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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Oliver Mallett
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
In this article, we explore the dynamic, indirect effects of employment regulation through a qualitative study of three medium-sized enterprises and their ongoing, everyday employment relationships. We analyse how employment regulation is enacted through employment relationships and how its effects are negotiated by owner-managers and employees. Whereas owner-manager prerogative is generally associated with informality in small and medium-sized enterprises, we identify instances of formal policies and procedures implemented in response to regulation being instrumental in exerting this prerogative. Further, employees reinforced this process by making judgements regarding the employment relationship in terms of their perceived, informal psychological contract rather than external regulatory obligations. This article extends understanding of dynamic, indirect regulatory effects in relation to the interplay of informality and formality within psychological contracts in medium-sized enterprises.
Author(s): Atkinson C, Mallett O, Wapshott R
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Small Business Journal
Year: 2016
Volume: 34
Issue: 1
Pages: 16-33
Print publication date: 01/02/2016
Online publication date: 17/07/2014
Acceptance date: 10/06/2014
Date deposited: 21/03/2016
ISSN (print): 0266-2426
ISSN (electronic): 1741-2870
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266242614541992
DOI: 10.1177/0266242614541992
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