New Directions in Staff Consultation and Communication in the British Civil Service and Prison Service

Abstract

This article considers the changing nature of partnership, staff consultation, and communication practices in the British civil service and prison service. These changes began in the 1980s with the development of new public management and have continued under the Labour government’s rubric of public sector modernization. The article examines and reviews current attempts to create new forms of partnership at work, between public employers, trade unions, and individual employees, and other staff consultation and communication processes in response to modernization. The research is based on telephone interviews conducted in 2001 with senior managers and trade union officials in the civil service and prison service and supplementary documentary sources provided by the respondents.