bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Goodbye to Supervisors?
Authors: Rose David , Marshall Gordon , Newby Howard , Vogler Carolyn
Published: September 2003

Liberal theories of post-industrial society and Marxist theories of the labour process tend to converge in their respective accounts of the place of supervisors in relation to putative changes in the organisation of work. A common conjecture is that supervisors are progressively being denuded of their powers and functions within industry. This paper uses data from a national sample survey of Britain to discuss the substance of the supervisory role in modern capitalist enterprises. The conclusion reached is that direct supervision in the workplace is not obviously in decline. The data also raise issues about the categories of employment status used in official statistics as well as those of the Goldthorpe class schema.
Strategy or Structure? Capital, Labour and Control
Authors: Hyman Richard
Published: September 2003

The literature on and for management makes increasing use of notions of strategy. Is such an approach compatible with analyses of capitalism as structurally determined? The first part of the paper argues that contradictions within capitalist enterprise both create openings for strategic choice, and entail that no strategy will prove successful. The second part examines, in the context of six distinct managerial functions, the extent to which the control of labour can be regarded as a dominant management strategy.
Constraints on Gender: The Family Wage, Social Security and the Labour Market; Reflections on Research in Hartlepool
Authors: Morris Lydia
Published: September 2003

In this paper, using data gathered from 40 married or cohabiting couples in Hartlepool, I argue that despite challenges to the `family wage' through long-term male unemployment, growing job insecurity, increased economic activity of married women, and the demonstrable importance of their earnings for the household, a wife's role as earner or potential earner continues to be viewed as peripheral.

This is largely to be explained by an interaction between Supplementary Benefit rulings and the part-time nature of much of the demand for women's labour, such that a wife is most likely to take on, or continue in, employment where her husband is himself in work or perceived to be only temporarily unemployed. The operation of the informal sector of the economy is examined in this context, and the possible effects of proposed changes in Supplementary Benefit rulings discussed.
Elton Mayo and the Hidden Hawthorne
Authors: Smith J. H.
Published: September 2003

Fifty years of controversy have established the Hawthorne Experiments as industrial sociology's most durable legend and Elton Mayo as one of its most enigmatic figures. The precise part played by Mayo has been the subject of widely different interpretations both favourable and unfavourable. New evidence from his personal papers and from the Hawthorne archives support the view that his was a central role in developing as well as publicising the Experiments. This is confirmed by new information about (1) the frequency and duration of his visits to the plant (2) his close collaboration with Western Electric executives (3) his part in the presentation and publication of the results.
The First Historical Act: A Review of the Open University Course
Authors: Mackenzie Gavin
Published: September 2003

The Open University course Work and Society (DE 325) was introduced for the first time in 1985. It represents a recent, very influential attempt by a group of scholars to provide a curriculum for the study of the area with which this journal is concerned. We have asked two reviewers to consider the materials which comprise the course and give, from their own individual perspectives, a critical review of them.

The bibliographical details of the units and other publications which make up the course are given at the end of the reviews.
The Newmarket Racing Lad: Tradition and Change in a Marginal Occupation
Authors: Filby Michael P.
Published: September 2003

This paper describes the work of a widely seen but little known occupation, the racing lad. It relates some changes which have taken place in the organisation of work and the subjective responses to these of a significant minority of the occupation in the locality studied. Such changes as are apparent are accounted for in terms of developments in the local labour market which have served to erode the traditionalist framework within which work has been organised. At root, the core activity is seen to depend on some particularly intangible qualities which working class youngsters have typically brought to this form of work.
The Uncertainties of Management in the Management of Uncertainty: Employers, Labor Relations and Industrial Adjustment in the 1980s
Authors: Streeck Wolfgang
Published: September 2003

In the course of economic crisis, the initiative in industrial relations shifts to employers. This paper does not present employers' recent industrial relations initiatives in detail, but rather tries to reconstruct the general strategic problem to which they are responding. This problem is to find ways of managing an unprecedented degree of economic uncertainty deriving from a need for continuous rapid adjustment to a market environment that seems to have become permanently more turbulent than in the past. This requires an increasingly close (re-)integration of industrial relations and industrial strategy in the context of a comprehensive manufacturing policy. Institutional barriers which insulate industrial relations from concerns for, and changes in, economic performance need to be dismantled, and `flexibility' is a key concept. However, the management of uncertainty remains incomplete and beset with contradictions due to profound uncertainties of management regarding the structure and function of a flexible industrial relations system. These uncertainties are linked to wider problems of industrial strategy whose resolution partly depends on the strategic decisions of other actors, in particular trade unions.
Minority Women and Economic Restructuring: The Case of Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: Phizacklea Annie
Published: September 2003

