Opportunity Knocks? The Possibilities and Levers for Improving Job Quality

Findlay, Patricia; Warhurst, Chris; Keep, Ewart; Lloyd, Caroline

doi:10.1177/0730888416689813

Cited by 50 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Regarding Taylor's celebration of choice, which draws on preference theory (Moore et al, ), TRMWP overlooks how workers' options are pre‐determined, not merely by government policy, but by the construction of labour markets according to employers' interests (Bales et al (: 50). Such neglect is consistent with approaches that abstract the constituent elements of good work from their institutional settings and contexts (Findlay et al, ).…”

Section: Kendra Briken and Phil Taylor (University Of Strathclyde)supporting

confidence: 78%

Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice—Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare

Briken

Taylor

2018

Industrial Relations Journal

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This article makes a distinctive contribution to critiquing the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (TRMWP). Rejecting TRMWP's abstracted concept of ‘choice’ and its celebration of the ‘British way’ of job creation, it emphasises the degree of compulsion experienced by low‐pay, temporary workers in local labour markets. The empirical focus is on Amazon's ‘fulfilment centre’ at Swansea and draws on testimonies of ‘associates’, both permanent and, mostly, agency temps including migrant workers. The article situates these worker experiences in job‐starved labour markets, considering the role of temporary worker agencies (TWAs) and the effects of workfare and benefit sanctions. The evidence compels a reconceptualisation of the triangular relationship between TWAs, employers and temp workers as quadrilateral, emphasising the role of the state. A brutal, digitally enabled lean workplace regime intersects with a brutal, digitally enabled workfare regime which serves to thoroughly critique Taylor's absurdly optimistic characterisation of choice.

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Section: Kendra Briken and Phil Taylor (University Of Strathclyde)supporting

confidence: 78%

Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice—Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare

Briken

Taylor

2018

Industrial Relations Journal

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“…The broader institutional environment has also influenced employment quality. The UK has a lightly regulated labour market (Davies & Freedland, 2007), with individualized employment relationships leading to limited upwards pressure on job quality (Findlay et al, 2017;Taylor, 2017). However, recent changes in the UK have sought to increase levels of pay through national government action to accelerate the growth of the statutory national living wage (NLW) (the minimum wage).…”

Section: Low-skills Low-wage Traps and Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public policy for addressing the low-skills low-wage trap: insights from business case studies in the Birmingham city-region, UK

et al. 2020

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The idea that some local areas are characterized by a low-skills equilibrium trap is prominent in academic and policy debates in the Global North. Factors shaping this position and associated implications for local economic development are only partially understood. This paper provides new evidence examining employers' decision-making around investment and workforce management in the hospitality and retail sectors in the Birmingham city-region of the UK, and their experience of the low-skills low-wage trap. The findings highlight intersecting sectoral and place-based factors in the emergence of, and barriers to escape from, this position. Responses require policy actions at firm, local and national levels.

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“…Researching job quality is important given the central role of work to individuals (including to their overall quality of life), organisations and society (Kalleberg, 2012). It has come to the forefront in the policy sphere, with debates focusing on factors affecting and methods for improving the quality of work, and its relationship with well-being (Findlay et al, 2017). In the UK, the Government commissioned the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices in 2017 (Taylor et al, 2017), which focused on a number of aspects of 'fair ' and 'good' work. In addition, Thriving at Work: The Stevenson/Farmer Review of Mental Health and Employers (Stevenson and Farmer, 2017) has raised the profile of workplace well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workplace location and the quality of work: The case of urban-based workers in the UK

Wheatley

2020

Urban Studies

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Recent growth in flexible work which is detached from traditional urban workplaces, including homeworking, mobile working and forms of self-employment (gig work), has increased interest in the quality of work. This article compares job quality indicators between urban-based workers in standard (employer/business premises) and non-standard (homeworking, driving/travelling, mobile working) workplaces. Multinomial logistic regression is applied to UK panel data from four waves (2010–2011, 2012–2013, 2014–2015, 2016–2017) of the Understanding Society study. The analysis finds that urban-based employees working at home, predominantly in highly skilled occupations, have jobs which exhibit a number of characteristics of good work. Self-employed homeworkers, more often women, have lower job quality but leisure satisfaction benefits. Mobile working jobs offer greater spatial and temporal flexibility and job satisfaction, but also exhibit lower quality characteristics evident of trade-offs and divisions between forms of mobile work. Driving/travelling jobs exhibit lower job quality characteristics, especially among self-employed urban-based workers.

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Opportunity Knocks? The Possibilities and Levers for Improving Job Quality

Cited by 50 publications

References 43 publications

Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice—Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare

Fulfilling the ‘British way’: beyond constrained choice—Amazon workers' lived experiences of workfare

Public policy for addressing the low-skills low-wage trap: insights from business case studies in the Birmingham city-region, UK

Workplace location and the quality of work: The case of urban-based workers in the UK

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