Low-status Work Research Articles

Low-status work consequences on immigrant workers' organization: the cases of five immigrant groups in Athens

The article centres on the repercussions low-prestige work has on the collective organization and representation of immigrant workers. This micro-sociological analysis focuses on the cases of Egyptian, Albanian, Bangladeshi, Palestinian, and Philippine immigrants in Athens and how the frame of their work and their employment affects their participation in their immigrant work associations. Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that the majority of immigrants do not claim established workers' rights and do not seek membership in any unions. On the contrary, they rely on a network of friends and relatives for support and develop individual behaviours and alternative solutions to achieve survival and protection.

Older Women Doing Home Care: Exploitation or Ideal Job?

The increased need for both personal assistance workers and meaningful employment opportunities for older workers results in growing numbers of older home care aides. This study examined lifetime financial security and perceived advantages of older age in this field through interviews with 31 older home care aides. Study participants experienced high levels of financial insecurity and perceived older workers as particularly well suited to the home care job. The consequences of this low-wage, low-status work are explored along with implications for social workers to advocate for improved conditions for these workers providing essential care to frail elders.

Professional caregivers' work with the dying in nursing homes – a Foucault‐inspired analysis of discourses in the last decade in a Danish context

International studies on the death of elderly nursing home residents show the complexity in the understanding of the professionals who care for the dying. The aim of this study is to explore the discourses about professional caregivers caring for those dying in Denmark in the last decade. A discourse analysis inspired by Foucault was constructed. The material consists of different source documents: research articles, newspaper articles, theses, books, websites - 35 sources in total. There are constructed six positions of speech, five discourses and three themes: (1) 'the work of the professional caregivers - a complex low-status work'; (2) 'the education of the professionals - the way to ensure a good death or possessing the right qualifications' and (3) 'the vulnerable professionals'. The study concludes that an economical/political discourse is dominating and sets up the frames within which the professionals care for dying residents, although the medical, the social/critical and the religious discourses attempt to speak against it. All positions articulate that the professional caregivers' job has a low status and that it is not possible to provide an optimal care due to lack of time, resources and education. Psychical or mental demands make the professionals vulnerable. The meaning of optimal care varies according to the positions of speech.

Deskilling of Professional Services and Pseudo-Professional Identity in Tax Preparation Work (WITHDRAWN)

This paper argues that deskilling of professional services creates a paradoxical situation. While the replacement of skilled workers with a combination of unskilled laborers and expertise- encapsulating technology allows firms to reduce the cost of labor and, most importantly, to access the benefits of scale, the very absence of professionals makes it difficult for the firms to then sell the services as professional services. The paper suggests a mechanism by which this paradox, heretofore unaddressed in the discussion of standardization and deskilling of professional service work, is resolved in practice. Using a case of tax preparation work in the U.S., the paper demonstrates that professional identity can emerge in non-professional, low-status workers in the context of low-paying, standardized, deskilled professional work. Using in-depth interviews (N=50) and a field- based survey-experiment (N=437), the paper investigates the emergence of the pseudo-professional identity and finds that because professionalism is a strong cultural concept which does not require actual professionalization to be effective, playing a professional may be equivalent to being one. The paper further finds that poor work conditions that would seem inadequate for a claim of professional practice and that ostensibly contradict and inhibit professional identity, may promote and sustain it. The paper concludes with a discussion of pseudo-professional identity as a form of organizational control.

Boundary work of dentists in everyday work

The Swedish policy objectives in dental care provision - to meet public demands for dental care and to increase the cost-effectiveness of the service - require dentists to work in teams with dental hygienists and dental nurses. This study focused on the role of dentists in the distribution of work tasks within teams in one Swedish Public Dental Service organisation. Dental clinics were viewed as micro-political arenas in which dentists attempt to demarcate professional boundaries in response to teamwork. Semi-structured interviews, observations and documents were used. The interviewed individuals were seven dentists employed at two clinics, the managers of each clinic and the general manager. The dentists were interviewed to investigate how they defend or blur professional boundaries. They were also observed at work. The clinic managers and the general manager were interviewed to identify their expectations of dentists concerning work division. The documents comprised organisational plans and annual reports. Dentists demarcated professional boundaries by utilising various power resources: treatment responsibility, specialist knowledge, discretion, and avoidance of work considered to be low status work. The dentists also contributed to blurred boundaries between themselves and the other dental professionals by discussing patient treatment, giving and receiving advice, and assisting the others in skill development. Although dentists' boundary work could obstruct implementation of policy objectives, dentists' behaviour contributed to effective collaboration within the teams.

