the United Kingdom – shame, abuse and resilience

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x2000001x ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kingsley Purdam ◽

Jennifer Prattley

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Older Women ◽

Real Term ◽

Financial Problems ◽

Welfare Policies ◽

Welfare Benefits ◽

Wage Rates ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Pension Age

Abstract Long-term poverty, precarious employment, low pay, the increased pension age and real-term reductions in welfare benefits, including bereavement allowances, have brought into focus the financial vulnerability of many older women aged 55 years and older in the United Kingdom. In this article, survey data were analysed alongside evidence from observations of debt support meetings and interviews with older women who were receiving debt advice from a support charity. The findings suggest that older women were more likely to have financial problems than older men, particularly those women who were living on low incomes and who were separated or divorced. Following the breakdown of a relationship, many older women were at increased risk of more debt and bankruptcy, particularly those aged between 55 and 64 years and those in routine and semi-routine occupations. Many women had kept their financial problems hidden due to fear and shame whilst bringing up their children and some had been subject to coercive control and economic abuse by their former husbands or partners. It is important that any pension reforms, changes to minimum wage rates, and new divorce and domestic abuse legislation and welfare policies take account of the circumstances of separated, divorced and widowed older women. More financial support and advice needs to be provided to older women facing financial difficulties.

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