Job Deterioration Research Articles

Gendered structural barriers to job attainment for skilled Chinese emigrants in Canada

AbstractOur study examines the career achievements of 50 professional couples that immigrated from China to Canada. We compare their job attainment when they left China with that years after immigration. We apply concepts of human capital and institutional theory to understand why the job status of the majority drops after immigrating. Human capital concepts account for most career advancement in China. Human capital theory falls short in explaining the structural barriers to achievement that affect those in the controlled professions, and especially women, in Canada. The institutional framework views immigrants' unemployment and a drop in job levels and wages as a status change. Structural concepts handle job deterioration, and in particular women's loss of status, in terms of social recognition of career paths. Structural concepts explain why immigrants' past career paths are poorly understood or are blocked in a new context. We conclude that institutional theory is more widely applicable than human capital theory for understanding the loss of job status for our sample of skilled immigrants from China. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

THE NEW ECONOMY AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Recent decades have seen major changes in economic conditions in the United States, including large-scale layoffs and downsizing, erosion of job quality for some workers, and increased reliance on nonstandard workers. Researchers have investigated the objective contours of this new economy, but few have investigated the consequences of these changes for popular attitudes about economic opportunity. Using data from the 1998 Indiana Survey of Workers in a Polarized Economy (N = 853), I investigate this new economic landscape and its effects on people's views about economic opportunity. I find that job deterioration and experiences with layoffs and job threats are creating pessimism about the American Dream among Indiana workers.

The New Economy and the American Dream: Examining the Effect of Work Conditions on Beliefs about Economic Opportunity

Recent decades have seen major changes in economic conditions in the United States, including large-scale layoffs and downsizing, erosion of job quality for some workers, and increased reliance on nonstandard workers. Researchers have investigated the objective contours of this new economy, but few have investigated the consequences of these changes for popular attitudes about economic opportunity. Using data from the 1998 Indiana Survey of Workers in a Polarized Economy (N = 853), I investigate this new economic landscape and its effects on people's views about economic opportunity. I find that job deterioration and experiences with layoffs and job threats are creating pessimism about the American Dream among Indiana workers.

The need for employee assistance programmes at South African universities

The rapid changes taking place in South Africa reverberate in the education sector and higher education in particular has not been immune. The premise of this article is that higher education is both a locus of scholarly development and a work station where a considerable number of people are employed; and where employee productivity rises and falls often in relation to increases or decreases in instability and predictability in the work environment alone, or the work environment in combination with family and community life. In these times of rare stability, university academic and support employees can experience increased rates of such problems as alcoholism, depression, and relationship discord. This paper will indicate that the higher education sector as an employer does not take seriously the personal problems of employees despite the impact of these on productivity and morale. It is also the intention of this article to indicate that the university as a work station is also a breeding ground for personal problems. The loose structure of academic departments, low visibility of academics and a paucity of performance measuring instruments for academics are some of the factors that may allow job deterioration to go undetected. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(2) 2001:80-85