Strategy, flexibility and human resource management: a study of the outsourcing of maintenance in UK petrochemicals

Abstract

The thesis develops themes around eight published works and as such the thesis encompasses a coherent caucus of work within the petrochemicals industry in the UK. The thesis provides evidence which confirms the widespread use of a strategy of flexibility but challenges the conception of strategy as a deliberate formal plan, and the rational economism of Transaction Cost Economics. It also casts doubt on the existence of distinct strategic levels. The multinationals in the industry have been exposed as not using a sophisticated rationale to underpin their strategy, relying instead on institutional ideologies or mimetic isomorphism. The thesis also challenges exiting conceptions of the role of Human Resources in the pursuit of strategy by showing the importance of the generic HR function in line management as opposed to an HR department.