It is argued that capital in advanced industrial Western societies has pursued a number of crisis-induced and related strategies to maintain profitability: automation, relocation and flexibility. While each of these related strategies has major implications for women's work generally, this article focuses on the specific impact that they have had on minority women's employment in Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany. On the basis of comparative analyses it is concluded that the relative collapse of traditional job opportunities in manufacturing for minority women has resulted in an increasing proportion being pushed sideways into the manual sectors of service work and in the UK also into a burgeoning `ethnic economy'.
Engineers, Management and Trust
Authors: Armstrong Peter
Published: September 2003

This paper argues that the characteristic lack of engineering representation in British senior management is partly a consequence of the prevailing conception of what management is actually about. As compared to certain other capitalist economies, British conditions have favoured such management activities as the search for longterm finance and strategic marketing over product and process improvement. This system of priorities, massively perpetuated in management writings and education, is now embedded in the British definition of what management is. Aspirants to senior positions, which necessarily involve considerable decision-making discretion, need to demonstrate their `trustworthiness' in such terms. Insofar as the managerial credentials of professional engineering rest upon its position of authority within productive labour, they are out of key with the conception of management dominant in Britain. For many years the profession has tried to overcome this by adding `managerial' subjects to engineering education. However, so long as management is conceived of as a distinct field of study in its own right, such a strategy can do no more than place engineers in the position of comparative amateurs competing with full-time `specialists'.
Immigrants in the Parisian Garment Industry
Authors: Morokvasic Mirjana
Published: September 2003

In spite of profound industrial restructuring and access to technological innovations in various stages in the garment trades, in production, outdated industrial structures, homeworking and 19th century working conditions still exist in Paris. This paper focuses on these traditional structures and the role immigrants play in them. It is argued that the imperatives of garment production fostering flexibility and small unit size have made this sector attractive to immigrants capable of responding adequately to industry's requirements. It is further being argued that the immigrants tend to occupy positions and play the role their predecessors have played in the past: that of workers and intermediaries. This paper illustrates how they relate to one another and to those in positions that are normally not occupied by them. It raises the issue of ambiguity of boundaries and categorisations ranging from workers to employers
Young Workers in the Class Structure
Authors: Jones Gill
Published: September 2003

The sociological study of youth has tended to focus on either age and generation, or class and gender. Attempts to integrate the two approaches have been largely unsuccessful. This paper explores the longitudinal and cross-sectional dimensions of stratification and produces a framework for examining class differences in youth. Analysis of the inter-generational and intra-generational mobility of young workers, using two large national data sets, the General Household Survey and the National Child Development Study, leads to the identification of a typology of `Youth Class'. This empirically-based typology incorporates the notions of process and structure in a longitudinal class schema appropriate to the study of young people.
Sources of Variation in Labour Market Segmentation: A Comparison of Youth Labour Markets in Canada and Britain
Authors: Ashton David N.
Published: September 2003

In spite of superficial similarities in the levels of unemployment this paper reveals major differences in the structure of the youth labour markets in Canada and Britain. It argues that labour market segmentation theory by according primacy to such factors as product markets, industrial structures and technology, can provide only a partial explanation for the observed difference. A more adequate explanation will have to take greater cognizance of the interaction between political, cultural and social factors which are seen to exert an independent effect on the structure of youth labour markets.
New Production Concepts, Management Strategies and the Quality of Work
Authors: Dankbaar Ben
Published: September 2003

Recent writings on `new production concepts', new technologies and work organisation have engendered a certain optimism regarding the future quality of work in industry. This paper reviews some of the literature on this subject and then presents some examples of change in work organisation in the West German car industry in connection with the introduction of new technologies. Attention is paid to the roles of management and workers' representatives in the process of reorganisation. Different approaches toward the reintegration and reprofessionalisation of production work are identified and discussed. The West German legislation on codetermination provides the works councils and unions with some possibilities to intervene and to influence management's choices.
Controlling Police Work: Problems of Organisational Reform in Large Public Bureaucracies
Authors: Johnston Les
Published: September 2003

