The Line Managers' Role in Interpreting, Balancing and Managing 'Mixed Signals'

Abstract

Haggerty and Wright call for the re-conceptualisation of HR as signals that management send to employees rather than systems, practices, or bundles. They explain that the complexities of modern organisations means that HR professionals must operate at a conceptual level and also, at a more concrete practices level. We examine a large hospital and suggest that the management of this hospital provide a vast array of mixed signals. In the decentralised HR environment it is the growing role of the ward manager as a HR practitioner (whilst not a HR professional) to interpret, diffuse and disseminate signals to the ward level employees. This role leads to a proximal commitment of the staff to the ward level, and the ward manager – employee relationship often contains much clearer, stronger signals than apparent in the relationship employees have through the hospital's mixed signals.