Improving Job Quality Research Articles

Can working and employment conditions in the personal services sector be improved?

Personal services have attracted considerable attention from policy makers in France, with a view to achieving two objectives: creating jobs and reintegrating those individuals furthest removed from the labour market. Attempts to achieve these objectives have tended to emphasise job quantity at the expense of job quality, which, despite the avowed efforts of employers and regulators, remains poor. How can this discrepancy be explained? The article analyses the series of mechanisms at work. While some of these mechanisms are the same as those at work in all personal services, others vary according to the activity in question. Care activities, for example, are caught up in a 'vicious circle', while those employed in domestic services are caught in a 'precarity trap'. The fact that these two areas of activity belong to different 'worlds of production' means that the prospects for improving job quality are greater in one (care activities) than in the other. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

Book Reviews

Charles C. Brown of University of Michigan reviews, “Good Jobs America: Making Work Better for Everyone” by Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman. The EconLit Abstract of this book begins: “Considers how the United States can create better jobs and futures for workers by enacting policies to help employers improve job quality. Discusses myths about the low-wage job market—clearing the underbrush; whether you get what you deserve—the role of education and skill; how firms think; employment standards; voice and power; working with firms to upgrade work; and job quality on the ground—the story of green jobs. Osterman is NTU Professor of Human Resources and Management in the Sloan School of Management and a member of the Department of Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The late Shulman was Senior Fellow at Demos, Chair of the Board of the National Employment Law Project, and the cochair of the Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work. Index.”

The Structural Contexts of Low-Wage Work: Restaurant Employment Practices Across Firm Geography, Size, and Ownership Status

This qualitative organizational case study examined how restaurant employers respond to a minimum wage mandate through human resource practices they apply to waitstaff. The author considered three contextual factors as potential correlates of such practices: restaurants' geographic location, size, and ownership. Data come from interviews with owners and managers of 15 restaurants in Washington State, home of the nation's highest minimum wage. Findings suggest that employers' discretion over working conditions shapes waiters' work schedule, and in turn take-home pay and benefits eligibility, effects partly patterned by the contextual factors. The author discusses public strategies for improving job quality given these findings.

Ongoing Development of Cementing Practices and Technologies for Kuwait Oil Company's Deep HP/HT Exploration and Gas Wells: Case History

Summary Exploration activities in Kuwait have been focused on the search for high-quality oil from the Jurassic formations and gas in the Triassic/Permian series. The wells drilled to these prospects are very challenging because of high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/ HT) conditions, large casing sizes, oil-based mud, the presence of high levels of H2S and CO2, and a narrow pore-/fracture-pressure window. In particular, the cementing of the deep strings in these wells has been extremely challenging. Over the last 8 years, a concentrated effort has been made to introduce new technologies and materials to improve the cementing practices both from operational and safety aspects. In 2003, the success ratio for deep cementations was highly variable. The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), along with one of their cementing service providers, worked on a series of changes to practices and materials with the aim of improving job quality with high repeatability. This was based primarily on the technologies being developed in HP/HT wells around the globe, especially in the North Sea, and it resulted in a notable improvement in cementing performance. Technologies and practices that had been developed include spacer technology, application of synthetic retarders, fluid-loss and antigas-migration additive improvements, development of finegrained weighting additives, use of HP/HT rheometers, systematic product control, the minimizing of handling, and safer mixing practices at the wellsite. This paper will discuss the application of these technologies, materials, and practices over an 8-year period as a case history to illustrate the improvements made in achieving consistent cement quality and final slurry placement for the deep-casing and liner strings, and will conclude with recommendations and lessons learned during this process.

A Review of the Role of the Management in Controlling Job Stress of the Clerks

Since studies about job stress of the clerks is of utmost importance, job satisfaction is not in itself representative of the overall status of the clerks. In discussions of the control of stress of the clerks, a number of factors such as correct and scientific management have been successful in dealing with this phenomenon in a logical and scientific way. The application of the scientific and homogeneous methods are among the underlying principles of the standardization in developed countries. Providing a suitable field for training managers has a positive effect on improving job quality, planning effective job vacancies, and reducing job stress, all of which should not be overlooked. A point worth pondering is that in developing countries job stress is higher than in undeveloped countries part of which is due to human errors. A great part of this is eliminated through correct and conscious management.

INTRODUCTION

Abstract.The articles in this special issue of the International Labour Review present the findings of a major international comparative research project on low‐wage work supported by the Russell Sage Foundation. In his brief introduction, Paul Osterman, who coordinated this special issue of the journal, outlines the rationale and methodology of the research project and explains its significance for public policy aimed at improving job quality at the lower end of the market.

