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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Work & labour
This book combines academic research with practical guidelines in methods and techniques to supplement existing knowledge relating to organizational management in the era of digital acceleration. It offers a simple layout with concise but rich content presented in an engaging, accessible style and the authors' holistic approach is unique in the field. From a universalist perspective, the book examines and analyzes the development of, among others, Industry 4.0, artificial intelligence (AI), AI 2.0, AI systems and platforms, algorithmics, new paradigms of organization management, business ecosystems, data processing models in AI-based organizations and AI strategies in the global perspective. An additional strength of the book is its relevance and contemporary nature, featuring information, data, forecasts or scenarios reaching up to 2030. How does one build, step by step, an organization that will be based on artificial intelligence technology and gain measurable benefits from it, for instance, as a result of its involvement in the creation of the so-called mesh ecosystem? The answer to this and many other pertinent questions are provided in this book. This timely and important book will appeal to scholars and students across the fields of organizational management and innovation and technology management, as well as managers, educators, scientists, entrepreneurs, innovators and more.
Addresses a topic of global importance across all business schools and beyond Concise analysis of research impact, with critical insights into its challenges Contains distilled guidance and recommendations for administrators and policymakers in higher education settings
* Focuses on advancing collaborative, equitable and sustainable labor relations approaches and strategies in higher education, offering practical advice to those managing and leading. * Provides benchmark measures of success and best practices * Offers timely information on select employee groups where there is interest and activity, particularly with respect to the COVID 19 matters, which are going to have a dramatic impact on negotiations, particularly graduate students, adjunct, contingent and part-time employees.
Whether it's working for free in exchange for 'experience', enduring poor treatment in the name of being 'part of the family', or clocking serious overtime for a good cause, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy. Work Won't Love You Back examines how we all bought into this 'labour of love' myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Through the lives and experiences of various workers-from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete-this compelling book reveals how we've all been tricked into a new tyranny of work. Sarah Jaffe argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. Once freed, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure and satisfaction.
This book investigates women as business owners in emerging markets, documenting the structural difficulties they face as a result of their seeking access to global supply chains, and demonstrating the ways in which they are rewriting norms and challenging market assumptions. Although women own an estimated one-third of all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets, they are deeply underrepresented in global supply chains. In what the author refers to as the Women in Trade Deficit, women-owned enterprises earn less than 1% of all money spent on vendors by large corporations and governments worldwide. Drawing on an in-depth empirical investigation of a range of SMEs in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, this book investigates how women enter the supply chains of major global firms and multinational corporations and the challenges they face in doing so. Overall, the book argues that these business owners are rewriting norms and rearranging markets through networked enterprises to advance what the author calls prosocial industrialism. Whilst many studies focus on women at the micro-enterprise or laborer level, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of their role at the helm of SMEs that trade internationally. As such, it will be of interest to researchers across business studies, economics, sociology, and development studies, and to donor agencies, policymakers, and the global private sector.
This book offers practical insight into the changing ways in which organizations operate today. Building on a groundbreaking concept of teal organizations, the book illustrates the practicality of advocating a lack of hierarchy of predetermined positions and the introduction of roles that come with clear responsibilities constantly defined according to current needs. First described by Frederic Laloux, a teal organization is a ground-breaking approach to managing organizations that is being adopted around the world, which turns everyone into a leader. This new paradigm rests on the ideas of wholeness, evolutionary purpose, employee autonomy, and self-management based on peer relationships. Its main assumption is the empowerment of the employee resulting in a change in workplace relationships and a more soulful and purposeful work environment. Drawing on the authors' research across six different countries, it presents the evolution of self-management and entrepreneurial culture in the current age of Economy 4.0 and examines how the teal concept has been implemented around the world. It examines misconceptions surrounding this novel approach and diagnoses the practical problems connected with implementing it in the current uncertain times. It will be of value to researchers, academics, managers, and students in the fields of management and organizational studies.
