bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Titrating Versus Targeting Home Care Services to Frail Elderly Clients
Authors: Weissert William , Chernew Michael , Hirth Richard
Published: July 2003

The article summarizes the shortcomings of current home care targeting policy, provides a conceptual framework for understanding the sources of its problems, and proposes an alternative resource allocation method. Methods required for different aspects of the study included synthesis of the published literature, regression analysis of risk predictors, and comparison of actual resource allocations with simulated budgets. Problems of imperfect agency ranging from unclear goals and inappropriate incentives to lack of information about the marginal effectiveness of home care could be mitigated with an improved budgeting method that combines client selection and resource allocation. No program can produce its best outcome performance when its goals are unclear and its technology is unstandardized. Titration of care would reallocate resources to maximize marginal benefit for marginal cost.
Effective Coordination of Medical and Supportive Services
Authors: Capitman John
Published: July 2003

For at least the past quarter century, tension between “medical/allied health” and “social” models of care have characterized much of the home-care policy debate. There has also emerged a growing body of research and boundary-bending care models based on a holistic view of care recipients and caregiving. Such models coordinate between medical care and expanded supportive community services (SCS) that range from assistance with lifestyle modification, self-care, and informal care to adult-day services and home-health care. This article presents a new rationale for these models based on disablement theory and recent accounts of fairness in health policy. This approach is contrasted with the efficiency and efficacy policy perspectives that have received the most attention. The implications of an equal-opportunity approach to home-care policy for performance indicators are explored. Six basic models of coordination and current evidence on their impacts are described from this new perspective. Using qualitative data from two recent projects, five dimensions of care recipient and caregiver experiences that may be relevant to performance measurement are described. Suggestions for further service innovations and research are offered.
Bringing Managed Care Home to People With Chronic, Disabling Conditions
Authors: Kodner Dennis L. , Kyriacou Corinne Kay
Published: July 2003

This article examines the challenges and opportunities inherent in the idea that home care organizations may be able to reinvent themselves into managed care systems for the frail elderly and chronically ill. Data come from three sources: (a) existing literature, (b) a survey with experts, and (c) insights from an organization with direct experience in designing and implementing first- and second-generation managed care programs. The authors conclude that although even the best-positioned home care organizations will face significant challenges in transitioning to managed care systems (e.g., establishing medical linkages, building managed care capacity, securing funding, dealing with regulatory hurdles), changes in the environment may enable these challenges to be overcome. Home care organizations are beginning to use innovative techniques to manage care, and those with a strong commitment to the chronically ill may be interested and capable of pursuing the option of becoming home-based managed chronic care programs.
Managed Long-Term Care
Authors: Fisher Holly Michaels , Raphael Terrie G.
Published: July 2003

The New York State managed long-term care demonstration program combines traditional home, community, and institutional long-term care services with other benefits integral to maximizing overall well-being for a frail elderly population. A distinguishing feature of the model is the responsibility to coordinate both covered and noncovered services. This article, a case study of VNS CHOICE, a managed longterm care plan that serves 2,500 New York City residents, describes the program’s operating structure, service delivery model, and care management strategies. By providing a capitated Medicaid long-term care benefit, VNS CHOICE can utilize a broad array of services, offer significant flexibility to care management staff, and support member and family involvement in care planning. Its broad care coordination responsibility allows it to achieve integrated care without integrated financing.
Evaluation of the Managed Community Care Demonstration Project
Authors: Hughes Susan L. , Finkel Sanford , Harter Kathryne , Fulton Bradley , Edelman Perry , Waters Teresa
Published: July 2003

The purpose of this article is to describe the impact of a capitated community-care demonstration in Illinois that attempted to increase the range of services provided while constraining overall costs. The authors examined the implementation and outcomes, using pretest and posttest measures of client satisfaction, range of services, agency costs, and nursing home admissions. Demonstration clients (n = 752) had a mean age of 80, and an average of two activities of daily living impairments. The number of covered services increased from 3 at baseline to 14 during the demonstration, whereas the mean number of services used increased from 1 to 2.5. Satisfaction with care remained stable and agency average costs declined. The capitation rate more closely approximated agency costs than customary fee-for-service (FFS) and provided a fixed deductible for clients. No difference was seen in nursing home admissions compared to clients served under FFS in the same geographic location. These results imply that capitation increased the range of covered services, maintained client satisfaction, increased efficiency, and did not affect rate of nursing home admissions. Capitated home- and community-based services needs to be tested in other locations and with other providers.
Measurement of Volunteering: A Methodological Study Using Indiana as a Test Case
Authors: Steinberg Kathryn S. , Rooney Patrick M. , Chin William
Published: July 2003