Labour and Labour-Related Laws in Micro and Small Enterprises: Innovative Regulatory Approaches

States face difficult policy choices in developing labour regulation for MSEs. They must balance the twin - and apparently competing - goals of improving job quality while promoting and rewarding entrepreneurship and economic growth. States must address the challenge of developing the best method of regulating, and so of moving toward achievement of their important policy goals as well as proper functioning of the markets. The findings of this study suggest that States neither must nor should simply exclude MSEs from the application of labour laws. The exclusion of MSEs from labour law only deprives MSEs of the benefits that flow from workers experiencing better job quality. From the point of view of development theory, a State that takes this approach fails to ensure that it is developing its citizens' human capabilities: it thereby fails them as individuals, and society as a whole. This study identifies a number of innovative regulatory approaches that States have adopted to try to achieve the goal of applying labour and labour related laws to MSEs, without imposing significant costs upon them. Some States have adopted legislative measures to redefine the scope of the employment relationship in broader terms. Others have taken a 'staged' approach, for example gradually extending the scope of social security schemes to ensure that over time they include MSEs. A number of States have developed special agencies or units within their labour administration that have particular responsibilities for the promotion of labour law and its application to MSEs.

Introduction to special issue

This special issue volume focuses on research into Human Resource Management (HRM) and job quality. Improving job quality is firmly on the public policy agenda in the European Union (EU) and is central to the International Labour Office's (ILO's) decent work agenda. There has been considerable policy debate in the EU concerning job quality and the need to create not only more but also better jobs. This introduction reviews the nature and measurement of job quality and discusses the HRM rationale for improvement. This article assesses workplace programmes that can assist in improving job quality before introducing the issues to be covered in this special edition.

Fostering Supportive Learning Environments in Long-Term Care

The education of direct care workers (DCWs) is key to improving job quality and the quality of care in long-term care (LTC). This paper describes the successful integration of a supervisory training program into a continuing education intervention (WIN A STEP UP) for DCWs, identifies the factors that appear to influence the integration of the learning into practice, and discusses the implications for educators. The WIN A STEP UP program achieved its strongest results when the DCW curriculum was paired with Coaching Supervision. Attention to pre-training, training and post-training conditions is necessary to successfully integrate learning into practice in LTC.

Firm Size and Job Quality: A Survey of the Evidence from Germany?

Small firms provide and create a large proportion of jobs in Germany. Are these jobs worse than jobs in larger firms? The mosaic picture that emerges from a review of several recent empirical studies using German individual or firm level micro data shows that, all in all, wages are lower, non-wage incomes (fringes) are lower, job security is lower, work organisation is less rigid, institutionalized possibilities for workers' participation in decision making are weaker, and opportunities for skill enhancement are worse in small firms compared to large firms. The weight of evidence, therefore, indicates that, on average, small firms offer worse jobs than large firms. It is argued that there is no need for policy measures targeted to improve job quality in small firms, because higher incomes in large firms can in part be seen as compensating differentials for more rigid work organisation, and can follow from wage policies to reduce shirking and turnover that is more costly in large than in small firms. Furthermore, a lower level of remuneration, less protection against dismissals, a lower level of workers' participation, and less opportunities for further training all contribute to lower costs in small firms that might be needed to compensate for size-related cost disadvantages compared to large firms. Economic policy should concentrate on keeping barriers to entrepreneurs' entry to markets low to foster new firm formation and creative destruction.

Centralized equipment overhaul at man-made fibre establishments

An analysis of the overhaul services of man-made fibre plants showed that the maintenance staff was engaged on actual repair work for only half their working time; equipment maintenance was on a low level, the acquisition, storage and consumption of spare parts were not controlled properly and reconditioning work on components was badly timed. The result, for example at the Kalinin, Klin, Barnaul and Balakov Combines, was that the annual outlay on machine components and parts amounted to 7 - 10% on the cost of the installed equipment, i.e. considerably in excess of the permitted norms. In 1967 - 1968 the overhaul services were improved by transferring the teams responsible for the general and intermediate overhaul of production equipment from the staff of the production sections to that of the machine shops of the CMD. Specializing sections and teams were organized for the overhaul of the different kinds of production units, equipment and components. The centralization of the general and intermediate overhaul work made it possible to improve the work organization, increase labour productivity and reduce the number of workers concerned. At the Balakov Combine, for example, a total 190 persons were released for other work, at the Kamensk fibre plant 26, at the Svetlogorsk plant 42, etc. But even after these measures had been introduced over 50% of the overhaul workers still formed part of the staff of the individual production sections. Practical experience has shown that in the case of centralized overhaul services the productivity of labour and the organization and economics of the work involved are on a higher level when the various types of production equipment are overhauled by specializing teams from the machine shops of the CMD because the work, cost accounting and outlays are planned centrally. Overhaul work is now fully centralized at the Kaunas and Volzhsk fibre plants and partly centralized at the Kursk, Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul Ryazan and Kalinin Combines. In the Capron division of the Kiev Combine /I/ and at the Kamensk Combine all overhaul and maintenance work has been centralized and all maintenance workers and mechanics have been transferred to the staff of the CMD work shops. One of the principal purposes of centralizing the overhaul and maintenance services is to improve job quality and thus the technical condition of the equipment and at the same time to increase operating periods between overhauls and reduce downtime. It has been the experience of fibre establishments with centralized overhaul services that overhaul by CMD staff and maintenance by the production section concerned represents the best arrangement. At a conference of chief mechanics and power supply engineers in Cherkassy in November 1970 it was confirmed that overhaul services must be better organized and a recommendation was put forward that they should form part of the CMD. The centralization of these services calls for much preparatory work.