The Meaning of Work in the New Economy (The Future of Work)

290 Pages·2007·0.79 MB·English

by  Chris Baldry

The Meaning of Work in the
New Economy
Chris Baldry, Peter Bain, Phil Taylor,
Jeff Hyman, Dora Scholarios,
Abigail Marks, Aileen Watson,
Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall and Dirk Bunzel
Edited by
Peter Nolan
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The Meaning of Work in the New Economy
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The Future of WorkSeries
Series Editor: Peter Nolan, Director of ESRC Future of Work Programme and the
Montague Burton Professor of Industrial Relations at Leeds University Business
School in the UK.
Few subjects could be judged more vital to current policy and academic debates
than the prospects for work and employment. The Future of WorkSeries provides
much needed evidence and theoretical advances to enhance our understanding of
the critical developments most likely impact on people’s working lives.
Titles include:
Chris Baldry, Peter Bain, Phil Taylor, Jeff Hyman, Dora Scholarios,
Abigail Marks, Aileen Watson, Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall and Dirk Bunzel
THE MEANING OF WORK IN THE NEW ECONOMY
Julia Brannen, Peter Moss and Ann Mooney
WORKING AND CARING OVER THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Change and Continuity in Four-Generation Families
Michael White, Stephen Hill, Colin Mills and Deborah Smeaton
MANAGING TO CHANGE?
British Workplaces and the Future of Work
Andy Danford, Michael Richardson, Paul Stewart, Stephanie Tailby and Martin
Upchurch
PARTNERSHIP AND THE HIGH PERFORMANCE WORKPLACE
Work and Employment Relations in the Aerospace Industry
Geraldine Healy, Edmund Heery, Philip Taylor, William Brown (editors)
FUTURE OF WORKER REPRESENTATION
Diane Houston (editor)
WORK-LIFE BALANCE IN THE 21STCENTURY
Theo Nichols and Surhan Cam
TFW; LABOUR IN A GLOBAL WORLD
Paul Stewart (editor)
EMPLOYMENT, TRADE UNION RENEWAL AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
Clare Ungerson, Susan Yeandle (editors)
CASH FOR CARE SYSTEMS IN THE DEVELOPED WELFARE STATES
The Future of Work Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 1–4039–1477–X
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with
your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
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The Meaning of Work in the
New Economy
Chris Baldry, Peter Bain, Phil Taylor, Jeff Hyman, Dora Scholarios,
Abigail Marks, Aileen Watson, Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall and
Dirk Bunzel
The Future of Work Series
Edited by Peter Nolan
140393407X_01_Prexii.pdf 15/2/07 2:33 PM Page iv
© Chris Baldry, Jeff Hyman, Phil Taylor, Peter Bain, Dora Scholarios,
Abigail Marks, Aileen Watson, Kay Gilbert, Gregor Gall and Dirk Bunzel
2007
Foreword © Peter Nolan 2007
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90
Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
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ISBN 13: 978–1–4039–3407–9 hardback
ISBN 10: 1–4039–3407–X hardback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The meaning of work in the new economy / Chris Baldry … [et al.].
p. cm. – (The future of work)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Work attachment, work centrality and the meaning of
work in life – Into the new century: the changing terrain for work and
employment – Organizational life: the nature of work – Organizational life:
the management of commitment – Occupational life – Household and
community life – Women and men – Class and status – Back to the future?
change and continuity at work.
ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–3407–9 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 1–4039–3407–X (cloth)
1. Quality of work life. 2. Work–Social aspects. 3. Organizational
change–Social aspects. I. Baldry, Christopher.
HD6955.M43 2007
306.3′6–dc22 2006048788
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne
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For Harvie
Who argued with us, inspired us, drove us crazy, and made us
laugh. Who was our great friend.
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Contents
List of Tables and Figure viii
Foreword by Peter Nolan ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Work Attachment, Work Centrality and the Meaning of Work
in Life 1
2 Into the New Century: The Changing Terrain for Work and
Employment 27
3 Organizational Life: The Nature of Work 50
4 Organizational Life: The Management of Commitment 85
5 Occupational Life 109
6 Household and Community Life 134
7 Women and Men 165
8 Class and Status 196
9 Back to the Future? Change and Continuity at Work 223