How much does survey methodology matter when measuring volunteering? Every 4 years, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University conducts a telephone survey (called “Indiana Gives”) of the giving and volunteering behaviors of Indiana citizens. In this most recent wave of the Indiana survey, conducted in October and November 2000, we asked eight groups of approximately 100 randomly selected Indiana residents to complete one of eight surveys related to giving and volunteering. We found that the longer and more detailed the module, the more likely an individual was to have provided volunteer service in the past year, and the higher the average number of hours provided, even after controlling for differences in age, income, household status, itemization status, and race. Further research is needed to ascertain whether there may be a “point of diminishing returns” in terms of optimal survey length and detail and whether recall is inhibited for high-end volunteers only.
Testing the Conventional Wisdom Regarding Volunteer Programs: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Service Corps of Retired Executives and the U.S. Small Business Administration
Authors: Brudney Jeffrey L. , Gazley Beth
Published: July 2003

Conventional wisdom holds that volunteer programs save money and raise the level of services provided by an organization but threaten paid positions. This study tests these assumptions qualitatively and quantitatively based on the experience of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and its volunteer program, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). The authors examined the SBA’s history with SCORE using interviews, records, and reports and then applied interrupted time-series statistical analysis to 42 years of budget, employment, and output data. The authors found evidence that SBA services increased with SCORE but found no support for stereotypes of adversarial relationships between volunteers and paid staff, volunteer replacement of paid personnel, or cutbacks in agency budget to compensate for the addition of an unpaid workforce. This study has broad implications for both public agencies and nonprofit organizations, sounding a cautionary note that conventional assumptions regarding the impact of volunteers on budget and paid staff may need to be reevaluated.
A Regression Model Explaining Predisposition to Collaborate
Authors: Foster Mary K. , Meinhard Agnes G.
Published: July 2003

Using a sample of 645 nonprofit organizations in Canada, the authors construct and validate a regression model to explain predisposition to collaborate. Organizational factors such as size and type (feminist or not) were found to be related to the extent of formal collaborative activity. However, the strength of these factors as predictors of behavior was amplified or reduced by the intervening perception of the impact of environmental changes. In addition, the perception of these pressures was shown to intensify the motivation to collaborate, which in turn increases the probability of engaging in formal interorganizational activity. This study contributes to the body of knowledge about collaboration because previous research has not investigated the influence of a combination of factors on collaborative behavior.
Extent and Nature of Overlap between Listings of IRS Tax-Exempt Registration and Nonprofit Incorporation: The Case of Indiana
Authors: Grønbjerg Kirsten A. , Paarlberg Laurie
Published: July 2003

To consider the capacity of nonprofits and communities that respond to public policy initiatives, the authors use a comprehensive database of Indiana nonprofits to examine two indicators of nonprofit formalization: tax-exempt registration under Section 501(c) of the IRS code and formal incorporation with the Indiana Secretary of State. The authors find that only 23% of the 54,108 nonprofits in the statewide database meet both criteria for formalization. The authors test whether more formalized nonprofits (appearing on both lists) are larger, older, and active in more institutionalized fields than those on only one or neither of the two lists. The findings generally confirm these expectations. The authors also hypothesize that larger, growing, and more institutionally developed communities will have a more formalized nonprofit sector (greater list overlap). However, few community-level variables relate meaningfully to the measure of sector formalization. Other factors that may be relevant for such an analysis are considered.
Work Aspirations and Attitudes in an Era of Labour Market Restructuring: A Comparison of two Canadian Youth Cohorts
Authors: Lowe Graham S. , Krahn Harvey
Published: July 2003

This article tests the assumption that youth's work attitudes are changing to reflect the restructured labour markets that often are taken as a characteristic of late-modernity. Comparing 1985 and 1996 cohorts of high school leavers in a Canadian city, we find that occupational aspirations increased significantly since 1985, especially among females, in ways consistent with employment trends in a service-based economy. However, the 1985 and 1996 youth cohorts wanted very similar conditions in a job, and in each cohort we observed significant gender differences. General attitudes towards work and education also remained fairly constant. We discuss the implications of these findings for school-work transition research and for larger debates about youth responses to conditions of late-modernity.
Age Stratification and Class Formation: A Longitudinal Study of the Social Mobility of Young Men and Women, 1971-1991
Authors: Egerton Muriel , Savage Mike
Published: July 2003

