Ian Kessler is Reader in Employment Relations at the Saïd Business School and a Fellow of Green Templeton College, both at the University of Oxford. He is a leading expert in the UK on human resource management in the public sector, including the restructuring of the nursing workforce and organisational change within the context of health and social care reform.

Kessler is currently working with hospital trusts to explore and evaluate sustainable innovative practice in the use, management and development of nurse support roles, a very live issue in the National Health Service in the UK, as it seeks to modernise and control costs. The issue resonates across the public sector where assistants are an increasingly important part of the workforce and are taking on more responsibility. Typically, assistants  deliver services to the most vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly and individuals with learning and other disabilties, yet there are no specific training requirements and the role is unregulated.

Much of Kessler’s research is policy or practitioner driven and is designed to add value to the organisations he works with by examining the evidence base for their policy and practice decisions. He has worked with many local authorities and a number of NHS trusts to explore who these assistants are, what work they do and what impact they have on outcomes in relation to service users, the providers of professional support and others. These insights shape subsequent decisions designed to improve organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Kessler’s other main area of focus is on reward systems: the design and development of pay and grading structures, and the impact of performance-related pay.

With an MA and PhD in Industrial Relations from Warwick University, Kessler began his career as a research officer for the Institute of Professional Civil Servants before becoming a senior lecturer at Bristol and Thames Polytechnics. In 1990 he joined Templeton College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of Green Templeton College and Reader in Employment Relations at Saïd Business School. He has been a visiting lecturer at universities throughout Europe and at the Australian National University. He is a member of the Skills for Care Research and Development Committee, has advised the National Audit Office and the Police Federation and has sat on the Local Government Pay Commission. Link to CV.

Areas of expertise include:
-  Public sector employment relations
-  Human resource management including the psychological contract
   and reward systems
-  National Health Service, UK
-  Health care workers

Ian Kessler’s work centers around human resource management in the public services and specifically on issues relating to the employment relationship, pay and remuneration, development and recruitment. He is currently working with hospital trusts to explore and evaluate sustainable innovative practice in the use, management and development of nurse support roles, a very live issue in the NHS as it seeks to modernise and control costs. More broadly, his research has focused on how work is organised in the public services and how public servants manage in hospitals and schools and within other parts of local government, such as social care.

The role of assistants in the UK public services
Kessler has undertaken a number of research projects to investigate the new support roles being created to help modernise public services and control costs. These assistant roles are being created in hospitals, schools and local authorities and often involve dealing with the most vulnerable in society. The roles are becoming more important, but the individuals concerned are completely unregulated, with little formal training.
Link to www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/research/supportworkers/

Support Roles in Secondary Care: Innovation, Evaluation and Engagement; Service Delivery Organisation, Department of Health (SDO) (2011-13)
This project involves working with hospital trusts to explore and evaluate sustainable innovative practice in the use, management and development of nurse support roles. Kessler’s research is being used to support the development of a new induction programme for healthcare assistants (HCAs), the administration of medicines by assistant practitioners and the design of new work roles in various clinical areas including acute assessment units, operating theatres and stroke units.

The Nature and Consequences of Support Roles in Secondary Care; NHS Service and Delivery Organisation, Department of Health (2007–09)
This project focused specifically on HCAs, or nurse support workers. This was an intensive project working with four NHS hospital trusts to establish: who are the HCAs? what do they do? how do they impact outcomes?

This work has informed the national debate in the UK as to whether healthcare assistants should be regulated. It has also had considerable impact at an organisational level, where Kessler has drawn upon his research findings to work closely with a number of hospitals to improve local policies and practices as they relate to the management of the nursing workforce. For example, in one hospital trust, Kessler’s findings were used as the basis for developing a new patient handbook, a new nurse support worker forum and a new Emergency Department Technician role.

Skills for Care Evaluation of New Types of Worker Project (2006)
The previous UK Labour Government supported a programme called ‘New ways of working’ in social care. Involving 25 pilot sites, it evaluated the way a range of work roles had developed and their impact on improving care and support for vulnerable groups, including the elderly, children in need and those with physical, mental and learning disabilities. The research findings were published in a Skills for Care report and provided an evidence base for further government funding of this initiative. 

