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Full Contributors: Jill Rubery, School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK; Paul Edwards, University of Warwick, UK; Paul Marginson, University of Warwick, UK; Peter Armstrong, Sheffield University, UK; John Purcell, University of Bath, UK; John Allen, The Open University, UK; Nick Henry, University of Birmingham, UK; Tony Lane, University of Liverpool, UK; Bryn Jones, University of Bath, UK; Duncan Gallie, Nuffield College, Oxford, UK; Carole Thornley, Keele University, UK; Alice Lam, The University of Kent at Canterbury, UK; Jacqueline O'Reilly, WZB Berlin, Germany; Abigail Gregory, Irene Bruegel, Judy Wajcman, University of Warwick, UK.
During the last two decades there has been widespread evidence of
change in specific aspects of employing organizations, employment
and employment related institutions.
Changing Forms of Employment looks at the underlying trends which
generate pressures towards a fundamental reshaping of social
institutions in three ways: changes in the organization of
production, particularly those associated with the growth of
service dominated economics; the effects of technological change,
particularly those associated with Information Technology; the
erosion of the 'male breadwinner' (or single earner) model of
employment and household.
These trends have resulted in strains and ruptures in the
organization and regulation of employment, and related institutions
including trade unions, employers, and households. The task of the
next decade is to both reconstruct relationships, and to renew
institutions.
This book provides the first systematic assessment of trends in
inequality in job quality in Britain in recent decades. It assesses
the pattern of change drawing on the nationally representative
Skills and Employment Surveys (SES) carried out at regular
intervals from 1986 to 2012. These surveys collect data from
workers themselves thereby providing a unique picture of trends in
job quality. The book is concerned both with wage and non-wage
inequalities (focusing, in particular on skills, training, task
discretion, work intensity, organizational participation, and job
security), and how these inequalities relate to class, gender,
contract status, unionisation, and type of employer. Amid rising
wage inequality there has nevertheless been some improvement in the
relative job quality experienced by women, part-time employees, and
temporary workers. Yet the book reveals the remarkable persistence
of major inequalities in the working conditions of other categories
of employee across periods of both economic boom and crisis.
Beginning with a theoretical overview, before describing the main
data series, this book examines how job quality differs between
groups and across time.
The quality of working life has been central to the sociological
agenda for several decades, and has also been increasingly salient
as a policy issue, and for companies. This book breaks new ground
in the study of the quality of work by providing the first rigorous
comparative assessment of the way it has been affected by the
economic crisis. It examines the implications of the crisis on
developments in skills and training, employees' control over their
jobs, and the pressure of work and job security. It also assesses
how changing experiences at work affect people's lives outside of
work: the risks of work-life conflict, the motivation to work,
personal well-being, and attitudes towards society. The book draws
on a rich new source of evidence-the European Social Survey-to
provide a comparative view over the period 2004 to 2010. The survey
provides evidence for countries across the different regions of
Europe and allows for a detailed assessment of the view that
institutional differences between European societies-in terms of
styles of management, social partnership practices, and government
policies-lead to very different levels of work quality and
different experiences of the crisis. This comparative aspect will
thus forward our understanding of how institutional differences
between European societies affect work experiences and their
implications for non-work life.
This text brings together research into the determinants of
marginalization risks for the unemployed and research into social
policies for combating marginalization. It examines the major
controversies about how far entrapment in unemployment is due to
resource constraints, motivational problems or skill deficiency. It
examines the forms that new policies have taken, the way they vary
between EU countries and the effects they have had on the life
experiences of the unemployed. Its central concern is how far the
policies developed in the 1990s, in particular the spread of
activation and welfare-to-work policies, address the major sources
of vulnerability of the unemployed. The chapters draw on the
results of a number of major comparative research programmes funded
by the European Commission. These provide for the first time
rigorous comparative data across a range of different countries.