The issue of control in public bodies has been topical in Britain and has taken varying forms. Government has sought to increase central control by a variety of managerial strategies, whilst critics of government have sought popular accountability through democratic reforms. This debate has been at its most controversial with respect to policing. Despite their shortcomings, models of organisation and control used in the police field serve the useful purpose of illustrating strategies of control common to police organisations and other public bodies. Consideration of them calls into question the notion of unambiguous control found in much organisational analysis. Control is a problematic and uncertain relation, and different organisational contexts demonstrate variable alignments of control. Thus it is necessary to analyse the dynamics of control in any organisation before an effective strategy of reform can be implemented. Drawing on the concepts of `strategy' and `alignment' of control, I examine the prospects for progressive reform in police organisations and suggest a pluralistic framework of democratic intervention is appropriate to the task. Finally, I consider the implications of my argument for control in other public bodies by reference to public sector housing allocation and managerial reform in the National Health Service.
Work, Locality and Social Control
Authors: Maguire Michael
Published: September 2003

This paper attempts to develop the argument that non-work issues influence social control in the workplace. Evidence is presented from a study of social relations in a Northern Ireland telecommunications plant. It is suggested that the locality in which a factory is situated has an important influence on internal plant relations. It is argued that in the context of Northern Ireland the replication of locality social relations in the workplace had the effect of weakening collective resistance in the plant. Large scale job losses and the introduction of new work practices, a consequence of technological change in the telecommunications industry, exposed these important weaknesses in the structure of workplace organisation.
The Politics of the Black Economy
Authors: Thomas J. J.
Published: September 2003

On the basis of indirect estimates of the size of the black economy, it has been argued that failure to measure black economic activity in official government statistics has produced a misleading picture of the state of the economy, overestimating both the rate of inflation and the level of unemployment and underestimating the effects of tax rates on the level of tax evasion. These arguments, which suggest that large numbers of those recorded as being wholly unemployed are actually working in the black economy, have strong political implications for tax cuts and attitudes towards welfare and poverty.

This paper provides a critique of the indirect measures of the size of the black economy and argues that none of them can be relied upon to produce accurate estimates. An examination of some of the microeconomic evidence collected by economists, sociologists and anthropologists suggests (i) that the more dramatic numbers produced by indirect measures may represent considerable overestimates of the actual size of the black economy in the United Kingdom and (ii) that there may be good reasons why it is easier for moonlighters rather than the unemployed to work in the black economy. If this is so, the policy arguments based on these indirect measures of the black economy do not rest on firm foundations and should therefore be regarded as political special pleading.
Work Rewards and Labour Segmentation: The Australian Case
Authors: Zagórski Krzysztof
Published: September 2003

Occupational prestige and yearly income are used to aggregate Australian industries into economic sectors. The first sector consists of social services and agriculture, while the second sector consists of material production and distributive services. This reflects post-industrial features as well as the specific position of agriculture in the Australian economy. The sectors differ not only in absolute and relative (to the quality of their workforce) work rewards but also in the detailed patterns of the rewards' determinants.
The `Flexible Firm': Fixation or Fact?
Authors: Pollert Anna
Published: September 2003

The model of the `flexible firm' has gained a prominent role in shaping debate about labour market flexibility and employment restructuring in the 1980s. It argues that employers are increasingly segmenting their workers between a permanent `core' of full-time employees, and a `periphery' of part-time, temporary, subcontract and `outsourced' workers. The `core' provides `functional flexibility' through lowered job demarcations and multi-skilling, while the `periphery' provides `numerical flexibility'. This paper argues that these generalisations are based on very selective cases, and reviews evidence which shows that restructuring follows far more complex and uneven lines than this polarisation, which if anything is better reflected in the public sector, which the model omits. The `flexible firm' conflates employment developments due to sectoral restructuring, with `new' `manpower policies', masking the importance of continuities and qualitative changes within these. While registering the increasing vulnerability of many workers, the model fails to note that for many, this is not `new', nor that the dynamic of the eighties is attacking the strength of all workers, including the so-called `core'. Conceptually, the notion of `core' and `periphery' is confused, circular and value laden. The model is criticised for blurring description, prediction and prescription in an ambiguous futurology which slips between research reportage and `best practice' policy. Even here it is ambiguous, and dubious from management's own point of view. Finally, its concern with labour market flexibility is set within the current international climate of neo-classical revival, and the model's institutional interface between Government labour market polices and `leading edge' firms.
Industrial Law Reform in an Era of Retreat: The Auroux Laws in France
Authors: Moss Bernard H.
Published: September 2003

