Changing Employment Patterns Research Articles

A grounded theory of women's career under-achievement in large UK construction companies

In response to impending skills shortages and changing employment patterns, the UK construction industry recently has made considerable efforts to attract more women to its professions. However, despite their increasing representation, there are indications that women experience difficulties in developing their careers within the industry. This research investigated the careers of men and women working for large construction companies, in order to establish the gender determined influences on women's career progression. A primarily qualitative methodology was employed for the research, in which career profiles were developed through ethnographic interviews with 41 matched pairs of male and female employees. This allowed the gender specific determinants of careers to be established across a range of different organizations, and from informants at different vocational and life-cycle stages. The analysis resulted in the formulation of a set of eight interrelated theoretical models, from which a theory of women's career development was constructed. The theory reflects the belief that the construction workplace is a competitive and conflictual environment, where women are overtly and covertly discriminated against by men, who use structural systems to undermine their participation. The women interviewed were found to have dealt with these barriers in a way which perpetuated existing work cultures. If reflected throughout the industry, this would suggest the existence of a self-fulfilling cycle of women's continued under-achievement. The paper puts forward the radical proposition that women should not be attracted to the industry unless steps are taken to moderate its exclusionary and discriminatory culture.

Perceptions of Training Needs of Career Guidance Personnel before and after a University Program.

Economic and workplace change, changing patterns of employment and increasing demands on employees within organisations, are all factors contributing to the growing demand for career guidance and development services. Recent research in America has demonstrated both the lack of career guidance services and appropriate training for career practitioners. In addition, the research indicates that dissatisfaction with the existing training available for career practitioners worsens the problem. This article focuses on this problem and explores the changes in the nature of work that are impacting on the demand for career guidance practitioners. The author investigates aspects of the training dilemma and describes the outcomes of one particular program of career guidance training at Master’s level at an Australian university.

"Proletarianizing" Lives: Researching Careers

One definition of the of the is that the professional loses over policy and value objectives in his or her work (Derber 1982b:17). Proletarianization is normally explained as resulting from workplace labor process control (ibid., p. 31). A compatible, but quite different, explanation relates proletarianization to changes in the social practices and ideological orientations of professional careers. In this research note, I present this different explanation and suggest avenues for empirical research. Changing labor process control subjects not to the traditional forms of industrial regimentation and constraint but to a system of control that allows for relative worker autonomy (ibid., p. 31). In short, are becoming like Burawoy's piece-rate workers, who exercise power and (Burawoy 1979:94), but do so in a process defines both the conditions of choice and the limits of [their] managerial discretion (ibid., p. 199). These changes are said to result from changing employment patterns, evidenced by declining rates of self-employment among and growing rates of employment in heteronomous organizations (Derber 1982a:3; Oppenheimer 1973). The difficulty with this explanation is that have always been sellers of labor power; Cravath never gave it away for free. As Freidson famously showed, employment, not self-employment, is the characteristic position of professionals (Freidson 1986:xii; chap. 6). As he emphasized, never worked as they please (ibid., p. 144). Furthermore, in many situations, clients have greater claims to control than professional practices have institutionalized (Rosenthal 1974; Sarat & Felstiner 1995). Changing labor process controls may bridge this gap, without resuiting in deprofessionalization, let alone proletarianization. Changing employment patterns, however, also have important effects on the life chances of professionals. Along with changing social and cultural norms, employment opportunities may be rearranging the structure and aspirations of professional careers (cf. Calhoun 1965). Changing careers may help explain how exercise or do not exercise over policy and value objectives (Derber 1982b:17) in their work. Consider two associates, one at a large corporate law firm and one at an office of a bureaucratized mass-market seller of legal services. Both work long hours, do not select the clients they serve, have little control over what they work on, must have their work approved by a hierarchy of colleagues, and often fill in the blanks in documents largely produced by others. Both can be described as cogs in a large division of labor, within both the firm and society. Although their compensation and status differ, neither earns under the poverty level. They both work at firms organized by the commercialization of the legal Both associates are subject to labor process control. Both are hard-working professionals. Yet there is a significant difference, is there not? One difference is in their careers. The corporate law firm associate can dream of a career that leads to a professional ideal, symbolized by an understanding of partnership. Promotion for the other, if possible, is only into management ranks, not to a different relation of control over legal work. For this reason, this associate might be described as deprofessionalized. Under changed market and cultural conditions, lawyers may be losing their ability to have careers of certain kinds, which is not only or primarily related to heteronomous employment. At private law firms there are different tiers of associates and part ners. Consider lawyers who work at a private law firm on a renew able yearly contract, with no expectation of advancement in the firm. If they stay with this position, they will never progress through the sequence of stages by which one matures within the profession. …

