Showing papers in "Work, Employment & Society in 1993"
TL;DR: In the 1980s, organizational restructuring was part of efforts by large and small firms alike to achieve functional, wage or numerical ''flexibility'' in their relationships with employee as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Organizational restructuring during the 1980s consisted in part of efforts by large and small firms alike to achieve functional, wage or numerical `flexibility' in their relationships with employee...
197 citations
TL;DR: One of the most influential books that has been published in recent years is the MIT study The Machine that Changed the World by Womack, Jones and Roos (1990) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: One of the most influential books that has been published in recent years is the MIT study The Machine that Changed the World by Womack, Jones and Roos (1990). The book combines detailed empirical ...
192 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the methods couples use to organize money and the extent to which particular methods involve inequalities between men and women, using data on over 1200 households, drawn from the UK National Health Service.
Abstract: This paper examines the methods couples use to organise money and the extent to which particular methods involve inequalities between men and women. It uses data on over 1200 households, drawn from...
156 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus mainly on women's lower rates of pay, neglecting the less visible inequalities in occupational welfare such as fringe benefits such as pay and benefits, such as health care.
Abstract: Research on gender inequality in employment has focused mainly on women's lower rates of pay, neglecting the less visible inequalities in occupational welfare such as fringe benefits. This paper ex...
86 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the importance of cultural specificities in the respective countries with respect to the gender contract on the main family and integration model to which individuals as well as institutions refer in their orientations and behaviour.
Abstract: The paper discusses how differences between European countries in the rate of part-time employment among women can be explained. In contrast to the usual explanations, the paper emphasises the importance of cultural specificities in the respective countries with respect to the gender contract on the main family and integration model to which individuals as well as institutions refer in their orientations and behaviour. The differences are explained socio-historically by the specificities in the process of modernisation when transforming from an agrarian to an industrial society, showing why in each country a different family and integration model developed. Questions as to the form in which industrialisation occurred, which societal class dominated the transformation process culturally, and whether there was a cultural continuity or discontinuity, are important for cross-national differences in the family model and for the labour market behaviour of women today.
85 citations
TL;DR: Despite the importance of occupational segregation as an area of investigation concerned with understanding women's employment status, pay levels, and promotional prospects during the last 20 years, the authors found that women were not concerned with occupational segregation.
Abstract: Despite the importance of occupational segregation as an area of investigation concerned with understanding women's employment status, pay levels, and promotional prospects during the last 20 years...
80 citations
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate recent arguments about changes in the domestic division of labour and identify different positions on the issue in the literature and deploys some evidence from a survey in Greater Manchester in 1990 to try to discriminate between competing views.
Abstract: This paper is concerned to evaluate recent arguments about changes in the domestic division of labour. To this end it identifies different positions on the issue in the literature and deploys some evidence from a survey in Greater Manchester in 1990 to try to discriminate between competing views. We report findings, regarding couple households, about the sex-stereotyping of domestic tasks and about differences in the domestic labour contributions of wives, husbands and young people living in their parental home. The key determinants of variation among households are isolated. We explore attitudes towards sharing and fairness. The results suggest that, with some qualifications, gender stereotyping of specific domestic tasks and unequal contributions between men and women cannot have shifted much in recent years.
66 citations
52 citations
TL;DR: Jowell, Witherspoon and Brook (1988) compare data from a 1965 study of working age women with their 1987 data on British social attitudes as discussed by the authors, finding that only a small minority of married women felt that being married disqualified a woman from working.