France is perhaps the only country in the Western world which because of the predominance of class-struggle unionism has not developed a system of mutually binding collective bargaining. The Auroux Laws enacted under the presidency of Francois Mitterrand were chiefly designed to encourage workplace participation and contractual partnership between unions and management. This article examines their origins, rationale and short-term results to illustrate the dependency of legally-induced collective bargaining on the broader economic and political environment. Under depressive labour market and political conditions the reforms barely altered existing relationships. Their potentially integrative effects were vitiated by union weakness, radical opposition and the absence of material incentives for cooperation. While the reforms helped shift the focus of labour relations from the industry to the firm, it was a process dominated by management that left little room for collective participation or free and consensual bargaining.
Co-Operative Practices among Small and Medium-Sized Establishments
Authors: Pyke Frank
Published: September 2003

Industrial networks are rapidly being restructured and in the process new kinds of inter-establishment relationships are being formed. This paper describes several forms of inter-establishment co-operative practices engaged in by small and medium-sized units and seeks to explain them, and their variations, in terms of the context in which the establishments are located. The paper demonstrates that inter-establishment co-operative practices may be normal and integral features, and just as important for an economic unit's viability as relations of competition. The circumstances surrounding various kinds of co-operation are therefore promoted as important areas for further study.
The Effect of New Technology in the Engineering Industry: Cases of Control and Constraint
Authors: Wilson Fiona M. , Buchanan David A.
Published: September 2003

The major concern in this paper is to examine the effect of computer numerical control on skill. The findings from research in three companies demonstrate that in the engineering industry, technical change can have both positive and negative effects on the utilisation of skill, and thus on levels of skill in the industry. The experience of technical change, whether positive or negative, is shared among groups of workers. Technical change potentially poses a threat to turners' skill and so they will defend those common interests in the face of that change.
Self-Employment in Britain: Recent Trends and Current Issues
Authors: Hakim Catherine
Published: September 2003

This paper reviews trends in self-employment up to the 1980s and beyond, and looks at the composition and characteristics of the self-employed workforce. It examines the causes of the current rise in self-employment - in particular employers' strategy of transferring jobs and functions from their `core' workforce of full-time permanent employees to a `peripheral' workforce which includes self-employed labour-only subcontractors as well as part-time workers and people with limited duration contracts of employment. It looks at the recent inflow to self-employment - in particular the importance of involuntary entrants. It examines the ideology of self-employment, and whether it differs substantively from the work orientations of employees. Problems of definition and measurement are summarised. The review concludes with pointers for further research - both qualitative and quantitative.
Do Female Representatives make a Difference? Women Full-Time Officials and Trade Union Work
Authors: Heery Edmund , Kelly John
Published: September 2003

The article presents information on the extent and distribution of women's employment in full-time officer posts within British trade unions, and on the priorities and objectives of those ten per cent of full-time bargainers in the British labour movement who are women. The main concern of the article is to establish whether the presence of women in representative positions in trade unions `makes a difference'. It has been alleged by a number of commentators that British unions are neglectful of the separate interests of women workers in large part because women are absent from positions of power with the trade union hierarchy. The prescription for reform which usually follows such an analysis is that there should be a `feminising' of trade union government and administration in order to facilitate the expression of women's concerns and needs within trade union activities. This article attempts to assess the validity of this belief by examining whether those women who have achieved positions of influence within unions are committed to using their position to redirect trade union work towards a fuller engagement with `women's issues'. Specifically, it is concerned to establish whether women full-time officials are more likely than their male counterparts to give high priority to women's needs in collective bargaining and to the recruitment and organisation of women workers.
Industrial Discipline, the Control of Attendance, and the Subordination of Labour: Towards an Integrated Analysis
Authors: Edwards P. K. , Whitston Colin
Published: September 2003

The operation of discipline in the workplace has received little attention in sociology; the control of attendance has attracted even less. Yet they have taken on a growing significance in many firms, and help to throw light on more general issues of new forms of the control of labour. Material from two case studies is used to show why firms are changing their policies and to explore the effect on workplace relations. Disciplinary regimes have been tightened and, although the direct impact on workers has been limited, the symbolic effects of closer managerial attention to individual workers' behaviour are considerable.
Casual Work and Owner Occupation
Authors: Ford Janet
Published: September 2003

