Making tax and social security decisions: lean and deskilling in the UK Civil Service

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12092
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Author: Douglas Martin
• Date: 01 July 2017

146 New Technology, Work and Employment © 2017 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and

John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

New Technology, Work and Employment 32:2

ISSN 1468-005X

Making tax and social security decisions:

lean and deskilling in the UK Civil Service

Douglas Martin

Lean working has had a significant impact on the work skills

of civil servants. This study examines the impact of lean

specifically focusing on ‘decision- makers’, those civil servants

engaged in deciding tax and social security claims. Using

qualitative data from trade union members and stewards

in two major government departments, this study found

significant evidence of deskilling often in the face of dealing

with potentially complex legal and factual issues. Using

Mashaw’s framework of administrative justice, the article

argues that management’s use of lean was evidence of an

accelerated shift to a managerial model of administering tax

and benefits where the administrative processes of decision-

making become paramount at the expense of the quality of the

decisions made.

Keywords: Lean working, Administrative justice, Deskilling,

Decision-making, Civil service, Tax, Social security.

One of the central claims of lean systems of work is the assertion that lean is a means

to increase workforce skills (Ohno, 1988; Womack et al., 1990). Lean systems have been

advocated on the basis that they promote organisational cultures of continuous im-

provement (Hines et al., 2004). Lean enables employees to use knowledge of their own

jobs to improve organisational efficiency. The assertion that lean promotes greater skill

acquisition has been subject to challenge with evidence that lean has led to significant

reductions in skills as jobs become increasingly narrowly defined and work is intensi-

fied (Pardi, 2007; Stewart et al., 2009). With the expansion of lean systems into the Civil

Service as a means of improving standards of performance (Radnor, 2010), the asser-

tion that lean increases skills merits a thorough examination. Previous studies have

found that rather than increase skill levels among civil servants, attempts at organisa-

tional restructuring have resulted in significant deskilling with evidence of work in-

tensification and reductions in job autonomy (Fisher, 2007; Danford et al., 2009; Carter

et al., 2011a).

However, what is missing from previous studies is a detailed analysis of the decision-

making functions of civil servants and the impact of lean upon them. The Civil Service

has historically had two functions, first, the development of policy and, second, the

implementation of policy (Campbell, 1965). The latter function includes not only ad-

ministrative processes, but the judicial or quasi- judicial decision- making responsibili-

ties delegated by the state to its civil servants to exercise on its behalf. This executive

function of civil servants involves the use of discretion and judgement in the applica-

tion of the law (Baldwin et al., 1992). Few studies have examined the exercise of quasi-

judicial functions from the perspective of skill and the labour process. Utilising the

Dr Douglas Martin (wdmmartin@uclan.ac.uk), is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Management at the

University of Central Lancashire in Preston. His research interests include lean working, and its impact

on employment relations and organisational restructuring in the public sector.