Redefining work: Setting directions for the future

This paper puts the case that “Employment levels are culturally determined”. Changing employment patterns including shrinking work years, increased participation of women in the workforce, overall increases in workforce participation, a decline in blue collar work, increasing differentiation and individualisation to work undertaken by knowledge workers, regional differences in employment and unemployment, and the loss of work security are cited as examples. The outcome of these shifting cultural patterns challenges individual ‘s ability to achieve a satisfying life by changing time use values and undermining personal identities derived from work roles. Discussion of the resultant economic and social issues which acknowledges the historical and human context is called for. Rebalancing society will require involvement of all groups in society, not just government.

Gender cultures and the gender arrangement—a theoretical framework for cross‐national gender research

How can the marked national differences in the rates of women's participation in the labour market, and in their involvement in part‐time work, be explained? While institutional conditions, for example childcare policy, can have a contextual importance, these are not adequate for understanding women's different orientations and practices in combining paid and unpaid work. Rather, we must examine the idea that the social practice of women is heavily influenced by predominant norms and values about the ‘correct’ gender division of labour. Culture must therefore be included in any explanation of cross‐national differences in employment patterns. This is the task of this paper. After briefly examining the limitations of pre‐existing explanations, the paper goes on to present an alternative theorization which conceptualizes the links between gendered natures, structures and action. This new theoretical approach is then applied to a comparative analysis of changing employment patterns in Finland, Germany and The Metherlands.

Assessing the Regulationist View of History: An Analysis of Employment Change in America, 1940–1989

This research empirically investigates the pattern of employment change within the United States between 1940 and 1989 using an analysis of variance model to partition employment change into that accounted for by (1) national trends in employment, (2) place-independent, sector-specific restructuring of employment, (3) place-specific, sector-independent shifts of employment, and (4) local employment conditions. Because we are concerned with a national system of capitalism, we use regulation theory to inform our research. According to regulation theory, capitalism is marked by periodic shifts in the regime of accumulation, or periods of crisis, interspersed with periods of relative stability. Our expectation is that periods of economic crisis will be marked by high levels of sector-specific restructuring in employment, whereas spatial shifts in employment induced by diffusion and everyday competition among capitalists occur on a continuous basis. Results of the analysis indicate that, not surprisingly, significant restructuring in employment has taken place. In particular, there has been a continual increase in restructuring from the 1940s to the 1980s. A series of annual change models reveals that within this gradual increase, individual years in the 1940s and 1980s appear to play particularly important roles.

In Defence of Second-best Theory: State, Class and Capital in Social Policy

The sociology of post-fordism has facilitated the development of a new welfarism which suggests that economic globalisation, labour market flexibility, more complex patterns of family life and the dissolution of traditional class structures require a new welfare settlement. Since full employment, redistribution and expensive universal services are no longer seen as feasible, the new welfare can only justify social spending as investment in human capital and as the enhancement of individual opportunities. Welfare states are all driven in the same direction by the imperatives of international competition.A review of available evidence indicates that the progress of post-fordist social change is partial. Inequalities in life-chances have grown wider. Changes in patterns of employment and new legislation weaken the working class. The ruling class is well aware of its interests. Increases in productivity at a time when investment is not rising, the decline in union membership and militancy and the intensification of work coupled with a policy stance by both main parties that supports lower taxes, a shift in the tax burden downwards and a decline in state intervention all indicate that capital is in the ascendant in the UK. Comparative work shows that the policies pursued under different regimes can make a difference to welfare outcomes despite the increased stringency of competition. The traditional agenda of social policy – class inequality, the strength of capital and the policy programme of the nation-state – merits particular attention in Britain in the 1990s.