This paper examines the relationship between processes of demographic class formation, gender inequality and age stratification in England and Wales between 1971 and 1991. Existing research shows that the complex process of class restructuring which took place in these years is linked to considerable changes in the position of women, especially related to their growing numbers in professional and managerial occupations. We seek to show that changing processes of age stratification were also related to the remaking of class and gender relations in these years. Data from the Longitudinal Study (approximately 193,000 men and 203,000 women aged 23-57 in two age cohorts; 1971 and 1981), Samples of Anonymised Records (approximately 121,500 men and 126,000 women aged 23-57 in 1991), General Household Survey 1983-1992 (32,609 men and 16,191 women aged 23-57 in fulltime employment) and from the National Child Development Study, 1981 and 1991 (2205 men and 887 women aged 23 and 33, in fulltime employment) were used to examine the movement of individuals through changing opportunity structures over the twenty-year period. We found a distinct hardening of the relationship between age and class in these two decades for men, with a marked increase in social polarisation between young men and older men, but for women this relationship was very different, with young women seeing considerable evidence of an improvement in their fortunes.
Unemployment and Unemployment Benefits in the OECD 1960-1990 - An Empirical Test of Neo-Classical Economic Theory
Authors: Sjöberg Ola
Published: July 2003

The role of unemployment benefits in explaining the rise and apparent persistence of OECD unemployment has attracted a great deal of scholarly as well as political interest. The disincentive effect of unemployment benefits has mostly been studied with micro-level data, whereas the importance of different unemployment regimes for explaining cross-national differences in unemployment rates has been a rather unexplored area of research. For the purpose of this article, data was collected on the duration and replacement levels of unemployment benefits for an average production worker in 17 OECD countries for the period 1960-1990. This data was then related to the level and trends in unemployment in these countries. The results indicate that there is no systematic evidence that countries with more generous unemployment have experienced higher levels of unemployment, nor that reforms to increase the generosity of unemployment benefits have caused unemployment rates to increase. However, there are some indications that a few countries with relatively long benefit duration experienced a relatively large increase in their unemployment rates in the mid-1970s.
Emotional Labour and Sexual Difference in the Airline Industry
Authors: Taylor Steve , Tyler Melissa
Published: July 2003

This paper examines service work within the contemporary airline industry which has recently been shaped by managerial initiatives aiming to deliver `quality service'. We focus upon the gendered consequences of this. On the basis of original empirical research, three specific arguments are advanced: firstly, recent competitive pressures and accompanying managerial initiatives are intensifying demands upon female employees for the production of emotional labour, subjective commitment to organisational aims and sexual difference within parts of the airline industry; secondly, despite the enormous power of such managerial demands, the `spaces' for female employees to comply, consent and resist remain `open' within the aspects of the industry studied; thirdly, the power of the gendered managerial prescription investigated here is related to the way it is embedded within the structural and inequitable capital-labour relation. The paper is informed by an approach which places the process of gendering inside class relations, and stresses the need to empirically interrogate the historically-specific `lived experience' of gendered power relations in order to adequately analyse and explain such phenomena.
Cultural Control and the `Culture Manager': Employment Practices in a Consultancy
Authors: Grugulis Irena , Dundon Tony , Wilkinson Adrian
Published: July 2003

This article explores the use of `company culture' as a means of management control. It reports on research conducted in a consultancy that aimed to secure loyalty from its employees through a conscious policy of organised `play' at company socials. Employees were given a certain amount of freedom over their working lives in exchange for accepting company regulation of their social time. Here it is argued that this normative control differs from historical attempts to ensure that employees were of good moral character. In earlier interventions social and community obligations were emphasised, now every `virtue' encouraged is designed to be exercised in the workplace, often at the expense of the individual or the community. Further, that while control through organisational culture does have some of the advantages claimed for it in the prescriptive literature, it also extends the employment contract to areas previously outside the managerial prerogative.
Adoption of the Organising Model in British Trade Unions: Some Evidence from Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF)
Authors: Carter Bob
Published: July 2003

There is increasing evidence of a widespread recognition within the British trade union movement of the need to change. Amongst the directions of change being considered is adoption of the `organising model' borrowed from the United States. MSF was probably the first major British union to go down this path, thereby promising to transform itself from an organisation that had pioneered the conservative `servicing model' to one in the forefront of promoting a radical alternative. This transformation is far from unproblematic and this article examines the tensions and difficulties encountered through a study of NHS membership organisation two regions. In the process of the examination, the article highlights the inadequacies of approaches to union decline that either regard it as an inevitable result of objective circumstances or believe that new policies to counter decline can be adopted by managerial fiat and without recourse to widespread discussion among members to build a consensus.
Technical Labour in an Engineering Boutique: Interpretive Frameworks of Sales and R&D Engineers
Authors: Darr Asaf
Published: July 2003

