
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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What Are Skill Levels and Skill Use? What Are Skill Levels and Skill Use?
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Changes in National Skill Levels Changes in National Skill Levels
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The Distinction between Skill Levels and Skill Use The Distinction between Skill Levels and Skill Use
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Outcomes for Employees Outcomes for Employees
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Theories of Skill and Business Strategies Theories of Skill and Business Strategies
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The HRM Approach The HRM Approach
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Institutional/Comparative Approaches Institutional/Comparative Approaches
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Moving beyond Direct Relationships between Strategy and Skill Moving beyond Direct Relationships between Strategy and Skill
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A More Complex Relationship? A More Complex Relationship?
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From Manufacturing to Services From Manufacturing to Services
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Variety within the Service Sector Variety within the Service Sector
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High Value, Low Skills? High Value, Low Skills?
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The Role of Managerial Choice The Role of Managerial Choice
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Concluding Remarks Concluding Remarks
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References References
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15 Business Strategies and Skills
Get accessDavid Ashton is Emeritus Professor at Leicester University and Honorary Professor at Cardiff University. He has published extensively on skill formation, HRM, and workforce development. His latest book with Johnny Sung is Skills in Business: The Role of Business Strategy, Sectoral Skills Development and Skills Policy, Sage, 2014. He has provided consultancy services to government departments within the United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, the European Union, and international agencies such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and World Bank.
Caroline Lloyd PhD is Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. Her research focuses on the relationships between product markets, labour markets, work organization, and skills. She has published widely on the issue of low-wage work, including co-editing Low-Wage Work in the UK (Russell Sage Foundation, 2008) and is currently working on a comparative study of work organization in the service sector.
Chris Warhurst PhD is Professor and Director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, a Trustee of the Tavistock Institute in London, and a Research Associate of SKOPE at Oxford University. He has published a number of books and articles on skills, including, with colleagues, The Skills that Matter (Palgrave, 2004) and Are Bad Jobs Inevitable? (Palgrave, 2012). He has been expert advisor on skills policy to the UK, Scottish, and Australian governments, and an international expert advisor to the OECD’s LEED programme.
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Published:06 March 2017
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Abstract
This chapter examines the link between business strategies and skill in the context of the the latter being regarded as key to economic growth and competitive advantage. A high-skilled workforce is viewed both as a driver of this approach and one of its outcomes. A number of countries have attempted to create more high-skilled jobs through raising the qualification levels of their workforces. The idea behind this supply-side intervention is that a high-skilled workforce will attract businesses that wish to or already do compete on quality and/or innovation or will encourage existing organisations to make better use of these skills and improve organisational performance. The problem is increasing evidence of growing levels of over-qualification amongst these workforces as too few high skilled jobs are created. Moreover many firms have remained successful operating with low skilled jobs competing on cost. Drawing on existing research, this chapter explores these developments and issues. It starts by making an important contextual distinction between skill levels and skill use, how they feature in firm business strategies, and their relevance to governments, employers and employees. It then presents the two key theories of skill and business strategies: the HRM Approach and the Institutional/Comparative Approaches. Questioning the determinism of these approaches, the chapter then seeks to move debate beyond assumptions of direct relationships between strategy and skill. The conclusion presents an alternative approach to developing the relationship between business strategies and skill that incorporates managerial agency.
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