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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01425459510086901. When citing the article, please cite: Jackie Coyle-Shapiro, (1995), “The impact of a TQM intervention on teamwork: a longitudinal assessment”, Employee Relations, Vol. 17 Iss: 3, pp. 63 - 74.

This article looks at attempts made by a case study organization, Surrey County Council, to evaluate and restructure the employment relationship in the context of a range of financial, managerial and political pressures for change. The notion of the psychological contract is used to conduct this evaluation and restructuring. A survey eliciting the views of some 6,000 Surrey employees highlights major gaps in terms of what employees expect and receive from their employer as well as discrepencies in what employees feel they owe the employer and actually give. Consideration is given to how the authority has sought to address these concerns through a new deal with employees. The article provides insights into the contingent circumstances leading to changes in the employment relationship, information on the state of the psychological contract in local government and an illustrative case of how one local authority went about addressing employee concerns in the light of major constraints.

The employee-organization relationship (EOR) has increasingly become a focal point for researchers in organizational behavior, human resource management, and industrial relations. Literature on the EOR has developed at both the individual – (e.g. psychological contracts) and the group and organizational-levels of analysis (e.g. employment relationships). Both sets of literatures are reviewed, and we argue for the need to integrate these literatures as a means for improving understanding of the EOR. Mechanisms for integrating these literatures are suggested. A subsequent discussion of contextual effects on the EOR follows in which we suggest that researchers develop models that explicitly incorporate context. We then examine a number of theoretical lenses to explain various attributes of the EOR such as the dynamism and fairness of the exchange, and new ways of understanding the exchange including positive functional relationships and integrative negotiations. The article concludes with a discussion of future research needed on the EOR.

A longitudinal research design was used to investigate the effects of a TQM intervention on teamwork in a manufacturing setting. Indicates that TQM intervention did not have a significant direct effect on teamwork. However, one aspect of the intervention, supervisory reinforcement, had a significant indirect effect on teamwork through its impact on changes in trust in colleagues. Overall, employee assess‐ment of the intervention was found to be a better predictor of teamwork than participation in the intervention per se.

Systematically evaluates changes in people management in one case study, the London Borough of Brent, as the major arena for the regulation of employment relations in local government moves from the national to the authority level. Considers the impact of upstream decisions on mission, purpose and structure and of downstream decisions on employment relations, as they relate to the structure of the personnel function, the role of line managers in personnel activities, the way staff are treated and the role of the unions, based upon a strategic choice model. Argues that there are, indeed, strong linkages between Brent’s upstream decision to become a “competitive market” authority and devolve decision making to business units and the dimensions of employment relations distinguished. However, the consequences of the upstream‐downstream relationship were not necessarily as intended by the Borough, with some of the results having highly dysfunctional consequences for the organization.