Assistant Roles and Changing Jobs Boundaries in the Public Services; Economic & Social Research Council (2003–05)
This research was the first to explore in detail who assistants are, what work they do and what impact they have on various stakeholders, such as service users and professional support staff.

Related publications:
Bach, S. Kessler, I, and Heron, P. (2012) Nursing a Grievance? The Role of Healthcare Assistants in a Modernized National Health Service, Gender, Work and Organization, 19:2, 205-224

Kessler, I. Heron, P. and Dopson, S (2010) The Nature and Consequences of Support Workers in Secondary Healthcare, Southampton: SDO

Kessler, I. and Bach, S. (2007) Evaluating the New Type of Worker Programme, Leeds: Skills for Care.

Kessler, I. and Heron, P. (2010) NHS Modernisation and the Five Types of HCAs, British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 4:7,318-20

Bach, S. Kessler, I. and Heron, P. (2008) Role Redesign in a Modernised NHS: the Case of Health Care Assistants, Human Resource Management Journal, 18:2

Bach, S. Kessler, I. and Heron, P. (2007) The Consequences of Assistant Roles in the Public Services, Human Relations, 60:9, 1267-1293

Kessler, I, Bach, S. and Heron, P. (2007) Comparing Assistants Roles in Education and Social Care, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18:9, 1648-1666

Kessler, I. Bach, S, and Heron, P. (2006) Understanding Assistant Roles in Social Care, Work Employment and Society, 20:4, 667-685

Public sector performance and rewards
Local Government Pay Commission 2005–2006
As a member of the Local Government Pay Commission, Kessler focused on the notion of equal pay for work of equal value, which meant supporting a single status pay and grading structure for white and blue collar workers. The Commission, comprised of representatives from local government, the Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and Kessler, was created to break the deadlock between employers and unions. Based on the Commission’s proposals on equal opportunities, equal pay and job evaluation as a way of speeding up the introduction of single status, a series of working committees have been established to take this work forward.

Related publication:
Kessler, I. and Dickens, L. (2008) Dispute Resolution and Public Service Modernisation: The Case of the Local Government Pay Commission, Journal of Industrial Relations 50:4, 612-29

The psychological contract
This area of Kessler’s work looks at the employee perspective on the employment relationships: how employees view their work and how they feel about it.

Related publications:
Coyle-Shapiro, J. Morrow, P. and Kessler, I. (2006) Serving Two Organizations: Exploring the Employment Relationship of Contracted Employees, Human Resource Management, 45:4, 561-583

Kessler, I., Undy, R., & Heron, P. (2004) Employee perspectives on communication and consultation: Findings from a cross-national survey, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15:3, 512-532

Coyle Shapiro, J., & Kessler, I. (2003) The employment relationship in the UK public sector: A psychological contract perspective, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 13:2, 213-230

Coyle Shapiro, J., & Kessler, I. (2002) Contingent and non-contingent working in local government: Contrasting psychological contracts. Public Administration, 80:1

Coyle Shapiro, J. and, Kessler, I. (2000) The Consequences of the Psychological Contract for the Employment Relationship, Journal of Management Studies, 37(7)

Kessler, I. Coyle Shapiro, J. and Purcell, J. (1999) Outsourcing and the employee perspective, Human Resource Management Journal, 9:2, 5-19

Kessler, I. and Coyle Shapiro, J. (1998) Restructuring the Employment Relationship in Surrey County Council, Employee Relations, 20:4, 1998

Employment relations in public services
Working with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Kessler has conducted studies looking at how local nursing representatives (shop stewards) functioned and how the RCN could support them. He has also investigated the very timely issue within the health service of whether national pay determination should be continued or replaced with the alternative of hospital level bargaining.

Related publications:
The Modernisation of Public Services and Employee Relations, 2012, Basingstoke: Palgrave Press (with S. Bach)

The Modernisation of the Nursing Workforce: Valuing Healthcare Assistants, 2012, Oxford: Oxford University Press (with P. Heron and S. Dopson)

Kessler, I., Heron, P., Dopson, S. (accepted and forthcoming) Indeterminacy and task allocation: The shape of support roles in healthcare, British Journal of Industrial Relations.