Abstract: The greatest social change over the past two decades has been the increase of women in the labour force. The 1951 Census showed that only 22% of married women were economically active (Hakim 1979) but by 1987, 68% of married women were active (Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1987). The total labour force has grown by nearly 3 million since 1971, and most of this increase (approximately 90%) has been among women (Department of Employment 1990). This has been achieved in conjunction with a change in attitudes towards working women. Jowell, Witherspoon and Brook (1988) compare data from a 1965 study of working age women (Hunt 1968) with their 1987 data on British social attitudes. Even in 1965 only a small minority of married women felt that being married disqualified a woman from working. So these attitudes have changed little. However, there has been a fairly radical change in beliefs about women with children. In 1965, 78% of women felt that mothers with children under five should stay at home. By 1980 that proportion had fallen to 62% and by 1987 it had dropped to only 45%. A closer examination of the results of such surveys does highlight some potential anomalies in the attitudes measured. For example, Martin and Roberts (1984), analysing data from the 1980 Women and Employment survey, found that only 25% of women held the view that a woman's place is in the home, yet 46% agreed that a husband's job is to earn money, a wife's job is to care for the home and family. Clearly, the view must be that work for a woman must be accommodated alongside domestic demands and responsibilities. Younger full-time working women and students were found to hold less traditional attitudes, but husbands were repeatedly found to be more traditional than their wives with regard to gender roles at home and work.
48 citations
TL;DR: The authors studied the forces acting on the sexual division of labour in an industrial bakery in Quebec and found that physical difficulties were as important as organisational and cultural barriers in maintaining the division of labor, while the age of women workers, union support and economic impetus were significant determinants of change.
Abstract: Jobs considered as `naturally' women's in one situation are assigned to men a few years or miles away. We ask how a sexual division of labour which is so fluid when regarded in a historical perspective appears so rigid when observed at a given time. One type of factor which is variable historically but very solid and material in a given workplace is the physical installation which represents a considerable economic investment. Ergonomists and sociologists together studied the forces acting on the sexual division of labour in an industrial bakery in Quebec. Using direct observations, videotaping, questionnaires and interviews, we examined the physical characteristics of men's and women's jobs, cultural representations, and union and management practices. We found that physical difficulties were as important as organisational and cultural barriers in maintaining the division of labour, while the age of women workers, union support and economic impetus were significant determinants of change.
TL;DR: In this article, the findings of a study on secretarial work in England, France and Germany were reported, finding that women's work is not necessarily constructed in the same way in different countries, and points to the role played by national institutions in shaping patterns and experiences of women's employment.
Abstract: This paper reports the findings of a study on secretarial work in England, France and Germany, which aimed to discover whether secretarial work can justly be described as a female `ghetto' occupation. Questionnaires were issued to secretaries working in matched management consultancy and publishing firms in the three countries; 185 questionnaires were received and 61 interviews were carried out with bosses, secretaries and personnel representatives. It was found that promotion out of secretarial work is extremely rare, which corroborates the `ghetto' thesis. However, secretarial job content, especially in France and Germany, was found to be wide-ranging and varied, which runs counter to that thesis. Overall, conflicting evidence was found across the three countries, which suggests that women's work is not necessarily constructed in the same way in different countries, and points to the role played by national institutions in shaping patterns and experiences of women's employment.
TL;DR: This article examined common sense notions of skill and craft in United States building construction workplaces, focusing on the informal designations of construction labour (the ''good craftsman,'' ''specialist,'' and ''jack-of-all-trades and master-ofnone') and formal designations (union and non-union labour, using data drawn from empirical investigation).
Abstract: Despite considerable refinement in scientific concepts of skill, common sense concepts of skill prevail in the workplace. This paper examines common sense notions of skill and craft in United States building construction workplaces, focusing on the informal designations of construction labour (the `good craftsman,' `specialist,' and `jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none') and formal designations of union and non-union labour, using data drawn from empirical investigation. This skill ideology is examined for its role in social closure as well as contradictory aspects that may undermine collective interests. Further research on ideological discourses justifying pay, power and privilege is called for.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that upward social mobility for the subordinate managerial professions creates a tendency for their knowledge bases to expand into a common ground associated with senior management practice, and the byproduct is a tendency to abandon the function-specific knowledges associated with subordinate status.
