The self‐employed without employees—autonomous or atypical?

Stanworth, Celia; Stanworth, John

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2338.1995.tb00739.x

Cited by 44 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The difference between dependent and independent self-employment is also important, with self-employed homeworking and freelance occupations which over-represent women sometimes being closer to disguised wage labour than entrepreneurship (Huws 1994;Stanworth and Stanworth 1995). Employers can access a highly-skilled workforce at low cost by using own account, homebased workers using ICTs.…”

Section: More Self-employmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Women and Work in the Information Age

Stanworth

2000

Gender Work & Organization

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Widespread social transformation and new class structures are predicted with the coming of the 'information age', but there is disagreement about the likely outcomes for work and employment patterns. Mainstream writing on the information age, both from the functionalist and Marxist traditions, tends not to consider likely consequences for women, but recent feminist research on gender and technology, treating technology as masculine culture, offers a useful framework for further research. This article argues that the information age may lead to some areas of convergence between the sexes in their experience of future work, but men may continue to defend areas of competence and to dominate the high status and powerful occupational positions of the future.

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Section: More Self-employmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Women and Work in the Information Age

Stanworth

2000

Gender Work & Organization

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“…The opportunity structures created by business can play a role if, for example, the employee is offered a choice of contracting or redundancy, or if certain kinds of work are only offered under contracting arrangements. Stanworth and Stanworth (1995) examined the forces that lead to labour‐use patterns in the publishing industry and found that ‘unemployment push’ exerted a stronger influence than the pull of entrepreneurialism, whereas Kunda et al (2002) identified a mixture of positive and negative factors encouraging a decision to contract.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives On Contracting Versus Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

When is Contracting Preferable to Employment? An Exploration of Management and Worker Perspectives

Peel

Boxall

2005

J Management Studies

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 Managers make choices regarding the types of employment structures that meet the needs of the firm, and workers make choices regarding the types of arrangement that meet their needs. Various streams of literature offer perspectives on why employment or contracting might be preferred but it is often the perspective of the firm that dominates the analysis. This kind of one-sidedness weakens our understanding of employment as a relationship. It lacks recognition of the importance of mutuality: of matching the needs of the worker with the needs of the business. This paper reports research investigating management decisions to use self-employed contractors or employees for particular jobs, and workers' decisions to seek or accept organizational employment or self-employment. Some 80 in-depth interviews were conducted with managers and workers across two industries (energy supply and engineering consultancy) with the intent of studying two groups of workers differing dramatically in skill levels. While largely confirming existing theory on the management conditions relevant to the contracting-out of work, the study identifies factors that make a contracting relationship more mutually beneficial, thus suggesting propositions for further research on worker preferences.

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“…Evans and Hudson (1994), in their study of port transport and electricity supply, found that individual contracts have been a means by which managerial prerogative and discretion has been re-asserted and trade unions marginalised (IRS, 1994). The growth in the use of 'non-standard' employment (Campbell and Daly, 1992;Daly and McCann, 1992;Dale and Kerr, 1995;Department of Education and Employment, 1997) has also been associated with the erosion of collective labour regulation of labour and work intensification (O'Connell Davidson, 1990;Ferner and Colling, 1991;Stanworth and Stanworth, 1995;Neathey and Hurstfield, 1996;Legge, 1998). From this perspective, changes in competitive, organisational and/or regulatory environments have been linked with a decisive swing in the balance of power from labour to capital and the de-regulation of employment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%