Kessler, I., Heron, P., Dopson, S. (accepted and forthcoming 2012) Opening the window: Managing death at the workplace, Human Relations.

Bach, S., Kessler, I, & Heron, P. (2011) Mapping the healthcare assistant role, Gender, Work and Organization, 19:2, 205-224

Kessler, I. & Bach, S. (2011) The citizen-consumer as industrial relations actor in social care, British Journal of Industrial Relation, 49:1, 80-102

Kessler, I. & Heron, P. (2010) NHS modernisation and the five types of HCAs, British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 4: 7, 318-20

Kessler, I., Heron, P., & Gagnon, S.  (2006) The fragmentation of pay determination in the British civil service: A union member perspective, Personnel Review. 35:1

Coyle Shapiro, J., Kessler, I., & Purcell, J. (2004) Exploring organizationally directed citizenship behaviour: Reciprocity or ‘It’s my Job’?, The Journal of Management Studies, 41: 1, 85-106

Kessler, I., & Heron, P. (2001) Steward organisation in a professional union: The case of the Royal College of Nursing, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 39:3, 367-391

Coyle Shapiro, J. ,Kessler, I. and Purcell, J. (2000) Employment Relations in Local Government, Personnel Review, 29:2

Coyle Shapiro, J. ,Kessler, I. and Purcell, J. (2000) New forms of employment relations in the public services, Industrial Relations Journal, 31:1

Kessler teaches a variety of courses for the MBA, Executive MBA and undergraduate economics and management programmes. His overall approach to teaching is to encourage students to discover and learn for themselves, gaining a deeper understanding of the topic in the process.

Ian Kessler teaches:
Theory and Practice of Negotiation: A popular elective run twice a year for MBAs and also for the EMBA programme, Kessler presents students with models and ideas and then helps them develop their negotiating skills through role plays and exercises, which are recorded on video.

Developing Effective Management: A core Organisational Behaviour course for the MBA, Kessler draws on case studies and covers issues such as group dynamics, culture, power, motivation and change management.

Employment Relations on the Undergraduate Economics and Management programme. In this basic human resource management course, Kessler covers the management of employment relations, the psychological contract between employer and employee, pay and motivation, and work organisation.

Kessler’s research is policy or practitioner driven and is designed to add value to the organisations he works with by examining the evidence base for their policies and practice decisions. These insights shape subsequent decisions designed to improve performance. Research typically involves a variety of methods, including interviews and focus groups with stakeholders who have an interest in the research topic and outcome.

Kessler’s work relating to healthcare assistants has informed the national debate as to whether assistants should be regulated. It has also had considerable impact at an organisational level, where Kessler has drawn upon his research findings to help a number of hospitals improve local policies and practices as they relate to the management of the nursing workforce. For example, in one hospital trust, Kessler’s findings were used as the basis for developing a new patient handbook, a new nurse support worker forum and a new Emergency Department Technician role. In his most recent project, Kessler’s research is being used to support the development of a new induction programme for healthcare assistants, the administration of medicines by assistant practitioners and the design of new work roles in various clinical areas including acute assessment units, operating theatres and stroke units. 

Kessler is a member of the Skills for Care Research and Development Committee and has also advised the:

  •  Audit Commission, contributing to reports on pay and performance, and
     the recruitment of public service workers
  •  Police Federation, examining competencies and pay
  •  Local Government Pay Commission, looking at issues of pay in local
     government, in particular equal pay for work of equal value
  •  Royal College of Nursing, conducting studies on how local nursing
     representatives functioned and how the RCN could support them
  •  National Audit Office from 2005-8

Academic engagement
Kessler is a member of the HR Management Journal Board and is Book Reviews Editor for the Human Resource Management Journal. He was previously an Editorial Board Member of Unions Today.

Kessler speaks on issues relating to workplace reform and management at a wide range of conferences including the Medical Sociology Conferences, the British Universities Industrial Relations Association Conferences, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics Conferences, the International Labour Process Conferences, the European Group for Public Administration Conferences and the European Industrial Relations Association Conferences.