Abstract: The mutation of professional knowledge is a neglected issue in the sociology of the professions. Through an historical study of the qualification requirements of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), this paper argues that upward social mobility for the subordinate managerial professions creates a tendency for their knowledge bases to expand into a common ground associated with senior management practice. The by-product is a tendency to abandon the function-specific knowledges associated with subordinate status. From the point of view of capitalist control techniques, there is a consequential tendency towards stagnation in the immediate means of labour process control. For the professions themselves, upward mobility involves a number of dilemmas. Firstly it implies that their knowledges will tend to overlap in the area of corporate management. Thus the managerial credibility of a professional knowledge is in tension with its secure possession. Secondly the inherent credentialism of pro...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a novel way of analyzing work-history data, treating the job change as the unit of analysis rather than the individual or the job, instead of individual or job.
Abstract: The methodological component of this paper describes a novel way of analyzing work-history data, treating the job change as the unit of analysis rather than the individual or the job. After conside...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used British Labour Force Survey data for 1979-89 to model whether, after controlling for age, qualifications and other variables, the jobs availability was affected by a spell of unemployment.
Abstract: A spell of unemployment appears to restrict job choice. We use British Labour Force Survey data for 1979-89 to model whether, after controlling for age, qualifications and other variables, the jobs...
TL;DR: In this article, a series of case studies which explored in greater detail the differential levels of worker support for organisational and technical change recorded in the 1984 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS84) are presented.
Abstract: This paper provides evidence from a series of case studies which explored in greater detail the differential levels of worker support for organisational and technical change recorded in the 1984 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS84). The case studies were completed between 1989 and 1990 in fourteen manufacturing establishments drawn from the WIRS84 sample. Interviews were conducted with managers and union representatives as well as production workers. The results from the case studies are consistent with those reported in Workplace Industrial Relations and Technical Change (Daniel 1987) and provide further clues as to the workforce's perception and interpretation of each form of change.
TL;DR: In this paper, the focus of much sociological research has switched to women employed in the labour force and to the analysis of their occupational position and prospects, while relatively less attention has been given to women who are not in, nor seeking, paid employment.
Abstract: neglected. The focus of much sociological research has switched to women employed in the labour force and to the analysis of their occupational position and prospects. Relatively less attention has been given to women who are not in, nor seeking, paid employment. Yet women not in, nor seeking, paid employment are a substantial element of the adult population. Thirty per cent of the Women and Employment sample were not in paid work nor looking for work (Martin and Roberts 1984: 9); and between a third and a quarter of the female respondents aged between 20 and 60 fell into this category in each of the 1,000 persons sampled in each Economic and Social Research Council Change and Economic Life Initiative locality (Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Coventry, Rochdale, Swindon and Northampton). With the rising rates of employ ment participation by younger women and the earlier return to work of female workers following upon maternity, associated breaks in employ ment are increasingly seen as temporary interruptions in life-long em ployment trajectories in the labour market (Martin and Roberts 1984: chapter 13). Nonetheless, substantial proportions of women still with draw from the labour market when they have young children. Forty-five per cent of mothers with young children of age 4 or under in 1989, and 30% of mothers among couples with dependent children, were not in paid employment or currently seeking it (Breeze, Trevor and Wilmot 1991: 70, Table 3.21). Nor do all women currently absent from the labour market plan, anticipate or experience a return to paid employ ment; twenty-six per cent of women in their forties in 1989 were, for instance, not in paid employment (ibid: 71). Older women, and perhaps some younger ones, may still see their major role as domestic and not
TL;DR: The public's dead union parrot is at least still sitting on its perch, albeit unsteadily, while some argue that it is capable of uttering an appealing new message as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: What has become of the unions? Researchers and political commentators on British industrial relations have long since split into those who empha sise decline and those stressing continuity. There are further sub-divisions, naturally, into partisans of terminal decline, of bare organisational survival, of arrestable retreat, of piecemeal but effective adaptation, and even of 'business as normal'. The public's dead union parrot, then, as far as nearly all serious observers go, is at least still sitting on its perch, albeit unsteadily, while some argue that it is capable of uttering an appealing new message. All the books reviewed can be readily placed on the continuity-decline continuum, though none makes the strong case for terminal decline and the one coming closest to 'business as usual' seems weakest on its knowledge of everyday industrial relations in the 1990s. However, all would agree upon the following five central trends in British industrial relations since 1980. 1. Exclusion. Unions ceased to be involved, with employers and the government, in tri-partite ('corporatist') bargaining over the economy. They lost their advisory roles in official policy bodies, even 'neutral' ones concerned with training. In private industry, managers consulted unions less often before major decisions; in the public sector, long-standing joint
TL;DR: In this paper, three case studies of working-class women in a local labour market are used to explore these themes, and to argue for the importance of incorporating social and historical contexts into our analysis of economic processes.