This ethnographic study of engineers in action introduces an interpretive approach to the recent debate about the factors shaping the organisation of engineering labour within the firm. The study compares the consciousness of kind and of difference developed by R&D and sales engineers (also known as customer engineers) working for an engineering boutique. Two case stories and other field data exemplify that the R&D and the customer engineers not only developed distinct interpretive frameworks, they also enacted them in the course of daily interaction either to protect or to alter an existing jurisdictional map between the two engineering specialities. Discussion suggests that the organisation of engineering labour is partly shaped by the interrelation of interpretive frameworks developed by engineering sub-groups. The possible technisation of sales work in micro-electronics is also discussed.
Braverman and the Contribution of Labour Process Analysis to the Critique of Capitalist Production - Twenty-Five Years on
Authors: Spencer David A.
Published: July 2003

This paper seeks to reassess the contributions made by Braverman and subsequent labour process writers to the critique of capitalist production. Braverman's main motivation lay with the subversion of pro-capitalist ideologies. He identified deskilling tendencies with the capitalist imperative of accumulation in order to promote the case for revolutionary change. The labour process debate that Braverman helped to initiate, while successful in broadening understanding of concrete work relations, has difficulties in excavating the necessary interconnections of capitalist alienation and exploitation. In particular, there is a problem in separating out the different levels of analysis that link essence and appearance in the work context. Narrow focus on the labour process creates unnecessary conceptual confusion about the specificity of capitalist production, and also condones an unduly pessimistic political agenda on the prospects for transcending capitalist domination. In eschewing the important interconnections between workplace organisation and capitalist social relations, labour process analysis risks inverting the critical intent of Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital by promoting the continuation of the extant social order.
Automation, Job content, and Underemployment
Authors: de Witte Marco , Steijn Bram
Published: July 2003

The on-going skilling debate has already yielded an abundance of contradictory theories, interpretations and empirical contradictions. Based on previous qualitative research in the Netherlands (Steijn and De Witte 1992), we have contributed to this debate by introducing the internal differentiation hypothesis. This paper addresses the empirical validity of this hypothesis by analysing data from a representative Dutch panel of 1,022 respondents in paid employment. The data show a small overall net upgrading trend. However, automation seems to have different effects for various occupational groups. For blue-collar workers, our findings suggest that a trend of internal differentiation does exist. Next, we examine the consequences (for underemployment and job satisfaction) of automation and changes in work content. Although our outcomes do not support our internal differentiation hypothesis, they do show the important effect of autonomy and complexity on feelings of underemployment. The outcomes justify Mottaz's statement that one of the consequences of this underemployment is job dissatisfaction.
`The Dream Factory': VW's Modular Production System in Resende, Brazil
Authors: Abreu Alice R de P. , Beynon Huw , Ramalho José Ricardo
Published: July 2003

This paper draws upon on-going research into the changes taking place in the Brazilian vehicle assembly industry with particular reference to the state of Rio de Janeiro. It focuses upon a case study of Volkswagen's bus and truck assembly plant at Resende. The plant opened in 1996 on a green-field site and was presented as a major development in vehicle assembly. The unique feature of the plant's production system rests on the relationship between the assembler (VW) and its component suppliers. At Resende these were involved in a joint enterprise to establish a `modular system' of production. In this system, the component suppliers finance a part of the factory and organise the assembly of their components on site. As such few of the production workers are employed by the assembler whose main role in the process is to co-ordinate production and market the vehicle. The article outlines the nature of the Resende system and the negotiations and comment that accompanied its introduction. It considers the development in relation to literatures on the boundary and capacity of the firm and those relating to the role of labour in mature labour processes. In drawing upon wider changes in the Brazilian vehicle manufacturing sector it argues that the Resende experiment can be understood as an extreme case of a more general development in Brazil, involving changed relationships between assemblers and component suppliers and also with the manual workers. Some consideration is given to the idea of an emerging `Brazilian system' of production and its implication for more general developments within the sector.
Freelance Workers and Contract Uncertainty: The Effects of Contractual Changes in the Television Industry
Authors: Dex Shirley , Willis Janet , Paterson Richard , Sheppard Elaine
Published: July 2003

