Among its findings, the survey reveals –
Moreover the great majority of employers have developed career ladders open to all their employees.
British organisations may also be quite slow to adopt fully the new ways of working which the widespread availability of new Information Technology makes possible, another important field covered by the survey.
The findings in the new survey should provide sober reading for the government and the corporate community. They reveal – from a management perspective - relatively discontented and stressful workplaces, where managers still fail to give a high enough priority to improving the family-friendly and employee-friendly practices which would develop motivation and encourage job retention.
A full copy of the report and survey is available from: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/erd/workplace.pdf or by email from anna.hinds@esrc.ac.uk or 44-179-341-3122
For further information, contact
Dr Michael White, tel: 44-207-468-2246 email m.white@psi.org.uk ;
Professor Stephen Hill, tel: 44-178-444-3033 email Stephen.Hill@rhul.ac.uk ;
Dr Patrick McGovern, tel: 44-207-955-6653 email: p.mcgovern@lse.ac.uk ;
Professor Peter Nolan, tel: 0113 233 4460 email P.J.Nolan@Leeds.ac.uk ;
Professor Jonathan Michie, tel: 44-207-631-6761 email: j.michie@bbk.ac.uk ;
Professor David Guest, tel: 44-207-848-3723 email: david.guest@kcl.ac.uk
Or Iain Stewart or Lesley Lilley, ESRC External Relations, telephone 44-179-341-3032/413119.
Notes for Editors
1. A report, Managing Workplace Change, by Robert Taylor, media fellow with the ESRC's Future of Work Programme, provides a commentary on the research findings and is available on request from the ESRC
2. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It has a track record of producing high-quality relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC invests more than £53 million every year in social sciences research. At any time, its range of funding schemes may be supporting 2,000 researchers within academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences, thereby nurturing the researchers of tomorrow. The ESRC website address is http://www.esrc.ac.uk
3. The Future of Work Programme was launched by the ESRC in October 1998 and is helping to rectify the gaps in our knowledge. Comprising 27 projects and involving more than one hundred leading researchers across the UK, this is the most systematic and rigorous enquiry of its kind, providing evidence-based research for a better understanding of the changing world of work in a period of rapid social, technological and economic change. For further details about the programme contact Professor Peter Nolan Tel 113-233-4504.
4. REGARD is the ESRC's database of research. It provides a key source of information on ESRC social science research awards and all associated publications and products. The website can be found at http://www.regard.ac.uk