The Dichotomy between the Concept of Professionalism and the Reality of Sexism in Teaching

Gender is not difference, gender is hierarchy . . . the idea of gender difference helps keep make dominance in place. (MacKinnon, 1987) American culture is accustomed to men exerting control over females. Perceptions of gender affecting the division of labor are deeply rooted in the culture, making progress toward genuine gender equality painstakingly slow. Discussions of the glass ceiling in various professions, industries, and organizations reinforce patterns of gender stratification that have persisted across occupations. Schools and teaching, like other social institutions and professions, cannot be free of the ideology that has shaped them for decades. Barzun (1944) wrote, To be sure, there is an age-old prejudice against teaching (p. 10), within the same work in which he devoted a chapter to the subjection of women. The combination of the age-old prejudice against teaching with the subjection of women is ample reason to consider the status of female teachers in the United States and the professional status of the female -dominated teaching profession. Such an analysis must avoid stereotyping and an overreliance upon anecdotal experiences. Gollnick (1992) noted that the categorization of any individual or any group of individuals by a single microcultural membership and the expectation of certain behaviors is inappropriate and often incorrect. Given even a low-level understanding of the complexity and diversity of the issue of gender inequality, an analysis of gender inequality and the correlate analysis of a category as large and diverse as women in the teaching profession is a hazardous undertaking. Minow (1990) cautioned of the problems inherent in both considering and ignoring difference when she wrote of the dilemma of difference. She described the danger of stigma that ignoring and focusing on given differences can recreate: Decisions about education, employment, benefits, and other opportunities in society should not turn on an individuals' ethnicity, disability, race, gender, religion, or membership in any other group about which some have deprecating or hostile attitudes. Yet refusing to acknowledge these differences may make them continue to matter in a world constructed with some groups, but not others, in mind. The problems of inequality can be exacerbated both by treating members of minority groups the same as members of the majority and by treating the two groups differently (p. 20). The now decades-old `revolution' in women's status remains one of the more compelling tales of recent change affecting U.S. society (Brines, 1994, p. 652). Brines and others believe the revolution is far from over. Despite substantial change in employment patterns and attitudes, division of labor based largely upon gender exists. This division persists despite John Stuart Mill's recognition of its inappropriateness over 100 years ago: There are no grounds for supposing that women are constitutionally so different from men as to be unsuited for broadly the same education and the same range of occupations; such natural differences as exist are complementary to, even corrective of, the aptitudes of men; other differences are due to social conditioning by which their nature has been `greatly distorted and disguised' (J. S. Mill, in Garforth, 1980, p. 132). In a society in which women are not seen as valuable members of the workforce, reconstruction will be slow and controversial. The social construction of gender--patterns of childrearing; messages about independence, dominance, competence, sexuality, intelligence--is deeply embedded in the culture. Ideas about gender are intricately connected with the core culture's values, which are largely the result of the greater society's servitude to the interests of the powerful in society (Walum, 1977). Work to overcome the level of acceptance of the social construction of gender will require individual activism and governmental vigilance. …

Australian Newtown Revisited: Global Restructuring and Local Difference

Abstract A journey back to Newtown (a pseudonym), the site of one of Australia's earliest sociological studies of suburban life, provides a valuable opportunity to examine continuity and change in employment patterns and the resultant economic fortunes of the working class families that live there. Twenty-five years after the original study, changes to social life that are identified in the paper as of key importance for life in Newtown include: a demise of local manufacturing industry and employment; an occupational de-skilling of the work force; high levels of unemployment; and the growth of female participation in the labour force in part-time work, though a reduction in female full-time employment. How such changes, under the impetus of global economic restructuring, have become manifest in Newtown is traced with reference to the roles of the state and capital in the suburb's birth and subsequent development. Understanding such roles is central to explaining the distinct and increased disadvantage of ...