Negotiating power through communication

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of organizational power at a non‐profit organization, and demonstrate how a participation intervention can deconstruct entrenched norms that govern how influence is allocated among employees.Design/methodology/approachUsing Habermas' ideal speech context as a framework for analysis, the intervention and related outcomes were examined for their potential to create constructive conflict through which both high and low status employees could interpret and negotiate how power is discursively created and maintained in the organization.FindingsThe intervention provided employees access to a discursive situation through which they could re‐interpret power‐reifying norms that limited their ability to represent their own interests. It not only provided lower‐level employees an opportunity to influence the discussion, but it also revealed an alternative way to interpret strategic planning. Through the intervention, the employees could see that the policies and decisions that they assumed to be fixed could actually be developed through a negotiated process.Originality/valueCommunication scholars have kept employee participation within the realm of theory, rarely providing practical discursive tools for shifting systems of control and helping low status workers empower themselves. In contrast, this study describes a concrete method for decentralizing organizational power and shows how using a theory‐based intervention can help both managers and their staff to critically evaluate existing organizational power structures.

Low-Status Work and Decollectivization: The Case of Bangladeshis in Athens

This article focuses on the repercussions of work and employment in low-status jobs upon the collective organization and representation of immigrant workers. The microsociological analysis is focused on the case of Bangladeshi immigrants in Athens, specifically how far the frame of their employment affects their participation in the immigrant work association Bangladeshi Immigrant Workers’ Union of Greece, as well as in Greek trade unions. Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that Bangladeshis are supported by friendly relations in search for solidarity, they develop individualistic behaviors, and they find alternative solutions for survival and protection.

Relational pedagogy for student engagement and success at university

The Australian Government’s policy to transform higher education by 2020 includes plans to significantly raise the levels of undergraduate enrolment by people of low socio-economic status. In light of this policy direction, this article examines how a group of undergraduate students of low socio-economic status work to maintain their desire for learning and to remain included in the university system despite experiencing cultural processes of exclusion. As the students reflect on the cultural and pedagogical conditions that promote, support and enhance their participation and engagement in higher education, a picture emerges of the importance of students’ relationships with academics. Whilst positive relationships help students to remain engaged, negative experiences work against continuing participation and engagement. Given the desire of the Australian government to increase participation in higher education by students from under-represented groups, this research identifies some challenges and possibilities for both universities and academics.

Health worker motivation in the context of HIV care and treatment challenges in Mbeya Region, Tanzania: A qualitative study

BackgroundHealth worker motivation can potentially affect the provision of health services. The HIV pandemic has placed additional strain on health service provision through the extra burden of increased testing and counselling, treating opportunistic infections and providing antiretroviral treatment. The aim of this paper is to explore the challenges generated by HIV care and treatment and their impact on health worker motivation in Mbeya Region, Tanzania.MethodsThirty in-depth interviews were conducted with health workers across the range of health care professions in health facilities in two high HIV-prevalence districts of Mbeya Region, Tanzania. A qualitative framework analysis was adopted for data analysis.ResultsThe negative impact of HIV-related challenges on health worker motivation was confirmed by this study. Training seminars and workshops related to HIV contributed to the shortage of health workers in the facilities. Lower status workers were frequently excluded from training and were more severely affected by the consequent increase in workload as seminars were usually attended by higher status professionals who controlled access. Constant and consistent complaints by clients have undermined health workers' expectations of trust and recognition. Health workers were forced to take responsibility for dealing with problems arising from organisational inefficiencies within the health system.ConclusionHIV-related challenges undermine motivation among health workers in Mbeya, Tanzania with the burden falling most heavily on lower status workers. Strained relations between health workers and the community they serve, further undermine motivation of health workers.

Exploiting the exploited: The psychological contract, workplace domination and symbolic violence

In this paper, we argue that the concept of the psychological contract can be understood as a discourse that reflects dominant managerial ideologies regarding the nature of the employment relationship. Using qualitative case study data collected from employers and employees working in small businesses in the private care sector, we illustrate how participation in the discourse of the psychological contract is related to social category membership. For those occupying higher status roles, the discourse has resonance and appeal and participation can yield symbolic and material profit. Conversely, for other categories of employees, specifically those occupying lower status roles, the discourse of the psychological contract lacks resonance and meaning. We further illustrate that because this discourse corresponds with the ideology that employment relationships should be reciprocal and based upon social bonds, it enables employers to legitimise their exploitation of low-paid, low-status workers with the active (and passive) consent of the latter. We theorise this example of workplace domination by drawing on Bourdieu's ideas of symbolic power and symbolic violence.