This paper considers the implications of a number of recent labour market changes for the maintenance of owner occupation. The prevalent emphasis upon the impact of unemployment on owner occupiers is discussed in relation to mortgage arrears and possessions, and contrasted with the limited recognition and attention given to the ways in which changing forms of employment enhance the risk of default (an argument which challenges the conventional assumptions of creditors and the state, where employment is seen as providing a `solution' to appears). Empirical data are presented to show the impact of casual work on owner occupier's ability to sustain housing costs. Some potential implications of the data for current sociological analyses of the ways in which the incidence and experience of different forms of employment and unemployment are shaped are discussed.
Industrial Discipline: Factory Regime and Politics in Lancaster
Authors: Warde Alan
Published: September 2003

By means of a critical appropriation of Burawoy's concept of `factory regime', this paper examines industrial relations in Lancaster, UK, through the 20th century. Having registered reservations about explanations of the quiescence of factory workers in terms of paternalism, the absence of industrial conflict in the town is attributed to a number of institutional forces that rendered workers heavily dependent upon local employers. The empirical case study is used to suggest ways of refining theoretical approaches to the politics of production.
Peripheralizing Core Labour Markets?: The Case of the Canadian Meat Packing Industry
Authors: Novek Joel
Published: September 2003

Recent debates in the sociology of work and employment have drawn a pessimistic picture of the leading mass production industries in the advanced nations and the core labour markets they sustain. It has been claimed that such industries are in decline and that their workers face an assault on their jobs, wage levels and working conditions. The Canadian meat packing industry has been selected as a case study of a mass production industry and a core labour market under the stress of recessionary restructuring. In that industry, changes in production technology, markets and industrial organization are contributing to a reduction in employment, relative wage levels and working conditions. The costs of a more uncertain economic environment have been transferred to the labour force. However, meat packing remains in essence a mass production industry whose problems are as much industry-specific as they are an instance of wider global trends.
Childbirth and Occupational Mobility: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study
Authors: Brannen Julia
Published: September 2003

In Britain most women's employment careers are interrupted by childbirth; only a tiny proportion return to their pre-birth jobs and a considerable proportion experience downward mobility when they do return to work. Evidence is presented from a longitudinal study of two groups of women in the first three years of motherhood: those who resumed their former jobs after maternity leave and those who resigned from the labour force. The paper traces the divergencies occurring in women's employment histories over three years and examines their implications for occupational mobility, taking account of finer shades of mobility than occupational status. Attention is also paid to the ways in which women define and manage occupational mobility in the construction of their employment careers.
Flexible Specialisation, Automation and Mass Production
Authors: Smith Chris
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the parallels between French and American perspectives on automation as a break with mass production in the 1960s, and French and American debates on Neo-Fordism/Flexible Specialisation as a break with mass production in the 1970s and 1980s. It explores the question of continuity and discontinuity in technological paradigms, and identifies common political themes in the two eras. In particular it notes that American interpretations of French theory, Blauner in the 1960s and Sabel in the 1980s, translate socialist or anti-capitalist transformational elements of these theories into pluralistic and liberal reformist political practice. The importance of the market, the role of craft skills, and the search for social solidarity and community within `new' capitalist production regimes are recurrent elements in the American literature. French theorists, on the other hand, are more concerned with social agency, continuity of managerial control and capital/labour dynamics within new production forms which are contradictory rather than integrated. The paper examines the genealogy of the concept flexible specialisation, and evidence of its existence in a primary area of mass production, the food industry. It concludes by rejecting both the utility and political message of the flexible specialisation thesis in favour of a more grounded marxist analysis of work restructuring.
New Production Arrangements: The Totally Flexible Cage?
Authors: Dawson Patrick , Webb Janette
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the management of innovation and change in two different operating units on a single site of a UK Division of a high technology US-owned multinational corporation. The transformation of work in changing from `production for stock' to `production to order' is analysed, and the process of changing established patterns of work (as a brownfield operation), and designing new production arrangements from the outset (as a greenfield operation) are contrasted and compared. The key features of Just-in-Time and Total Quality Control principles are identified and the extent to which they represent real inovations in production is assessed. The paper concludes with a critical discussion of the flexible specialisation debate through reappraising the empirical evidence, and concludes by rejecting the view that modern production arrangements signal the general enhancement of working life through a reversal of the division of labour, increased worker autonomy and greater employee involvement in production.
Do Labour Costs Really Matter?
Authors: Williams Karel , Williams John , Haslam Colin
Published: September 2003

