Diaries from the front line—Formal supervision and job quality among social care workers during austerity

• Author: Ian Cunningham,Colin Lindsay,Chandrima Roy
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12289

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Diaries from the front line—Formal supervision

and job quality among social care workers during

austerity

Ian Cunningham

1

| Colin Lindsay

1

| Chandrima Roy

2

1

Department of Work, Employment and

Society, University of Strathclyde Business

School, Glasgow, Scotland

2

Department of Organisations, Work &

Employment, Lecturer in Work, Employment

and Organisation Studies, University of

Leicester, Leicester, UK

Correspondence

Dr Ian Cunningham, Professor of Employment

Relations, Department of Work, Employment

and Society, The William Duncan Building,

University of Strathclyde Business School,

Rottenrow, Glasgow, Scotland.

Email: ian.cunningham@strath.ac.uk

Funding information

Institute of Research and Innovation in Social

Services, Grant/Award Number: Number 1

Abstract

Focusing on social care workers in public, private and volun-

tary sectors, this article contributes to research on the

impact of austerity on public service human resource man-

agement (HRM). The article uses an innovative diary

method to highlight the importance of intrinsic elements of

job quality such as supervision practice in mitigating degra-

dation in extrinsic elements as austerity dismantles public

service HRM. The article also reports that supervision has

itself come under pressure due to resource shortages. The

results regarding sub-sector differences have implications

for policy-makers and practitioners in terms of rebuilding

the standard employment relationship in social care so that

they are more sensitive to differences across private, public

and voluntary sectors.

KEYWORDS

austerity, diaries, job quality, social care

1|INTRODUCTION

This article explores perceptions of job quality among social care workers (CW) in Scottish public, private and volun-

tary organisations during austerity. Specifically, it highlights the importance of formal supervision practice as an

intrinsic element of job quality and how it may mitigate degradation in extrinsic elements as austerity dismantles

aspects of the public service human resource management (HRM) offer.

Since the introduction of marketised reforms under New Public Management (NPM), debates have focused on

the subsequent HRM offer in public services. Studies highlight how employment conditions have suffered degrada-

tion (Bach, 2016). These studies have further brought a greater understanding of the importance of sub-sector con-

tingent factors in bringing variations to these public sector work and employment outcomes (Bach, Kessler, & Heron,

Received: 13 August 2018 Revised: 21 January 2020 Accepted: 19 February 2020

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12289

Hum Resour Manag J. 2021;31:187–201. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 187