The Dimensions Of Womens Contribution To The Workforce In Agriculture: The Turkey Case

In less developed and developing countries, women make less use of the benefits resulting from development. Women take part in every stage of production and also shoulder the difficulties of life loaded onto them by their roles within and outside the family. However, the use, distribution, and management of the income created in the family is unjust, and women do not have access to sources such as loans. Women are negatively affected by both the traditional social class structure and the inequality between the socially defined gender roles and statuses. This situation becomes more apparent for especially women who work in agriculture in rural areas. Although women’s contribution to the workforce is high due to the fact that they work as unpaid agricultural workers in rural areas, the employment of women in agriculture decreases due to the general decrease of employment in this sector. Women working in agriculture cannot continue taking part in the workforce when they leave the sector or when they move to another region. Women who do take part in the workforce, do low status work requiring no qualifications and without any job security. This may result in women being isolated from work life as well as social life. In Turkey, where social gender roles are shaped by social factors, that is, social gender based distribution of responsibilities, women are usually considered to be responsible for housework and raising children. To a large extent, the domestic responsibilities of women prevent them from searching for a job and joining the work force. Women are expected to first be a housewife and mother. In rural areas, women are unpaid family workers who do agricultural work as an extension of their domestic work. These features of women’s life in rural areas make it necessary to study, discuss and find solutions to the problems of women in rural areas, and to develop relevant strategies.

Certified Nurse Assistants Making Meaning of Direct Care

Using qualitative data from 87 focus groups with certified nurse assistants (CNAs) in 16 nursing homes in Massachusetts, we explore ways that CNAs make meaning of their work despite devaluations, such as lack of respect from management and residents, and the physical and emotional demands of such low-status work. CNAs' meaning making represents an effort to assert a positive identity rather than accept the stigmatization associated with their work. Assertions of the value help CNAs reconstitute their identities. Assertions of meaning, which depend upon providing good care to residents regardless of financial reward or management respect and support, make CNAs vulnerable to exploitation.

Tobacco use in sub-Sahara Africa: Estimates from the demographic health surveys

Despite the growing problem of global tobacco use, accurate information on the prevalence and patterns in the world's poorest nations remains sparse. For sub-Sahara Africa, in particular, a weak knowledge base limits the targeting of strategies to combat the potential growth of tobacco use and its harmful effect on future mortality. To describe the prevalence and social patterns of the use of cigarettes and other tobacco in Africa, this study examines population-based data from 16 Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) of men aged 15–54 years and women aged 15–49 years in 14 nations. Descriptive statistics show the highest cigarette use among men in several nations of east central Africa and Madagascar, lowest use in nations of west central Africa, and medium use in nations of southern Africa. Multinomial logistic regression results for men show highest cigarette use among urban, less educated, and lower status workers. Results for women show much lower prevalence than men but similar social patterns of use. The DHS results thus give new and comparable information about tobacco use in low-income nations, disadvantaged social groups, and an understudied region of the world.

Can training remove the glue from the “sticky floor” of low‐paid work for women?

PurposeThe UK government has suggested that women's inequality can be addressed through improved education and training. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which this is the case by examining the opportunities for learning in a range of low‐paid jobs in local government, which are predominantly but not exclusively occupied by women.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a case study involving over 100 face‐to‐face interviews with low‐paid workers, their supervisors, managers, trainers and union representatives in one local authority, it uses Scherer's 2004 framework to examine whether low‐paid jobs and the opportunities they provide for training act as “stepping stones” or “traps” to job progression and better pay.FindingsAs a solution to the problem of low pay, the discourse of individual self‐improvement under‐estimates the structural problems facing low‐paid workers, their lack of resources and entitlements to learning. Moreover, it ignores the fact that many low‐paid workers in the public sector value their work as socially useful. This public service ethos should not be a justification for low basic pay.Originality/valueThis paper extends the theme of gender equality in UK public services by examining to what extent measures focusing on education and training can lift women workers off the “sticky floor” of low‐paid low status work.

Contextual Influences on Interpersonal Complementarity

The influence of context on interpersonal complementarity was examined using an event-contingent recording procedure. Setting and role status moderated the relation between how a person behaved and how the other person behaved. Individuals were more likely to respond with agreeable behavior to agreeableness in others when not at work than when at work and when in a high status work role relative to a low status work role. Reciprocity between dominance and submissiveness was found in work settings but not in nonwork settings. Individuals were more likely to reciprocate more submissive behavior by the other person with more dominant behavior and more likely to reciprocate more dominant behavior by the other person with relatively more submissive behavior when in a higher status work role relative to lower status work roles. Results were interpreted in terms of the influence of decreased structure and shared goals on increasing interpersonal complementarity.