Family obligations and social policy: The case of child support

Abstract The UK Child Support legislation has been very controversial. This article considers whether this reflects mainly problems with implementation or whether there are more fundamental problems with the principle that separated parents are always, and in all circumstances, financially liable for the support of their children. Comparisons with Australia highlight particular problems with the way the policy was put into practice in Britain. But it is here argued that changing employment and family patterns create other problems for this legislation, much more difficult to resolve. The article also places child support in the wider context of the way in which social policies define and enforce particular definitions of family obligations and explores what this might tell us about the nature of the relationship between attitudes, behaviour and policy.

Contemporary Issues in the Ongoing Reform of the Australian Retirement Income System

AbstractThe development of a sound and sustainable retirement income system is currently an important social, political and economic issue around the world as many countries face a range of pressures including an ageing population, low national saving levels, maturing Social Security programs and changing employment patterns. As a result of these pressures, the World Bank has advocated a three‐pillar system which is broadly reflected in the current Australian arrangements. However, further reform is planned in Australia. The 1995–96 Federal Budget announced a proposal to introduce compulsory minimum employee contributions of 3 per cent of earnings, together with a matching income‐tested government contribution. The proposal for government contributions is analysed in this article and an alternative approach is proposed. The important related issues of the taxation of superannuation and the integration between superannuation and the government‐funded age pension are also reviewed. As a result, recommendations for change are made to encourage a stable long‐term structure that provides retirement incomes in a simple, affordable and fair manner.

Recession and the Hotel and Catering Industry: A Regional Perspective

The sub-regional pattern of employment change from 1989 to 1991 is examined for the hotel and catering industry in Great Britain. A complex spatial pattern is identified. The effects of tourism, leisure, local economic and population change, and sub-regional economic specialisation on employment levels in hotel and catering are considered. Further analysis is undertaken of the geography of employment change in the sub-sectors of eating places, take-aways, pubs, clubs, hotels, canteens and other tourist accommodation.

Women's work and women's worth: the leisure implications of women's changing employment patterns

This paper reviews the interrelationship of work and leisure in British women's lives. It focuses in particular on the practical and ideological significance of changes in women's patterns of labour market involvement. While women's gross employment levels have risen substantially over the last three decades, the scale and pattern of female employment is strongly differentiated across social groups. Most women's work involvement continues to be primarily shaped by the requirements of their family role, and to be strongly differentiated from male employment patterns. Among women with higher status jobs, however, a contrasting pattern is emerging. This paper considers whether the ‘advances’ of professional women are indicative of a general tide of change which can be expected to permeate to other sectors of the female population, and highlights structural factors in both work and family domains which are likely to inhibit this. It concludes that current trends in women's employment patterns both represent i...

The US and UK Labour Markets for New Graduates

The USA has a long history of relatively open access to post-secondary education and in the past has experienced rapid rises in the supply of graduates. In the UK, the higher education system has expanded rapidly in the past five years, and the number of graduates leaving higher education has increased by over 50% in the past decade. At the same time, changing patterns of employment and skills needs perceptions in employing organizations are fundamentally challenging traditional recruitment patterns in both the USA and the UK. The author compares the two countries in this context, drawing some insights, from the longer experience of the USA, into what may occur in the UK and other countries with rapidly expanding higher education systems.

Changing Employment Systems in China: Some Evidence from the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

A stated objective of the reform of employment systems promulgated by the government in China has been to instil some `free labour market mechanisms' in contrast to the pre-existing highly centralised administered `allocation systems'. This paper seeks to examine the changing patterns of employment against the background of labour reforms in China since 1979. Drawing on case studies conducted in five enterprises in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it is argued that, despite the evident phenomenal geographical mobility of labour, it appears that the labour force remains very stratified. It is further argued that, paradoxically, the government's institutional barriers appear to be a major cause of such stratification.