They bring together the insights of researchers from different
disciplines: economists, jurists, social-psychologists and social
policy analysts.
This book breaks new ground by bringing together recent research
into the determinants of marginalization risks for the unemployed
and research into new social policies for combating
marginalization. It examines the major controversies about how far
entrapment in unemployment is due to resource constraints,
motivational problems, or skill deficiency. It examines the forms
that new policies have taken, the way they vary between EU
countries, and the effects they have had on the life experiences of
the unemployed. Its central concern is how far the new policies
developed in the 1990s, in particular the spread of activation and
welfare-to-work policies, address the major sources of
vulnerability of the unemployed.
The chapters draw on the results of a number of major comparative
research programmes funded by the European Commission. These
provide for the first time rigorous comparative data across a range
of different countries. They bring together the insights of
researchers from different disciplines: economists, jurists,
social-psychologists, and social policy analysts.
The book shows that while the new policy initiatives helped to
mitigate the severity of the experience of unemployment, they were
far from providing an adequate response to the underlying factors
that put people at risk of marginalization. These were primarily
due to skill deficiencies that were rooted in disadvantages that
people experienced when they were young and in the persisting
inequalities in training opportunities during people's work
careers. The case is made for a major new policy initiative to
improve the quality of working life of the low-skilled and their
opportunities for skill development.
Over the last twenty years, most countries have experienced periods of high unemployment. While in all countries, this had led to increased poverty and personal distress, the severity of the effects of unemployment have been very different from one society to another. This book provides for the first time clear evidence about the way in which the nature of the welfare arrangements in a country, together with its family and friendship patterns, can affect the risk that unemployment leads to social exclusion.
The is the first major study to examine the implications of
different welfare regimes for the experience of unemployment in
Europe. It addresses three central questions. How far do such
regimes protect unemployed people from poverty and financial
hardship? Do they reduce or accentuate the tendencies for
progressive marginalization from employment that may arise from
motivational change, skill loss or the growth of discriminatory
barriers? Finally, to what extent do they affect the social
integration of unemployed people, in particular with respect to
their social networks and psychological well-being? The book is
based on a major cross-cultural research programme funded by the
European Union. In addition to systematic comparison of national
data, it uses a new important data source - the European Community
Household Panel - which provides directly comparable information
for most of the EU countries. The study shows that institutional
and cultural differences have vital implications for the experience
of unemployment. While welfare policies affect in an important way
the pervasiveness of poverty, it is above all the patterns of
family structure and the culture of sociability in a society that
affect vulnerability to social isolation. The book concludes by
developing a new perspective for understanding the risk of social
exclusion.
This study presents an empirical analysis of the changes in British
work experiences and employment relationships between the 1980s and
1990s. Drawing on the Employment in Britain survey it examines the
impact of new technologies, the emergence of new management
policies, the changing forms of employment contract, and the growth
of job insecurity on people's experience of employment. The authors
focus on the implications these developments have for the ways in
which skills and work tasks have been changing, the nature of
control at work, the degree of participation in decision-making,
and the flexibility demanded at work. They assess whether there has
been a tendency towards either a polarization or convergence of
employment experiences between men and women, and between
occupational classes. They offer fresh insight into how the
changing quality of work in recent years has affected employee's
involvement in their jobs and organizations, the stress they
experience at work, and the propensity for absenteeism and staff
turnover.