This important new book brings together key researchers in Europe and the United States to discuss critical issues in the study of the workplace and to outline recent developments in the field. The collection is divided into two parts. Part I contains a number of detailed case studies that not only provide an insight into the issues central to workplace studies but also some of the problems involved in carrying out such research. Part II focuses on the interrelationship between workplace studies and the design of new technologies.
This book is an introduction to the history of work in general and of artisans in particular in Europe from 1300 to 1914. It focuses on many aspects of artisan culture, including economic and guild life, and discusses social, rebellious, ceremonial and leisure experience as well. Women, masters, journeymen, apprentices, and non-guild workers all receive substantial treatment, and the text is illuminated with fascinating illustrations.
In this long-awaited book, Ursula Huws brings together the results of decades of prescient research on labour market transformation to provide an authoritative overview of the impacts of technological, economic, social and political change on working life in the 21st century. Placing current upheavals in global labour markets firmly in their historical context, she debunks myths about the impacts of artificial intelligence on labour, pointing to the processes whereby new employment is created, as well as old jobs destroyed, while never underestimating the contradictory impacts of digitalisation on work organisation, resistance, adaption and innovation. This book is underpinned by a clear conceptual framework, that analyses the dynamics of the restructuring of capitalism and labour, taking full account of unpaid social reproductive work, and integrating a feminist analysis whilst also pointing to new forms of commodification that will shape the future. Labour in Contemporary Capitalism will be an invaluable resource and point of reference for students and scholars studying the sociology of labour, economic structures, technology, and globalisation.
For decades, Charles Lemert has been the leading voice in social theory. In Capitalism and its Uncertain Future he teams up with one of the most creative emerging social theorists, Kristin Plys, to examine how social theory imagines capitalism. This engaging and innovative book provides new perspectives on well known theorists from Adam Smith, and Frantz Fanon, to Gilles Deleuze, while also introducing readers to lesser known theorists such as Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Mohammad Ali El Hammi, and many more. The book examines theories of capitalism from four perspectives: macro-historical theories of the origins of capitalism; postcolonial theories of capitalism that situate capitalism as seen from the Global South; theories of capitalism from the perspective of labor; and prospective theories of capitalism's uncertain future. This provocative and ambitious, yet accessible, perspective on theories of capitalism will be of interest to anyone who wants to explore where we've been and where we're headed.
The Canadian population is aging, bringing with it an increasing number of social and economic challenges. With the aging of the workforce, the reconceptualization of older workers and retirement, the increasing share of women in the labour force, the elimination of mandatory retirement, the fluctuating economy, and the changes to the pension system, barriers to employment for older workers, such as ageism, need to be of central concern. Ageism at Work examines the subjective experiences of older workers in Canada and explores how they negotiate ageism and manage their interactions in the employment setting. Further, this book looks at the intersection between age and gender and the pervasiveness of gendered ageism in the labour market. Finally, this book examines employers' attitudes towards older workers quantitatively, while also exploring their first-hand accounts about them through qualitative inquiry. Understanding how ageism plays out in the labour market, how it intersects with sexism, and its consequences on a personal level are critical to moving the discussion on discrimination and human rights forward in Canada.