Changes in the competitive and regulative conditions of British television over the 1980s and 1990s make for an environment of increased uncertainty for those who work in television. Broadcasting legislation, increased competition and technological advances have changed the working practices of the UK's 28,000 production workforce. The introduction of a 25 per cent quota of independent productions on all terrestrial channels, the implementation of Producer Choice in the BBC and the creation of a Network Centre in ITV, leading to a new commissioning process along with merger rationalisation and increasing competition have all contributed to constructing a workforce in which over 50 per cent are freelance and face much uncertainty. This paper focuses on some of the ways workers have experienced and responded to these changes by analysing the postal questionnaire and diary-data collected in an eight-wave panel study of 436 creative production workers in British television 1994-97, collected by the British Film Institute.

This paper considers whether uncertainty is a problem and finds that it is for the majority of these workers. The question of what makes uncertainty a problem is also considered. Individuals were found to cope with uncertainty by diversifying the income sources, by collecting information, building informal networks and by thinking of leaving work in television.
The Crucial Aspects of Class: An Empirical Assessment of the Relevance of Class Analysis with Swedish Data Covering the Late Twentieth Century
Authors: Bihagen Erik , Halleröd Björn
Published: July 2003

Class structure and class formation are two crucial aspects of class. The former relates to differences in market positions and the latter concerns social factors such as interaction, mobility and class action. This paper is based on Swedish data covering the period from 1975 to 1995. Analysis reveals a persistent class hierarchy and that there is no trend towards declining class differences regarding market position. The situation is better described as being in a state of non-linear flux. However, one persistent trend is discernible; class explains less and less of the variance in wage income. Looking at class formation there is a decline over time in class-homogeneity. Most Swedes are mobile in the sense that they end up in a class position different from their father's. A growing majority of all marriage is also class mixed. However, although classes generally lack homogeneity, social boundaries still exist, i.e., tendencies for immobility and class homogeneous marriage. In relation to the `class-is-dying' hypothesis, the results generally indicate the continuing relevance of class, although the view of classes as homogeneous social groups is increasingly troublesome over time.
Employment and Caring in British and Norwegian Banking: An Exploration through Individual Careers
Authors: Crompton Rosemary , Birkelund Gunn Elisabeth
Published: July 2003

The continuing expansion of women's employment has increasingly focused attention on the question of how the caring work traditionally carried out by unpaid women will be accomplished. In particular, how can caring responsibilities be combined with a long-term career? In this paper, we assess the significance of the national context through a comparison of the biographies of career bank managers, male and female, in Britain and Norway. We find that although the (considerably) more family-friendly policies of the Norwegian state do have a positive impact, particularly in somewhat exceptional cases, nevertheless in general in both countries, individuals have difficulties in combining employment with caring and no examples of a `two career' household were found in either country. These findings emphasise the continuing tension between market forces and social reproduction, which has been exacerbated by the erosion of the `male breadwinner' model of family caring and has yet to be resolved in a satisfactory manner.
Derecognising Unions and Centralising Bargaining: Analysing Dualism in the Oil and Chemicals Industries
Authors: Korczynski Marek , Ritson Neil
Published: July 2003

There has been a recent rise in employers derecognising unions. The oil and chemical industries have been identified as critical for the analysis and practice of derecognition. This paper presents data showing that major oil and chemical firms have, on the one hand, derecognised unions for key internal staff, but on the other hand, have enforced a centralised bargaining framework for their on-site contractors engaged in the out-sourced repair, maintenance and construction work. This centralised bargaining framework has strengthened the institutional position of trade unions. The paper analyses the key factors which have pushed the same employers to act in very different ways for the two sets of workers. It finds little evidence to support arguments that a strong anti-union culture in the industries underlay employers' actions. Rather the evidence suggests that management have acted pragmatically in response to pressing short-term economic pressures. The different approaches to unions for the two sets of workers have been guided by the different economic objectives facing employers and by the different historical position of unions in helping or hindering to secure those objectives. The conclusion considers the implications of these findings for the future of derecognition in the UK.
The Role of Social Capital in Developing Czech Private Business
Authors: Clark Ed
Published: July 2003