Invisible influence, tangible trap: The clerical conundrum

Abstract This paper contends that the contribution made by clerical workers to organisational effectiveness is invisible due in part to the dominant perspective on the clerical sector, and in part to what is seen to be the nature of the workers themselves. In synthesising some of the degradation literature with an examination of elements of clerical subjectivity it is demonstrated that clerical effectiveness is rendered invisible and that this, in turn, essentially traps clerks in low status work. Drawing on ideas emerging from past and recent literature on tacit knowledge and comparable worth, the paper seeks to demonstrate that, by applying the principles of tacitness and its analysis to this non-managerial area of work, we can see where the influence of clerical workers lies. The paper ends with a challenge to organisations which reaps the benefits of a skilful and knowledgeable workforce while doing little to formally acknowledge such expertise.

Gender differences in the intention to react to aggressive action at home and in the workplace

This study explored gender differences in escalatory tendencies, defined as individuals' intentions to react when faced with the prospect of potential aggression from others. The escalatory tendencies are based on an interaction unit of analysis, which is a proxy representation of behavioral intention from planned behavior theory. This study consists of a convenience sample of 264 male and female participants who were asked to report their escalatory tendencies following verbal and physical forms of aggression committed by various hypothetical offenders, including their intimate partner at home, as well as the men and women at work who are in higher, lower, or equal positions. The main findings support the assumptions that escalatory tendencies toward verbal aggression are higher than those toward physical aggression; that escalatory tendencies at work are higher toward lower status workers than toward those of higher status; that escalatory tendencies within the same gender are higher than between genders; and that women tend to escalate more against their spouses than do men. The findings emphasize the importance of studying aggression and escalatory tendencies in context. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–9, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Risk factors for pregnancy and childbearing in single young women: Evidence from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

This study investigated psychosocial predictors of early pregnancy and childbearing in single young women, consistent with the Eriksonian developmental perspective. Two mail-out surveys assessing reproductive behaviour and sociodemographic, education/competence, psychosocial well-being, and aspiration factors were completed 4 years apart by 2635 young women, aged 18 to 20 when first surveyed. Young women in the “emerging adulthood” developmental period were selected from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. Longitudinally, lower investment in education over low-status paid work, experiencing unemployment, greater psychosocial distress, stress and alcohol use, and high family aspirations combined with low vocational aspirations were risk factors for early single pregnancy and childbearing. Several mediational relationships also existed between these predictor variables. It was concluded that psychosocial factors play an important role in understanding early pregnancy and childbearing in single young Australian women, and that the findings provide some support for investigating early pregnancy and childbearing from an Eriksonian developmental perspective.

Job characteristics, occupational status, and ambulatory cardiovascular activity in women.

Prior research concerning the effects of occupational status and work stress on ambulatory blood pressure (AmBP) has seldom included women, and available results are equivocal. Moreover, the concurrent effects of occupational status and job characteristics have rarely been investigated. Some research is consistent with the idea that stressful job characteristics are especially detrimental to health in low-status workers, creating a cumulative physiological burden. To examine the independent and joint effects of occupational status and perceived demands, control, and social support at work on AmBP and heart rate (HR) in women. One hundred eight women (M age = 41.07 years) wore an AmBP monitor for 2 days and completed a self-report assessment of job control, demands, and support (i.e., Karesek et al.'s Job Content Questionnaire). After controlling for numerous potential confounds, occupational status and job characteristics accounted for 18% and 22% of the inter-individual variability in ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP) and HR, respectively. Occupational status independently predicted ambulatory cardiovascular activity and interacted with job characteristics, particularly in relation to SBP. Inasmuch as ambulatory SBP and HR predict future cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, women with both lower status occupations and stressful job circumstances could be at disproportionately high cardiovascular risk.

Job exit queues: corporate mergers and gender inequality

Purpose: to explore the experiences of employees in a local bank merger in the United States and examine the concept of job exit queues. We introduce the concept of a job exit queue, which describes how workers position themselves or are positioned by employers to leave jobs and enter new jobs following the announcement of a corporate merger. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews with mid‐ level managers, technical specialists and low status workers during the sale and merger process were conducted and coded thematically. We explore: (1) how workers and managers describe the job search as an “opportunity” or as a recurring cycle of low‐wage, high‐turnover work and (2) how severance packages structure the job exit queue to meet corporate needs. Findings: The role of severance pay is pivotal in understanding women’s and men’s job relations to job exit queues. We conclude that employers create job exit queues, placing low status workers and mid‐level women managers with less formal education at a disadvantage in reemployment. Value: This paper contributes a new concept “job exit queue” to the research and theory on work place diversity, gender inequality, and queuing theories.