Concise expert guide to a key research topic Unique shortform premium literature review Essential reading for early career researchers and established scholars new to the topic
Originally published in 1983, the origin of this book is to be found in C. C. Harris's 'Changing conceptions of the relation between family and societal form' (in Scase: Industrial Society: Class, Cleavage and Control). In that article Harris attempted to relate traditional research on the family to recent developments in historical enquiry and Marxist scholarship. The aim of The Family and Industrial Society is to explain the character of the contemporary family by placing it in a wider historical and theoretical perspective. It is therefore directed at the undergraduate student for whom the 'sociology of the family', as a topic, has for too long been relatively unrelated to those contemporary developments in sociological thought and practice which inform other substantive areas of sociological work. The late C.C. Harris is perhaps best known for his best-selling introductory text The Family: An Introduction, first published in 1969. This new text was not, however, a straightforward replacement of an earlier book by a more up-to-date volume. Far too much had happened in sociology, in social studies and in family life itself, for a simple updating to make any sense. The Family was primarily a descriptive introduction, and was a presentation, albeit critical, of an orthodoxy. While this new book retains an introductory element based upon The Family's earlier chapters, the greater part of it is exploratory and assumes a higher level of sophistication and sociological understanding; it is also substantially longer. Dr Harris was singularly well qualified to write a volume of this kind. Not only had he conducted and was conducting empirical research into the family, but his wide theoretical interests rendered him uniquely well placed to contribute to the theoretical development of his field. Few sociologists shared his familiarity with both anthropological and historical work. He was thoroughly familiar with the now unfashionable structural functional approach of which he had always been critical, but was enthusiastic about the potentialities of contemporary developments. The result is a sophisticated text which combines instruction, criticism, interpretation and exploration in one volume; which familiarises the student with the fundamental work of the past (too often neglected) and explores exciting new developments for the future. It also includes the only general discussion of change in the British family since the last edition of Fletcher's The Family and Marriage in Britain.
For decades, Charles Lemert has been the leading voice in social theory. In Capitalism and its Uncertain Future he teams up with one of the most creative emerging social theorists, Kristin Plys, to examine how social theory imagines capitalism. This engaging and innovative book provides new perspectives on well known theorists from Adam Smith, and Frantz Fanon, to Gilles Deleuze, while also introducing readers to lesser known theorists such as Lucia Sanchez Saornil, Mohammad Ali El Hammi, and many more. The book examines theories of capitalism from four perspectives: macro-historical theories of the origins of capitalism; postcolonial theories of capitalism that situate capitalism as seen from the Global South; theories of capitalism from the perspective of labor; and prospective theories of capitalism's uncertain future. This provocative and ambitious, yet accessible, perspective on theories of capitalism will be of interest to anyone who wants to explore where we've been and where we're headed.
Opening Pathways, Building Bridges explores contemporary skilled migration and the brain drain using a bottom-up approach, based on a case study of Mexican scientists and engineers-or the Brains, as coined by the author-working in the UK. It provides an insight into how the phenomenon is shaped by the migrants' personal and professional experiences (from Mexico to the UK: 'opening pathways') and how their contributions could have valuable effects through diaspora policies (from the UK back to Mexico: 'building bridges'). The research is based on an analysis of 36 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with Mexicans graduated in STEM fields, who currently work in academia or the private sector in the UK, and the empirical findings are organised into three main topics: transnationalism, professional experience and collaboration at a distance. It is argued that a more balanced exchange between Mexico and the UK can be achieved by building more bridges with the diaspora through long-distance collaborative initiatives. For this to happen, it is important for policy-makers to understand the relevance of skilled individuals' choices and experiences, the value of their networks and communities of interest, the existing imbalances between developed and developing countries, and the challenges posed by scientific and professional collaborative projects. This book offers some ideas and policy recommendations arising from the research, in order to better understand-and face-the challenges of skilled migration in future years and, ultimately, mitigate the negative effects of the Brains' departure.
* Focuses on advancing collaborative, equitable and sustainable labor relations approaches and strategies in higher education, offering practical advice to those managing and leading. * Provides benchmark measures of success and best practices * Offers timely information on select employee groups where there is interest and activity, particularly with respect to the COVID 19 matters, which are going to have a dramatic impact on negotiations, particularly graduate students, adjunct, contingent and part-time employees.