The development of new private business has both economic and social significance for the post-communist transition. New business firms offer industrial dynamism and flexibility to former command economies typically dominated by gigantic monopolies, while, unlike privatised enterprises, not reproducing formerly institutionalised practices. They further presage the rise of new social groups and values with direct implications for civic, social and political renewal. The author argues that conventional economic theories of business foundation, which presume the stable institutional conditions of Western-style capitalism, are by themselves poor explanations of the development of private business in transitional conditions. The paper proposes instead a social-institutional approach, in which small firms are examined as a socially constructed process undertaken by business founders within ambiguous institutional circumstances characterised by historical legacies and simultaneous discontinuities. The empirical findings allow the exploration of the process of business founding by former nomenklatura. Their stock of inherited social capital gave them a privileged position in the contest to construct new firms and thereby access to the legitimate accumulation of economic capital, which completed their personal assimilation to the emergent form of market-economic capitalism. The paper concludes by assessing the social implications of these observations.
Different Exit Routes from Unemployment and their Impact on Mental Well-Being: The Role of the Economic Situation and the Predictability of the Life Course
Authors: Strandh Mattias
Published: July 2003

The relationship between unemployment and mental well-being has been thoroughly researched. Longitudinal studies have shown unemployment to have negative impact on mental well-being, whereas re-employment has positive impact. This research has however taken little interest in a more complex concept of labour market status than just`employment versus unemployment', or indeed other alternative exit routes from unemployment. In this article, an investigation is made into the impact of different exit routes from unemployment on mental well-being. This is done using a longitudinal and nationally representative survey of 3,500 unemployed Swedes. The results indicate that the mental well-being outcome of exiting unemployment is related to how the new status resolves economic difficulties and the uncertainty faced in the unemployment situation. The increase in mental well-being when re-entering paid labour is differentiated depending on the contractual situation. Exit to permanent employment means a larger increase in mental well-being than exit to temporary employment or self-employment. Exit to university education increases mental well-being, whereas exit to high-school equivalent studies does not. Exit from unemployment to maternity/paternity leave increases mental well-being, exit to sick leave reduces mental well-being, while exit to early retirement pension does not significantly change the mental well-being.
The Myth of the Urban Peasant
Authors: Clarke Simon , Varshavskaya Lena , Alasheev Sergei , Karelina Marina
Published: July 2003

This paper explores, the `myth of the urban peasant', the widespread belief that urban Russian households are surviving the collapse of employment and money incomes by turning to subsistence agriculture. On the basis of the analysis of official and survey data the paper shows that although many urban households grow food in their garden plots, those with low money incomes are the least likely to do so, while subsistence production is a complement rather than an alternative to paid employment. Moreover, those who do grow their own food work long hours for very little return, spending no less of their money income on buying food than do those who grow nothing. The implication is that dacha use is a leisure activity of the better-off rather than a survival strategy of the poor. Regional data suggests that urban agricultural production persists in those regions in which commercial agriculture and monetised relations are least developed which, it is surmised, retain memories of past shortages
Management and Empowerment Programmes
Authors: Hales Colin
Published: July 2003

This paper addresses the divergence between the widespread rhetoric of empowerment and limited reality of empowerment programmes. Having demonstrated the ambiguities and contradictions in the concept of empowerment to be found in the management literature and, hence, the amenability of the concept to a variety of interpretations, the paper considers evidence from studies of hotel companies, a theme park and chemicals and telecommunications manufacturing plants which shows that the interpretation of empowerment which senior managers enthusiastically promote is rather different from the one which junior managers reluctantly accept and that empowerment programmes are as much about the putative reorganisation of junior managers' work as any substantive increase in worker autonomy. An interpretation of these findings is then offered in terms of how the ideological space opened up by ambiguities in the empowerment concept presents senior managers with a convenient ideological justification for the reorganisation of managerial work but also presents junior managers with a set of ideas with which to justify their continued existence, at a time when the managerial labour process is being rationalised and the raison d'être of junior line managers, in terms of responsibility for a labour process, is becoming problematic. The rhetoric of empowerment is an ideological terrain on which the conflict between senior and junior managers over attempts to reconstitute managerial work is conducted.
Professional Work and Professional Careers in Manchester's Business and Financial Sector
Authors: Devine Fiona , Britton Joanne , Mellor Rosemary , Halfpenny Peter
Published: July 2003