Abstract: Life history methodology has undergone a major revival in the last two decades but its impact on economic theory has been minimal. The dominance of quantitative methodologies within economics has precluded the contribution which qualitative approaches, such as life history method, can make to questions of human agency and individual decision making. Three case studies of working-class women in a local labour market are used to explore these themes, and to argue for the importance of incorporating social and historical contexts into our analysis of economic processes.
TL;DR: Beynon et al. as discussed by the authors, The Enemy Without: Policing and Class Consciousness in the Miners' Strike, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990, £32.50, paper £10.00, xvii + 235 pp.
Abstract: Huw Beynon, Ray Hudson and David Sadler, A Tale of Two Industries: The Contraction of Coal and Steel in the North East of England, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991, £30.00, paper £9.99, xx+ 135 pp. Penny Green, The Enemy Without: Policing and Class Consciousness in the Miners' Strike, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990, £32.50, paper £10.99, xvii + 235 pp. David Waddington, Maggie Wykes and Chas Critcher, Split at the Seams? Com munity, Continuity and Change after the 1984—5 Coal Dispute, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991, £27.50, paper £10.99, viii + 215 pp. Dennis Warwick and Gary Littlejohn, Coal, Capital and Culture: A Sociological Analysis of Mining Communities in West Yorkshire, London, Routledge, 1992, £40.00, xv+ 220 pp.
TL;DR: The fourth volume of Work, Employment and Society as mentioned in this paper carried a review article by Robert Miles, entitled "Whatever happened to the Sociology of Migration?" The absence of any fully developed British interest in the topic is attributed, in part, to the dominance of a race relations paradigm within British sociology, and one of Miles' principal concerns in his 1990 article was to challenge the equation of 'immigrant' with 'coloured person'.
Abstract: The fourth volume of Work, Employment and Society, published in 1990, carried a review article by Robert Miles, entitled 'Whatever Happened to the Sociology of Migration?' The absence of any fully developed British interest in the topic is attributed, in part, to the dominance of a race relations paradigm within British sociology, and one of Miles' principal concerns in his 1990 article was to challenge the equation of 'immigrant' with 'coloured person'. He also argues for the need to uncover the many hidden migrations to Britain by white Europeans, and his own book, co-authored with Diana Kay and discussed below, is one contribution to
TL;DR: The strike called by all 14 unions at Air France in November 1992 was in protest against the nationalised company's strategic plan entailing three thousand job losses by the end of 1993, with more...
Abstract: The strike called by all 14 unions at Air France in November 1992 was in protest against the nationalised company's strategic plan entailing three thousand job losses by the end of 1993, with more ...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) (Employment Department Group/Office of population Censuses and Surveys 1990) is a recent re-design of earlier official taxonomies commissioned by the Employment Department Group (EDG) and the Office of Population and Census Statistics (OPCS).
Abstract: As researchers with interests in both the theory and practice of occupational structures, our response to the new official framework for occupational classification is puzzlement. The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) (Employment Department Group/Office of population Censuses and Surveys 1990) is a recent re-design of earlier official taxonomies commissioned by the Employment Department Group (EDG) and the Office of Population and Census Statistics (OPCS). Why can we not find in it several of the occupations with which both contemporary research and managerial policy is urgently concerned.