How can we overcome the rapidly ageing postmodernist paradigm, which has become sterile orthodoxy in marketing? This book answers this crucial question using fresh philosophical tools developed by New Realism. It indicates the opportunities missed by marketing due to the pervasive postmodernist ideology and proposes a new and fruitful approach pivoting on the significance of reality to marketing analyses and models. Intensifying reference to reality will boost marketing research and practice, rather than impair them; conversely, neglecting such a reference will prevent marketing from realising its full potential, in several contexts. The aim of the book is foundational: its purpose is not a return to traditional realism but to break new ground and overcome theoretical obstacles in marketing and management by revising some of their assumptions and enriching their categories, thereby paving the way to fresh approaches and methodological innovations. In that sense, the book encourages theoretical innovation and experimentation and introduces new concepts, like invitation and attrition, which can find fruitful applications in marketing theory and practice. That is meant to be conductive to the solution of important difficulties and to the uncovering of new phenomena. The last chapter of the book applies the new approach to eight case studies from business contexts. This book will be of interest to philosophers interested in New Realism and to researchers, scholars and marketing professionals sensitive to the importance and fruitfulness of reference to reality, for their own purposes.
Trust is a pervasive catalyst of human and business relationships that has inspired interest in researchers and practitioners alike. It has been shown to enhance engagement, communication, organizational performance, and online activities. Despite its role to cultivate cooperation, knowledge-sharing, and innovation, trust through digital means or even trust in digital media has presented new opportunities and challenges in society. Examples include a wider and faster dissemination of trust-influencing messages, and richer options of digital cues that engage, disrupt, or even transform how trust is formulated. Despite that, trust helps people to live through risky and uncertain situations, and the many capabilities enabled on the digital platforms have made the formation and sustaining of trust very different compared to traditional means. Trust in today's digital environment plays an important role and is intertwined with concepts including reliability, quality, and privacy. This book aims to bring together the theory and practice of trust in the new digital era and will present theoretical and practical foundations. Trust is not given; we must work to build it, but it is a very fragile and intangible asset once built. It is easy to destroy and challenging to rebuild. Researchers, academics, and students in the fields of management, responsibility, and business ethics will gain knowledge on trust and related concepts, learn about the theoretical underpinnings of trust and how it sustains itself through digital dissemination, and explore empirically validated practice regarding trust and its related concepts.
Against the background of a growing tendency among state and local governments in the United States to vie against one another, spending public funds, and foregoing corporate tax revenues in order to attract private investment, this book offers an analysis of local economic development and business recruitment in the automotive industry. Asking why localities felt they could - and, more importantly, should - make deals with private capital in the first place, this book examines the shift toward entrepreneurial local governance from a global and historically informed perspective. Through a study of the 19 greenfield automotive assembly plants constructed in the United States during the neoliberal era, the author draws on interviews with corporate and government elites, to chart the connections between increasingly global competitive industry pressures and changing attitudes toward "incentivizing" private investment. Studying the development of an approach that has partially reoriented local governments away from managing localities and towards helping manage transnational capital flows by absorbing some of the increasing risk of long-term capital investment, Entrepreneurial Governance in the Neoliberal Era will appeal to scholars of sociology, politics, and urban studies with interests in globalization, the sociology of work and industry, the sociology of development, and neoliberal governance.
There is increasing academic interest in how Pierre Bourdieu's sociology can be applied to management and organization studies (MOS). In a context of increasing complexity faced by organizations and those who work in them due to globalization, neoliberalism, austerity, financial crisis, ecological issues, populism and developing technologies, there is untapped potential to use Bourdieu's theoretical inventions to arrive at greater understandings of how change, transition and crisis shape work, organizational life as well as relations between different organizational and sectorial fields. This book aims to take a specific focus on the relational nature of Bourdieu's work and its relevance for contemporary organizations. It provides empirically-grounded examples that showcase the explanatory strength of Bourdieus intellectual concepts, such as field, habitus, capital, hexis, hysteresis, symbolic power, symbolic violence, doxa, illusio as applied to the current challenges within MOS. Such challenges include issues resulting from globalization, neoliberalism, financial crisis, ecological crisis, populism and developing technologies, to name but a few; and added to those, a global pandemic. The twelve chapters presented in this book study a great variety and range of organizational phenomena that are organized into three thematic sections: 'Neoliberalism, fields and hysteresis', 'Global and national movements as sites for competition and symbolic domination' and the 'The emergence and transformation of professional fields'. The chapters show a concern with the challenges and opportunities such developments offer to MOS scholars and to managers and employees in public and private sector organizations. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of organizational studies, critical management studies, human resource management and sociology.
