Buying into the ‘good worker’ rhetoric or being as good as they need to be? The effort bargaining process of new migrant workers

• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Date: 01 July 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12111
• Author: Hazel Baxter‐Reid

Buying into the ‘good worker’rhetoric or being as

good as they need to be? The effort bargaining

process of new migrant workers

Hazel Baxter-Reid, Queen MargaretUniversity

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 26,no 3, 2016, pages 337–350

A great deal of attentionin the literature has focused uponemployers’stereotypicalperceptions of Central and

EasternEuropean workers as ‘good workers’,and the impact such viewshave on hiring processes in low-skilled

employment.Drawing on multiple case studies,this paper examines thegood worker rhetoric throughthe lens

of the effort bargaining process and hard HRM strategies that target marginalised workers in the labour

market. In particular, theextent to which migrant workers buyinto the rhetoric is explored. It is argued that

migrant workers do not fully buy in to the good worker rhetoric because of issues such as high levels of

education and personal aspirations and importantly, issues related to employers’strategies, bullying,

discrimination, and the segmentation of migrant workers in each organisation.

Contact: Dr Hazel Baxter-Reid, Queen Margaret University, Queen Margaret Drive, Musselburgh,

Edinburgh EH216UU, UK. E-mail: hbaxterreid@qmu.ac.uk

Keywords: migrant labour; employment relationships; effort bargain; human resourcestrategy

INTRODUCTION

Since the European Union (EU) enlargement in 2004, employers in the UK have

expressed a preference for employing Central and Eastern European (CEE) workers,

viewing them as ‘good workers’. The demand for migrant labour is not a new

phenomenon, and has been evident in post-war literature and contemporary studies

throughoutthe world. However,CEE migration to the UK, and within the EU, is ratherunique,

as CEE nationals are relatively highly skilled workers, from low-income countries, who are

willing to work in low-skilled sectors of employment. Moreover, this group of migrants are

not employed on a visa or through temporary migrationprogrammes; they are ‘regional “free

movers”’ (Favell, 2008: 703). Despite this, CEE workers tend to be segmented into low-skilled

occupations in the UK (Ciupijus, 2011).

The use of migrantlabour in the UK has been the latest in a long line of hard HRM strategies

that target groups of marginalised workers in the labour market. The perceived good work

ethic of migrant workers may actually be ‘a reflection of employer preference for a workforce

over which they can exercise particular mechanisms of control’(Anderson and Ruhs, 2010:

40). The effort bargain is considered within the context of hard HRM strategies, which aim to

get the most out of workers.This shall help to critically analyse the good worker rhetoric and

will provide an insight into the interactions and bargaining that takes place between

management and CEE nationals. Importantly, focus is placed upon the way in which CEE

workers respond to, and resist managerial strategies. This is a significant issue that is under

researched within the literature.

This paper reportsdata from three case study organisations,which relied heavily upon new

migrant workers. In total, there were 70 interviews with managers (including the Depot

Manager andTraining Manager in Bus Co;Plant Manager, AssistantPlant Manager, Nightshift

and Dayshift Production Managers and area supervisors in Laundry Co and departmental

HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL26, NO 3, 2016 337

©2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd

Pleasecite thisarticle in pressas: Baxter-Reid,H. (2016) ‘Buyinginto the ‘goodworker’rhetoricor being as good as theyneed to be? The effort bargaining

processof new migrant workers’.HumanResourceManagement Journal26: 3 , 337–350

doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12111

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