Appendix A Research methods and data collection 237
Appendix B Survey respondent characteristics 239
Bibliography 241
Index 260
vii
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List of Tables and Figure
Tables
1.1 Profile of call centre case studies 21
1.2 Profile of software case studies 24
2.1 Scottish employment by sector, 2000 44
3.1 Most important reasons for working paid or unpaid overtime 62
3.2 Call centre operating hours and extent of ‘atypical’ working 64
3.3 Perceptions of degree of control 76
4.1 Measures of commitment among call centre employees 101
4.2 Measures of commitment among software employees 102
4.3 Satisfaction ratings for different job facets: call centres 106
4.4 Satisfaction ratings for different job facets: software 107
5.1 Perceptions of current job as career 121
5.2 Career patterns and attitudes 122
5.3 Prediction of career attitudes 124
6.1 Household life: sample characteristics for men and women 140
6.2 Work-life interface 143
6.3 Family-friendly culture 151
6.4 Work values 154
7.1 Sample characteristics for men and women (survey respondents) 167
7.2 Contribution to household income 169
7.3 Attitudes to equality and women’s roles for men and women 171
7.4 Importance of work, leisure and family for men and women 177
7.5 Reasons for current job choice 180
7.6 Importance of company career for men and women, with and
without children 181
7.7 Family friendly cultures 187
7.8 Managers and non-managers in call centres, by gender 191
7.9 Perception of job characteristics in software, by gender 194
8.1 Positive self-location of class identity for software workers 208
8.2 Attitudes to management in respondents’ own workplace 210
8.3 Attitudes to management in Britain generally 210
A.1 Description of data and research methods 237
A.2 Survey response rates and sample 238
A.3 Interviewee profile 238
B.1 Call centre and software employee characteristics 239
Figure
3.1 Spectrum of control 81
viii
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Foreword
The ‘new’ economy has featured prominently in recent policy analysis and
debate. Although the concept remains ill-defined, the new economy has
served as a touchstone for the present UK government’s strategic approach
to work and employment issues. There is a working assumption that the
character, rhythms and places of work are changing and that transactions
between workers and entrepreneurs in the ‘dematerialised’ world of the
twenty-first century will be very different from the past.
Treated theoretically as a break from the ‘old’ economy that supposedly
dominated work in the twentieth century, the new economy has been pre-
sented by many writers as a brave new world encompassing innovative
forms of business organisation, employment patterns and work spaces.
Why work for a firm, office, or bank when you can work for yourself from
home with a laptop? According to some commentators the advancing army
of e-lancers is challenging, root and branch, established business structures,
social relations and individual ways of working.
Poor theory thrives on sensational vignettes and limited data. The
difficulties are nowhere more acute than in the world of work where even
marginal shifts in behaviour and conduct raise the spectre in the minds
of many observers of paradigm shifts in employment and labour markets.
Yet cutting across the new economy concept is the unimpeachable evi-
dence of the enduring presence of traditional occupations and the stress-
ful conditions, long working hours, and fitful careers of many new
economy workers.
TheFuture of WorkProgramme was established to investigate contempo-
rary developments in the changing world of work. It set out to generate
new data, refine established concepts, and develop rigorous theories that
better explained the complex changes taking place in different sectors of
the economy. It aimed to illuminate the changing boundaries between paid
and unpaid work, the interplay of employment and family life, and the
shifting attitudes to work of both workers and their bosses.
This rigorous and searching new study by Professor Chris Baldry and his
colleagues, focusing on the nature of work in two sectors commonly con-
nected to the new economy, could not be more timely. Focusing on call
and contract centres and software engineering in Scotland, the study asks
what it is like to be a new economy worker. Do such workers have more or
less autonomy in their jobs, more or less job satisfaction, superior or infe-
rior material terms and conditions than workers in the so-called old
economy? Is the new economy providing jobs that represent a break from
the past or are there lines of continuity that render the distinction between
ix