This article examines the size and significance of labour costs in modern manufacturing industry. Labour costs are doubly salient because wages are both part of the input costs of production and a way of distributing net output. The evidence on British manufacturing shows that labour accounts for less than half of production costs and two-thirds or more of net output. When profit is a relatively small residual claimed by capital, labour costs determine profitability. But the linkage to final product costs and prices is much weaker. The macro- and micro-economic implications of these facts are explored and the positive success of the Japanese in managing labour costs is contrasted with the negative achievements of British manufacturing. It is argued that British managers are handicapped by poor control of the production process and a narrow obsession with direct labour and work practices.
Household Strategies: The Individual, The Collectivity and The Labour Market - The Case of Married Couples
Authors: Morris Lydia
Published: September 2003

Recent treatments of the household effects of economic change have tended to focus on household outcomes with reference to the use of resources of time and labour, paying scant attention to differences of power and interest within the home. It is suggested here that the most fruitful focus for the investigation of such intrahousehold divisions is the management of household finance. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, by reference to existing literature on married couples, that: (a) households constitute an amalgam of often conflicting individual interests, and that (b) some of these interests, particularly as expressed through access to and control over household resources, are closely related to experience and/or behaviour in the labour market.

In doing so questions are raised about the balance between personal needs and interests, and those of the household as a collectivity, and the relative significance of both these concerns for the motivation to earn. The notion of a household strategy and the emergence of a strategy in practice should therefore take account of these different interests and the way they are acknowledged or suppressed in the organisation of household finance. In pursuing such analysis it becomes necessary to take account of how far spending obligations and orientations towards spending and consumption are fashioned or constrained by gender roles, and the way in which the emergent patterns interact with position and behaviour in the labour market.
Flexible `Parts' and Rigid `Fulls': The Limited Revolution in Work-Time Patterns
Authors: Dey Ian
Published: September 2003

The evidence indicates that there has been some erosion of the distinction between part-time and full-time employment over the past decade. However, this is almost entirely attributable to the growth in part-time employment, and despite a continuing rigidity in full-time work patterns. It is argued that part-time employment can only make a limited contribution to labour market flexibility so long as full-time work patterns remain inflexible. This paper questions the assumptions sustaining a rigid bifurcation of work into full-time and part-time hours, and considers the case for a more flexible approach to full-time hours in the context of the debate over worksharing.
Early Retired or Long-Term Unemployed?
Authors: Casey Bernard , Laczko Frank
Published: September 2003

The paper examines the appropriateness of the epithet `a growth of early retirement' to describe the falling labour force participation of older men in Britain since the end of the 1970s. It refers to statistical explanations of age specific labour force participation and draws extensively on Labour Force Survey data to describe the subjective and objective characteristics of those aged 55-64 who are not in paid employment. Whilst there is evidence that much of the fall in activity rates can be ascribed to a deterioration of the labour market, it is inappropriate to consider those who have left the labour market simply as `unemployed'. Their indeterminate status - between active and inactive - is argued to be akin to that of the long-term unemployed.
Social Change and the Measurement of Occupational Segregation by Sex: An Assessment of the Sex Ratio Index
Authors: Siltanen Janet
Published: September 2003

This paper is an assessment of the sex ratio index as a measure of trends in occupational segregation by sex. The sex ratio index is the summary measure of horizontal segregation used in the Department of Employment studies of gender segregation in the British occupational structure. The paper argues that the sex ratio index has undesirable properties as a summary measure of occupational segregation by sex. Consequently, it is not convincing as a measure of change in gender distributions across occupations. When some of the difficulties with the measure are corrected, a post-war trend in horizontal occupational segregation emerges which differs in significant respects from that presented in the Department of Employment studies. However, further work is needed, in terms of measurement development and data comparability, before trends in occupational gender segregation can be established with full confidence.
The Road to Recovery? Some Evidence from Vacancies in One Labour Market
Authors: Marsh Catherine , McAuley Roisin , Penlington Siân
Published: September 2003