Coping with the Dual-Income Lifestyle

An increasing number of married women have entered the work force during the last several decades (Blau & Ferber, 1986). One consequence of this change in employment patterns is that many married women and men combine substantial work and family obligations. Role overload and conflict resulting from increased roles and incongruent role expectations have been identified as common concerns among dual-income couples (Guelzow, Bird, & Koball, 1991). Role overload exists when the number of roles a person occupies cannot be handled adequately or comfortably because of finite amounts of time and energy (Burr, Leigh, Day, & Constantine, 1979; Seiber, 1974). Pleck, Staines, and Lang (1980) reported that one-third of their sample of dual-income respondents experienced moderate to severe role overload from combining work and family roles. Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, and Wethington (1989) found that role overload was the most frequently experienced daily stress. Role overload can occur within one domain of life (e.g., too many demands at home) or it can involve several domains. When overload is evident in multiple domains, spillover effects often occur (Small & Riley, 1990). For example, overload at work can lead to spillover effects at home, or home demands can spill over into paid work. Thus, spillover is one aspect of role overload and a particularly salient aspect for dual-income spouses because of their heavy involvement in both paid work and family domains. Role conflict refers to the conflict that arises between the expectations of two different roles that a person adopts (Burr et al., 1979; Voydanoff, 1987). For example, the dual-income marriage may create conflicting expectations for women. At work, a professional woman often is expected to be aggressive, competitive, and committed to her work. At home, she often is expected to be nurturing to her children and compassionate and caring to her husband. These differing expectations may require a complex display of potentially incompatible personality characteristics at work and home. Although there are other aspects of well-being, the dual-income literature on role overload and conflict typically has measured well-being as physical symptomatology and emotional affect (Coverman, 1989; Tiedje et al., 1990). Guelzow et al. (1991) found that role overload and conflict place dual-income spouses at greater risk for both physical and emotional problems. Consequently, it is important to study coping mechanisms in dual-income families that may diffuse or prevent potential deleterious effects of role overload and conflict on spouses' physical symptoms and emotional affect. COPING MECHANISMS Direct Effects Individuals continually develop perceptual and/or behavioral coping strategies to prevent, reduce, divert, avoid, or control emotional stress (Folkman, 1984; Goode, 1960; McCubbin, 1979; Moos, 1984; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978). Unfortunately, only a little is known about the use and effectiveness of coping strategies among dual-income families (Bird, Bird, & Scruggs, 1983). Researchers have found that active coping mechanisms that involve others (e.g., social support and external role redefinition), as well as cognitive restructuring, appear to be the most useful coping mechanisms for dual-income couples (Amatea & Fong-Beyette, 1987; Elman & Gilbert, 1984). Guelzow et al. (1991) found that the use of cognitive restructuring was related to lower psychological stress for men and women, and limiting demands was linked to higher stress levels for men. Dual-income wives seem to use problem-focused coping (e.g., role redefinition) more frequently than emotion-focused coping (e.g., cognitive reappraisal, tension reduction) in role overload situations (Amatea & Fong-Beyette, 1987). Guinta and Compas (1993) found that husbands and wives who coped by withdrawing had high levels of psychological symptomatology. Moderating Effects Cohen and Wills (1985) proposed that, theoretically, coping mechanisms (e. …