During the 1980's, British trade unionism confronted its greatest
challenge, and suffered its greatest reverses, since the inter-war
period. After a decade of rapid growth, the unions experienced a
steep decline in membership, and a virtual marginalization in
national political affairs. By 1990, a united, self-confident,
social movement as well as a powerful industrial bargainer, often
seemed more closely akin to a demoralized collection of special
interest groupings. This book addresses a number of fundamental
questions raised by the record of these years. It examines the
reasons for membership loss and the implications for trade union
influence in the workplace. It looks at the steps the unions took
in reaction to the membership problem and the difficulties they
confronted doing so. It also looks at whether this period can be
seen as making a fundamental break with the past, resulting in
irretrievable loss by British trade unionism of its former
important position in British society and the British workplace, or
whether the past decade has been but a temporary recession and the
future can still see revived movement. This book is intended for
scholars, postgraduates, and 3rd year
This book, first published in 1983, examines in depth the nature
and sources of class radicalism in France and Britain and takes
issue with some of the major theories of class consciousness and
class action. Drawing on data both from detailed case studies and
from wider national surveys, it shows that the conflict of class
interests within capitalist societies can lead to sharply diverging
attitudes to class inequality. It argues that the explanation of
such differences cannot be found in some 'general' law of the
evolution of social conflict in capitalist society. It must be
sought in the profound institutional differences that exist between
the two societies. In particular the study argues for a
reassessment of the importance of the experience of war and of the
way in which the business and political elite handled the social
crises generated by war, in accounting for the long-term structural
divergence of capitalist societies.
The quality of working life has been central to the sociological
agenda for several decades, and has also been increasingly salient
as a policy issue, and for companies. This book breaks new ground
in the study of the quality of work by providing the first rigorous
comparative assessment of the way it has been affected by the
economic crisis. It examines the implications of the crisis on
developments in skills and training, employees' control over their
jobs, and the pressure of work and job security. It also assesses
how changing experiences at work affect people's lives outside of
work: the risks of work-life conflict, the motivation to work,
personal well-being, and attitudes towards society. The book draws
on a rich new source of evidence-the European Social Survey-to
provide a comparative view over the period 2004 to 2010. The survey
provides evidence for countries across the different regions of
Europe and allows for a detailed assessment of the view that
institutional differences between European societies-in terms of
styles of management, social partnership practices, and government
policies-lead to very different levels of work quality and
different experiences of the crisis. This comparative aspect will
thus forward our understanding of how institutional differences
between European societies affect work experiences and their
implications for non-work life.
The book makes a major new contribution to the sociology of
employment by comparing the quality of working life in European
societies with very different institutional systems--France,
Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Sweden. It focuses in particular
on skills and skill development, opportunities for training, the
scope for initiative in work, the difficulty of combining work and
family life, and the security of employment.
Drawing on a range of nationally representative surveys, it reveals
striking differences in the quality of work in different European
countries. It also provides for the first time rigorous comparative
evidence on the experiences of different types of employee and an
assessment of whether there has been a trend over time to greater
polarization between a core workforce of relatively privileged
employees and a peripheral workforce suffering from cumulative
disadvantage. It explores the relevance of three influential
theoretical perspectives, focussing respectively on the common
dynamics of capitalist societies, differences in production regimes
between capitalist societies, and differences in the institutional
systems of employment regulation. It argues that it is the third of
these--an 'employment regime' perspective--that provides the most
convincing account of the factors that affect the quality of work
in capitalist societies.
The findings underline the importance of differences in national
policies for people's experiences of work and point to the need for
a renewal at European level of initiatives for improving the
quality of work.
The single most important change in the British labour market over the last two decacdes has been the re-emergence of mass unemployment. This study focuses on six areas: Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Rochdale, Coventry, Northampton, and Swindon, and investigates the effect of being unemployed on individuals' attitudes to work, their social relationships, and their psychological health. It breaks entirely new ground, using large-scale surveys that allow direct comparison with people in employment and taking into account a wide range of variables. It will become a standard work of reference on the subject.
The single most important change in the British labour market over
the last two decacdes has been the re-emergence of mass
unemployment. This study focuses on six areas: Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy,
Rochdale, Coventry, Northampton, and Swindon, and investigates the
effect of being unemployed on individuals' attitudes to work, their
social relationships, and their psychological health. It covers the
ground, using large-scale surveys that allow direct comparison with
people in employment and taking into account a wide range of
variables.
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