Even during times of high unemployment, one often hears people express the view that there are plenty of jobs available for those who want to work. Indeed, recent government policy rests on the truth of this assumption. After criticising some of the survey evidence purportedly documenting a flourishing vacancy situation nationally, the paper presents a test of the assumption in Chesterfield in the summer of 1988. The assumption is shown to be wanting. The sheer number of vacancies was not large and certainly not sufficient for the number of unemployed in the locality. The jobs that were on offer were not attractive in terms of pay and conditions. A minority of the jobs were for full-time, permanent positions. Casualised working conditions, non-standard hours, self-employment and low pay featured predominantly. There was little evidence of a skills gap. Nonetheless, virtually all the jobs were being taken, the majority by people already in work. Falling unemployment figures alone must not be taken as heralding an economic recovery, since it seems that many are simply leaving the register.
Core and Periphery in Employers' Workforce Strategies: Evidence from the 1987 E.L.U.S. Survey
Authors: Hakim Catherine
Published: September 2003

Current debates about changing patterns of work tend to be structured around Atkinson's model of the flexible firm, which is similar to Loveridge's model of firm-specific labour markets. Two spring 1987 national surveys, of workers and of employers, are analysed to show that the balance between core and periphery in the workforce is indeed changing, but that this labour force restructuring is due primarily to traditional and opportunistic approaches to the use of peripheral workers among employers. Employers with a conscious core- periphery manpower strategy constitute a small minority and they do not employ disproportionate numbers of peripheral workers. They are distinguished by a more thoroughgoing reorganisation of work, with greater use of subcontractors, the self-employed and agency workers. The long-term implications are considered.
Gender and Skills
Authors: Horrell Sara , Rubery Jill , Burchell Brendan
Published: September 2003

A survey of a random sample of over 600 employed adults in the Northampton area is used to compare men's and women's perceptions of the content of their jobs and to construct an index of skill. Differences were found between men and women in perceptions of both the types of skills required in their jobs, with women emphasising personal and social skills, and in the level of skill involved. Men's jobs on average appeared to be higher skilled, but the main difference was found in fact not to be by gender but between full- and part-time jobs. Some of these differences may be related to differences in perceptions of skill. Women part-timers were much less likely than men to perceive their jobs as skilled, even when sharing similar perceptions of job content.
Management, Work Organisation and Cad - Towards Flexible Automation?
Authors: McLoughlin Ian
Published: September 2003

CAD has been highlighted as a core technology in the development of flexible automation. However, experience during the 1980s has led to a great deal of scepticism over the benefits to be derived from adopting the technology. This article uses case study evidence to suggest that many of the problems result from a failure to adequately address the work organisation issues highlighted by CAD. The broad conclusion is that the full innovative potential of CAD has yet to be realised. In part this is because management responses to issues of organising and controlling work have been limited by traditional assumptions and beliefs, in turn often sustained by existing organisational arrangements and measures of effective performance. To realise the full potential of CAD as a core element of flexible automation a more `human-centred' approach may be required with regard to questions of job design and supervision.
Free Labour and Economic Performance: Evidence from the Construction Industry
Authors: Evans Stephen
Published: September 2003

This paper examines the contribution of the Conservative government's `free labour market' policies to recent productivity and economic performance, drawing on a detailed study of restructuring in the British construction industry. These policies are shown to have given a beneficial short-term boost to labour utilisation and cost reduction, which complemented improvements in managerial performance induced by more autonomous economic forces operating at sector and enterprise levels. However, by providing opportunities to casualise employment standards, deregulation relieved the pressures on firms to introduce more innovative technologies and work re-organisation. Doubt is cast on whether recent productivity gains can be sustained, and on the long-term efficacy of the government's free labour market policies.
Labour Market Segmentation and the Age Structuring of Employment Opportunities for Young People
Authors: Furlong Andy
Published: September 2003

This paper aims to advance knowledge of labour market segmentation by examining the ways in which employment opportunities for young people are structured by age. Segmentation theorists often suggest that `youth' and `adult' labour markets operate separately. In this paper I describe entry patterns within different occupational groups in order to determine whether the concept of separate labour markets is a valid one. Because of the Governments' intention to remove some of the legislative barriers to the employment of young people, this paper also attempts to assess the likely impact of such legislation by determining the extent to which barriers are a result of age rather than qualifications.
Gender, Employment and Responsibilities to Kin
Authors: Finch Janet , Mason Jennifer
Published: September 2003

