ABSTRACT

A recent report by Washington-based McKinsey Global Institute,

reported in Personnel Today (1 April 1999) suggests that the UK

economy suffers from apparent anomalies in competitiveness.

There is still a huge gap in productivity between the UK and

other industrial nations. Nevertheless, the long-term prognosis is

good. With flexible labour markets and open capital markets,

Britain has fewer constraints on growth than many other coun-

tries. Lack of awareness of global best practice was one of the

issues singled out as contributing to the problem. If Britain man-

ages to remedy the deficiency and close the productivity gap it has

a unique opportunity to leap ahead of competing nations in terms

of overall growth (Lewis, 1999). This chapter makes use of

research findings from two surveys carried out by Roffey Park

Management Institute: theManagement Agenda 1998/99, which is

completed by line and HR managers; and a survey of HR man-

agers carried out in 1999 in collaboration with Personnel Today.