Presents how to create an effective entrepreneurship business plan Provides an overview of various aspects of entrepreneurship, function and the contemporary forms Offers a real-world understand of the entrepreneurial world with new analytics thinking and what computational skills are needed for the newer generation in handling big data challenges Encompasses the concepts which an entrepreneur must know before embarking on an entrepreneurial journey Includes inspirational case studies from "Change Leaders".
This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of the business, financial and economic aspects of emerging markets. Using case studies from India, Turkey, Bangladesh and Africa, it discusses themes such as megaprojects, infrastructure and sustainability; cross-border mergers and acquisitions; a new paradigm for educational markets; exports competitiveness; work engagement in service sector; mobile banking and crowdfunding; and venture capital flow into emerging economies, to focus on the trade, foreign investment, financial, and social progress of these economies. The chapters review the current state, learnings, changing scenarios, business practices, and financial and economic perspectives across emerging markets while examining progression, challenges and the way forward. With its rigorous approach and topical content, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of management studies, business management, financial management, business economics, international business, finance and marketing, development studies and economics. It will also interest policymakers and practitioners in the field.
Whilst only in the second decade of the 21st century, we have seen significant and fundamental change in the way we work, where we work, how we work and the conditions of work. The continued advancements of (smart) technology and artificial intelligence, globalisation and deregulation can provide a 'sleek' view of the world of work. This paradigm can deliver the opportunity to both control work and provide new challenges in this emerging virtual and global workplace with 24/7 connectivity, as the boundaries of the traditional organisation 'melt' away. Throughout the developed world the notions of work and employment are becoming increasingly separated and for some this will provide new opportunities in entrepreneurial and self-managed work. However, the alternate or 'bleak' perspectives is a world of work where globalisation and technology work together to eliminate or minimise employment, underpinning standardised employment with less and less stable or secure work, typified by the rise of the 'gig' economy and creating more extreme work, in terms of working hours, conditions and rewards. These aspects of work are likely to have a significant negative impact on the workforce in these environments. These transformations are creating renewed interest in how work and the workforce is organised and managed and its relationship to employment in a period when all predictions are that the pace of change will only accelerate.
The lack of women on boards has galvanised much public and policy interest, which has led to many countries introducing quotas for women on boards, or to concerted voluntary action. However the way that directors are appointed remains opaque and prone to the influence of gender. Using a social constructionist understanding of gender and a discourse analysis, Gender and Corporate Boards explores the board appointment process through the experiences of women and men seeking non-executive board roles. The book is unique in that it traces board-ready candidates, who have been vetted by an executive search firm, over an 18-month period. By taking a longitudinal and prospective view rather than retrospective and snapshot, it provides deep analysis of how the board appointment process is gendered. This volume privileges the voices of those who are seeking board roles to show how they make sense of an unpredictable and complex process. Gender and Corporate Boards first analyses how aspirant board candidates see themselves in relation to the market, through exploring their perceptions of the ideal board member and how they position themselves towards this ideal. Second, the book shows how candidates must leverage their networks to get board appointments, and that the process is gendered: women and men receive different benefits from their networks. Third, the book explores how the participants make sense of success and failure and how their justifications are also gendered. The book will be of interest to those seeking to understand dynamics of gender on boards as well as those interested in gender and leadership more broadly.
What is the social structure of Chinese society in the 21st century? How should China address the problem of migrant workers? How can China form a modern society? These key sociological issues are some of the topics this book covers. This book is a collection of the research articles and lectures that Dr. Lu Xueyi, the former Head of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has published since the 1980s. The author discusses the social structure, social stratification, social construction, and development of contemporary Chinese society. Arguing that the gap between economic and social development has become the major social issue facing modern China, the author advocates paying close attention to the country's social structure and the growth of the middle class. The book will be of interest for all scholars and students of Sociology and Chinese Studies. |
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