This article is concerned with conflicts of interest between people's commitment to employment and their responsibilities to kin, especially for the care of elderly relatives. Questions are raised about what is generally seen as the appropriate balance of priorities, and how such priorities and conflicts are actually handled and resolved in kin groups, by women in particular. The paper draws on both quantitative and qualitative data from a study of family obligations. The authors argue that choices between either maintaining or giving up employment to care for kin rarely arise in such stark form for a variety of reasons. When they do, however, compromise strategies tend to be sought which protect existing employment whilst at the same time enabling people to take some responsibility for their kin. Women's jobs, as well as men's, can be protected in these circumstances and this is widely approved of at the normative level. It is likely that in the future, if more women are encouraged into the labour market, and if they develop consistent employment patterns, many more may need to generate compromise strategies.
Management Control in Sales Forces: A Case Study from the Labour Process of Life Insurance
Authors: Knights David , Morgan Glenn
Published: September 2003

The paper examines the way in which the management of a large life insurance company controls its sales force. Whilst the paper seeks to contribute to an understanding of an under-researched occupational area - that of sales - it is concerned to do this within a theoretical framework derived from the critique and development of labour process theory. Thus the sales process itself is examined as the site of a complex series of practices mediated by managerial control mechanisms. Three issues are highlighted. Firstly, the paper shows how corporate strategy, shaped significantly by perceptions of vulnerability to takeover, is translated into a system of targets for individual sales people, closely monitored and `disciplined' by management. Secondly, the paper shows how these targets become internalised by the sales force and the way in which the individual sales representatives manage the pressure on their own identities. Thirdly, the paper examines how these processes are located in a wider set of social relationships mediated particularly by state activity. Thus the state through the Financial Services Act of 1986 is increasingly involved in defining `good practice' in this area and thus intervening indirectly in the labour process itself and the managerial controls which constitute it.
Inserting Gender into Burawoy's Theory of the Labour Process
Authors: Davies Scott
Published: September 2003

This paper examines gender bias in Burawoy's influential theory of the labour process and assesses the implications of this bias. Burawoy's theory states that the structure of the labour process, via its relative autonomy and key mechanisms (shopfloor games, internal labour markets and the industrial state) `manufactures consent'. This theory is criticized for ignoring gender as an important element in the operation of consent. It is argued that (a) gender is implicitly assumed in his theory in terms of a male bias, and (b) this gender bias creates a serious limitation since it does not apply to the work conditions faced predominately by women. Discussion focuses on how an analysis of gender highlights the problem of asserting a `relative autonomy' of the labour process.
Household Work Strategies and Forms of Labour: Conceptual and Empirical Issues
Authors: Warde Alan
Published: September 2003

This paper explores some theoretical and empirical issues concerning the different forms of work that people engage in in contemporary capitalist societies. The theoretical issues derive from four sources: Harding & Jenkins' argument that distinctions between the formal and the informal economy are unsustainable; Hilary Silver's critique of Gershuny's self-service economy thesis; debates about an adequate definition of `work'; and the debate about the usefulness of the concept of household work strategy. The empirical aspect of the paper emanates from a replication of aspects of Pahl and Wallace's study of the Isle of Sheppey among households in the North West of England.

The concept of household work strategy is defended as a way of understanding the ways in which forms of work are combined, endorsing a modified version of the methodological approaches of Gershuny and Pahl. However, exception is taken to certain of the interpretative themes and empirical trends identified by both authors. Evidence against Gershuny's self-service society thesis is provided, pointing to the merits of an Engel's Law interpretation based on the tendency for affluent, dual-earner households to purchase services on the market. The study of North West households, while confirming substantial parts of Pahl's empirical analysis, authorises different lines of interpretation.

The argument overall is directed towards an understanding of the social relations governing different forms of work and the value of a theoretical approach to work based on several alternative ways of providing use-values.
Flexible Labour Utilisation in the Private Service Sector
Authors: Walsh T. J.
Published: September 2003

Services have witnessed a continuous expansion in employment during the 150 years for which data are available, rising from 27% of all employment in 1841 to over 70% by 1990. Yet the rise of jobs in services, particularly in private sector service employment has generally not been accompanied by empirical research into the rationales underlying labour demand in its industries. Drawing on payroll and other data from detailed company case-studies, this paper seeks to delineate pay and employment policies prevalent in the retail and hotel industries with particular emphasis on part-time, temporary and casual working; and to consider the implications for labour market segmentation and labour `flexibility' literature.