This paper examines professional work and professional careers and the extent to which professionals face change, uncertainty and risk in their careers. The key issue is whether the power and privilege of the professions is being undermined. It draws on research from Manchester's business and financial sector including accountancy, law, actuarial work and corporate finance. Interviews with senior partners and managers in a range of organisations indicate that important changes in the professions are taking place including diversification, inter-professional competition, organisational change and specialisation. There has also been a change in relationships with clients and an intensification of work. Interviews with junior professionals show that job mobility is high in the early career although most envisaged staying with one organisation for the majority of their careers. Hours of work were long but not necessarily seen as onerous. They were well remunerated in commanding high salaries at a relatively young age with the prospect of greatly enhanced rewards in the future. Few had experiences of redundancy and none of unemployment although the consensus of opinion was that the professions are no longer a job for life. Perceptions of insecurity were greater than experiences of it. It is argued that the privilege and power of the professions can only be understood in the context of the organisations in which they are employed and the political economy in which those organisations operate. Increased economic competitiveness has led to changes in professional work but professionals continue to enjoy advantaged careers in the labour market.
Production Supervisors in Britain, Germany and the United States: Back from the Dead again?
Authors: Mason Geoff
Published: July 2003

The recent diffusion of'lean production' work practices and various forms of team-working in manufacturing industry has revived old arguments about the likely decline of production supervisors. These issues are here submitted to empirical scrutiny through a detailed comparison of the skills and utilisation of supervisors in the British, German and American engineering industries. The threatened demise of supervisors is found to be exaggerated yet again for three main reasons. Firstly, supervisors' jobs have generally become more demanding and complex due to greater diversity in the product mix and more stringent quality and delivery targets. Secondly, in Britain and the US (although not in Germany) the average span of responsibility of supervisors has remained stable in recent years. Thirdly, there is evidence in all three countries that, far from making supervisors `redundant' in any way, the development of new work practices such as team-working can actually help to restore the influence of supervisors in strategic decision-making - by `freeing' them from their traditional immersion in the day-to-day details of shopfloor management.
Service Work in Consumer Capitalism: Customers, Control and Contradictions
Authors: Korczynski Marek , Shire Karen , Frenkel Stephen , Tam May
Published: July 2003

There is an important literature suggesting that the consumer has become a key focus of identity and figure of authority in contemporary society. Within this literature, however, there is little consideration of the role that the identification with the customer could play in management control within production, nor of the ensuing potential contradictions. This paper examines these issues in front line call centre work. Control in this setting is theorised as being informed by dual logics of customer-orientation and bureaucratisation. The paper shows the important use of norms of customer identification in control. It also highlights two levels of contradictions in the use of these norms. First there is the contradiction between continuing bureaucratic control and the attempts to develop normative control. Second, there are contradictions within the development of customer-related normative control. Specifically, the definition of the customer as the focus for normative commitment is a contested terrain, with systematic and significant differences existing here between call centre workers and management.
`No, We Don't Provide that Service': The Harassment of Hotel Employees by Customers
Authors: Guerrier Yvonne , Adib Amel S.
Published: July 2003

Whilst hotel management's rhetoric encourages staff to provide the best possible service by satisfying customers' needs, front line staff find themselves bearing the brunt of any abusive and sexual behaviour from customers. This article analyses the experience of harassment of hotel workers by customers. The specificities of the hotel space, the elusive sexuality that exists within the hotel, and the issue of ethnicity in relation to imbalances of power between the staff and the guest are all discussed using examples of harassment of hotel workers in a variety of workplaces and work roles. The article also explores how hotel workers deal with incidents of harassment, the complex ways in which they resist, and management reaction to harassment of their workers.
Subcontracting and the Reregulation of the Employment Relationship: A Case Study from the Telecommunications Industry
Authors: MacKenzie Robert
Published: July 2003

This is a case study of the use of subcontracting within BT plc the UK's largest telecommunications firm. The 1990s have witnessed significant quantitative and qualitative changes in the utilisation and management of subcontracting within BT. The deregulation, or rather the shift in regulation, of the employment relationship represented by movement from bureaucratic hierarchical forms of organisation to subcontracting introduces several sources of uncertainty into the process of ensuring an adequate supply of labour and inducing the desired contribution within production. This study examines whether the regulation of labour in terms of supply and performance can be reconciled through subcontracting mechanisms. In this case the experience of deregulation of the capital-labour relationship threw up unforeseen outcomes. The problems that arose from the reliance upon a labour source that was ostensibly beyond the control of the firm inspired initiatives that essentially represented the partial reregulation of the capital-labour relationship.
Getting a Job in Europe: The Transition from Unemployment to Work among Young People in Nine European Countries
Authors: Russell Helen , O'Connell Philip J.
Published: July 2003