The Effect of Parental Employment on Child Poverty

In 1992, the United States poverty rate of 14.5% exceeded that of any year since the 1983 economic recession, and the number of poor people (37 million) is now greater than any time since the early 1960s (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993). The problem especially acute among America's children (Bane & Ellwood, 1989; Galston, 1993; Garbarini, 1992). More than 1 in 5 children today are poor, constituting roughly 40% of America's poverty population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993). Children today are nearly twice as likely as the elderly to be poor, child poverty rates have increased by about one-third over the past 15 years, and children in other industrialized nations (e.g., Canada and Sweden) experience much lower poverty rates, especially among those living in female-headed families (Corbett, 1993; Danziger & Danziger, 1993). Debates about the rise in child poverty in the 1980s center on changing patterns of employment (especially among single mothers), on the transformation from married-couple to female-headed families, and on real declines in cash assistance to poor families with children (Easterlin, 1988; Eggebeen & Lichter, 1991; Hernandez, 1993; Wojtkiewicz, 1992). A central objective of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which parental employment--or lack of it--contributes to the high poverty rates among American children. Are children poor because their parents are not working or are only marginally attached to the labor force (i.e., working only part-time)? Policy debates increasingly focus on the role of employment as a poverty-reduction strategy (Corbett, 1993; Mead, 1992). Indeed, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) provision of the 1988 Family Support Act was designed in part to move poor single mothers into the paid labor force and reduce their dependency on welfare income. Economic self-sufficiency presumably contributes to both short-and long-term reductions in family and child poverty. In the short term, earnings from work reduce the likelihood of family poverty. In 1991, the poverty rate was 27.1% among single mothers who were employed, a figure substantially lower than the rate of 70.9% among nonworking single mothers (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). In the long run, work reduces reliance on welfare income and weakens the intergenerational cycle of dependency that often links poverty between parental and filial generations. Our aim is to evaluate the relationship between parental employment and poverty among America's children by addressing three specific objectives. First, we present poverty rates for children living in married-couple and mother-headed families in which parents have different patterns of current and past employment. Second, we provide various simulations that illustrate the potential salutary effects of hypothetical increases in parental employment. What would the child poverty rate be, for example, if employment rates were increased to 50% among nonemployed parents? Among nonemployed poor single mothers? Third, we evaluate the role of parent work in accounting for the currently striking racial differences in child poverty. Do racial differences in child poverty result from racial differences in economic self-sufficiency, as measured by different patterns of current and past-year employment in the labor market? LINKAGES BETWEEN WORK AND POVERTY The nonworking poor have always been a target in policy debates about the causes and consequences of the rise in welfare dependency in the United States (Mead, 1992). Antipoverty legislation, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), was built in part on the notion that nonworking mothers are deserving of public assistance, while able-bodied nonworking men are counted among the undeserving poor. The continuing increase in women's labor force participation, especially among mothers of young children, has affected public support of welfare benefits targeted at poor single mothers. …

Lifelong learning: The dialectics of ?lifelong educations?

This article examines the emergence of different patterns of lifelong education and at the same time gives an overall view of how the various contributions to this special issue add to our understanding of the process of change that is taking place in the educational arena. The article is structured around three main themes. First, it addresses the changing relationship between initial education, adult education and the general learning environments. As the author shows, these three elements form a complex and interacting web of influences, which can be fully understood only as a totality. Secondly, under the heading of “The Dialectics at work behind and in education,” the article discusses such factors as the changing patterns of employment and non-working time and the disparity between social demand for education and the institutional response. Thirdly, the author deals with the economy of lifelong learning and the changing role of the state in education. Overall, the author presents a picture of profound and widespread transition, in which many different types of learning society are emerging.

Workforce Training in the Thatcher Era: Market Forces and Market Failures

Summarizes changing employment patterns. Documents the rising incidence of vocational training for the economically active adult workforce, using data from successive Labour Force Surveys, and considers the issue of positive externalities arising from worker mobility.

Home Ownership for Low Income Families: Key Findings from the Five Year Victorian Capital Indexed Loan Evaluation Study

This paper presents key findings from a recently completed five year evaluation study of the impact on low income families of a Victorian State Housing Authority home loan scheme. The research was funded by the Department of Planning and Housing, Victoria, and carried out by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The study was designed to test the feasibility of providing families who were either in public housing or on the waiting list with low start, inflation-adjusted, home loans. This paper examines three outcomes: changes in employment patterns, home repairs and improvements, and estimated capital gain. The findings contribute to larger debates within sociology over the meaning and impact of home ownership and the privatisation of housing.