Youth unemployment remains a significant problem in most EU countries. In this paper we explore the dynamics of this problem by comparing young people's transitions from unemployment to employment in nine member states. Using the first two waves of the European Community Household Panel, we follow the progress of 14,600 young Europeans over a two-year period. We examine how the employment prospects of young unemployed people are affected by their country of residence and by their personal characteristics such as age, gender, parenthood and educational attainment as well as by previous work experience and unemployment duration. We attempt to unpack the crossnational differences in the underlying transition rate by substituting country names with macro/institutional level variables such as youth long-term unemployment rates, active labour market policy expenditure, employment regulation regimes and benefit provisions for unemployed young people.
Organisations and the Transformation of the Internal Labour Market
Authors: Grimshaw Damian , Ward Kevin G. , Rubery Jill , Beynon Huw
Published: July 2003

This paper explores changes in employment policies and practices that are typically associated with the classical `model' of the internal labour market. Drawing on documentary information and interviews with managers in four large organisations in the UK, the evidence suggests that many of the `traditional' pillars of the internal labour market have been dismantled. New policies around training, recruitment, pay, job security and career progression have been introduced in response to pressures and opportunities for change, both internal and external to the organisation. Changes in the external labour market involve a shift in the balance of power between labour and capital, coupled with a weakening of the mechanisms which coordinate and regulate labour market exchange. Within the organisation, there are a range of pressures to transform production, or service delivery, including the restructuring of traditional forms of work organisation, the extension of working-time and changes in organisational structure. This paper analyses evidence of new employer-led `market solutions' to this range of conflicting pressures. The aim is to highlight the tendency for contradictory outcomes as new policies capitalise on changing external conditions, but at the expense of meeting organisational demands. Also, new policies implemented by individual employers may be unsustainable where, on aggregate, they fail to develop workforce skills or to fulfil career expectations.
The Increased Labour Market Participation of Dutch Students
Authors: van der Meer Peter , Wielers Rudi
Published: July 2003

Since the beginning of the 1980s students' labour market participation in the Netherlands has increased enormously. The first part of this article offers a description of the changed labour market position of students in the Netherlands. It demonstrates that this is the result both of changes in the system of student financing and of an increased use of flexible staffing arrangements by employers. The second part of the paper concentrates on the question whether the displacement of workers with lower levels of education was caused by an increasing labour market participation of students. It finds that the labour market participation of lower educated workers dropped at about the same time as students started to enter the lowest job levels, which were the former stronghold of the lower educated workers. Since many of the jobs at this level ask for part-time or temporary work, students have a competitive advantage in comparison to lower educated workers.
Underemployment in the Netherlands: How the Dutch `Poldermodel' Failed to Close the Education-Jobs Gap
Authors: Batenburg Ronald , de Witte Marco
Published: July 2003

Although the populations of the richest advanced industrial societies have achieved unprecedented levels of formal credentials, analysts report on the massive scale of underutilisation of knowledge and skills in current market economies. This paper describes the underemployment situation in the Netherlands (1977-95). We show by different methods that the `education-jobs gap' has widened increasingly. The return to credentials of Dutch employees has diminished for every educational category. Within the total labour population, an increasing share of employees can be considered as underemployed and deal with credential inflation. At the lower levels of education men have suffered from credential inflation more than women. At the higher levels of education it is the reverse. It also appears that young people deal with a `waiting-room effect': they enter the labour market at relatively low skill levels, given their educational level and gender. A further breakdown by educational specialisation shows that employees with an educational background in health care or technical studies have suffered relatively more from credential inflation compared to those with a commercial education. We conclude by stating that in spite of much rhetoric about the skill deficiencies of the current workforce, the lack of decent jobs has caused basic allocation problems at the Dutch labour market. From a human resources perspective, the growing wastage of employees' potential should not be underestimated or dismissed. We argue that an effective allocation of knowledge and skills to occupations will be the basic tenet of labour market policy and new forms of work organisation.
The East German Labour Market after German Unification: A Study of Structural Change and Occupational Matching
Authors: Solga Heike , Diewald Martin
Published: July 2003

This article investigates the restructuring process of the East German employment system after German unification. It raises the question of whether and how job mobility has contributed to coping with rapid change in the occupational structure. In particular, it explores the importance of occupational credentials in these mobility processes in East Germany. The empirical analysis is based on retrospective life histories of East German men and women belonging to three birth cohorts (1939-41, 1951-3 and 1959-61). The main result is that vocational certificates have driven occupational matching in East Germany after 1989. Thus, change in the employment structure was achieved by `credentialised' exclusion and inclusion processes and, moreover, the efficacy of occupational credentials even increased after 1989. Beyond the East German case, the paper provides interesting insights in the social value of occupational credentials and the relationship between labour market regulation and social change.