Collection: Organisation Studies Collection
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Organisation Studies Collection
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The question of labour turnover has been variously examined across labour and organization studies, but it has not been studied systematically in relation to international migration. In this book we tackle the question of labour turnover (the churning of workers in and out of workplace organizations) from the perspective of migrant labour. Here we build on the critical strands of labour and migration studies to shift our gaze to the social composition of labour (Wright, 2002), focusing on the specific drivers and subjective and social dynamics that link the phenomenon of labour instability to international migration. We consider the relationship between labour migration and turnover as emblematic of the wider effects of the intersectional differentiation of work and employment on workers’ lives and action for change in capitalist societies. Since the pioneering work of Hirschman (1970), the act of workers quitting their job, described as labour mobility or exit, has indeed been countered to worker voice and presented as an individualistic, opportunistic behaviour taken autonomously by workers, as opposed to engaging in labour collective voice over effort bargaining (usually expressed through trade union representation). The tendency to see turnover as a primarily individualistic behaviour can be found especially in the field of industrial relations, which privileges collective forms of action in the workplace, whether or not institutionally mediated by trade unions (see Smith, 2006; Beynon, 1973). In the field of organization and management studies, scholars have tended to favour a functionalist approach both to the question of turnover and the role of migration in flexible labour markets revolving around costs and efficiency issues for employers, while employment studies have concentrated on the impact of labour mobility on collective bargaining in the workplace.
In focusing on menopausal women in the labour market and specific workplaces, this edited volume aims to re-theorize the management of people as it relates to the connections between gender, age and the body in organizations. The ‘bodily turn’ in management and organization studies is now nearing the end of its fourth decade (see, for early examples of this research, Burrell, 1984; Hearn et al, 1989; Acker, 1990; Brewis and Grey, 1994), and work which critically unpicks diversity initiatives dates back at least to the early 2000s (for example Kersten, 2000; Lorbiecki and Jack, 2000; Dick and Cassell, 2002). Despite this, the menopause is still rarely discussed in management and organization studies, the sociology of work and employment literature or HRM research. In this introduction, we outline exactly why menopause is a workplace issue as well as reviewing both contemporary UK organizational practice and recent academic research in this space. The introduction concludes with an overview of the volume chapter by chapter.
Retail has never existed in a vacuum.
This interdisciplinary volume explores how English commercial, co-operative and charity retailing were shaped by and in turn influenced their social and political environments, from the local and the global, between the late-nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries.
Historians, sociologists, archivists and heritage professionals engage with current debates on the rise of modern business and the decline of the high street, class and credit, professionalisation in the voluntary sector, migration and the end of empire.
This will be a key resource to better understand retail and community in an era defined by social change, shedding new light on the enduring centrality of community relationships to modern retailers.
The idea for this book was originally formulated in March 2020, when, surprised by the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, we realized there was a unique opportunity to document the impact of the pandemic on people working in various parts of public welfare. The chapter introduces the focus of our field studies on workers who were acting in the shadow of the pandemic – that is, in areas of welfare that are not usually associated with professions and occupations fighting COVID-19 ‘on the front line’. As social scientists who had studied the Swedish public welfare sector for many years, we saw an opportunity to follow challenges and changes in work tasks and working conditions for teachers and healthcare professionals, as well as librarians, day-care staff, government investigators, municipal administrators and many other public sector workers.
The chapter poses two interrelated questions: why have organization scholars abandoned the study of political parties, and what might we learn from rediscovering the value of party organization research? To answer the first, I begin by chronicling the rise of party organizations in Western democracies and conclude that the nature of political parties runs counter to the dominant conception of society as a unified whole that must resist partisanship. To answer the second, I compile a list of characteristics that make parties valuable study objects for organization scholars. Here, I focus on parties as organizations that (1) are explicit about the inclusions and exclusions that constitute them, (2) conduct much of their infighting in the media and other open spaces, (3) rely heavily on normative modes of control to keep members in line, (4) use normative modes of commitment to keep members on board, and (5) experience rapid and ongoing institutional change. These five characteristics, I argue, make parties ‘critical cases’ of organizing. In conclusion, I introduce the book’s main case: the Danish green party Alternativet.
This chapter provides the second half of the analysis of the Amazon warehouse case study by focusing on how such a platform provides both challenges and possibilities for these workers to express their agency. It examines their four power resources in relation to the organization of the platform: structural power, associational power, institutional power and societal power. It integrates in its analysis the larger political–economic context, the larger (trans)national context and Amazon’s union-busting, which can prove to be additional obstacles to the organization of workers, as Amazon continuously attempts to disrupt, undermine and diminish their efforts. Despite weak marketplace power workers may navigate their material obstacles and Amazon’s counterstrategies to instrumentalize their workplace and disruptive power derived from their assembly within warehouses. While labor organizations, from traditional and grassroots unions to transnational and digital movements, support associational and institutional powers to improve their working conditions and fight back against the various facets of alienation, workers are increasingly gaining momentum in organizing themselves and making their movement intrinsic to the wider public debate. In doing so, they are claiming their agency and conceiving of it more holistically in terms of a possible transnational, inter-platform and inter-sectoral movement.
At the heart of the sociology of work is the analysis of how work is organized. This is the core focus of this chapter. Key dimensions of work organization are outlined: division of labour, labour process, co-worker relations, control and individual job mobility (career). This allows the chapter to build up to consider different overall types of work organization. Here, a key contrast is shown between work organization along craft principles and Taylorized work organization. Debates are examined regarding how best to characterize work organization in contemporary service work, knowledge work and platform work.
This chapter begins the book’s challenge to conventional theories of the firm by arguing that the central problem of the firm lies in purpose, which is more complex and provocative than typically assumed. The chapter examines the battle over corporate purpose between advocates of shareholder value maximization and stakeholder obligation, highlighting the clash of ideologies and the significance of purpose in shaping the identity and trajectory of a firm. It then delves into firms’ ontological multiplicity, emphasizing that purpose is not singular but rather takes different forms, manifests differently in various practices, and is influenced by a range of forces beyond human actors. It argues for the importance of developing a new theory of the firm that aligns with critical projects and offers alternative perspectives on corporate purpose.
This introductory chapter advocates for a new framework that ties together the core questions of why firms exist, how they operate internally, where their boundaries lie, and how they secure profitability. It establishes the need to develop a Communicative Theory of the Firm (CTF) that responds to the shifts in capitalism’s communicative foundation.
This book examines crime, deviance, injustice, prejudice, discrimination and victimization in educational institutions but largely in colleges and universities. It details two, at times, related elements: ‘excesses’ in mostly elite male student societies; and sexual abuse particularly against female students. Importantly, the focus on ‘deviance and crime on campus’ has to be placed in the context of serious institutional failure; and that, in turn, is amplified by a wider system failure regarding policing, prosecutions and the judiciary. Indeed, underpinning that dual institutional failure are deeply rooted historical and societal assumptions leading to the tolerance of elite student excess as well as engrained societal prejudices regarding sexual violence in general but held against women in particular.
This chapter sets out to redefine generosity by offering insights to developing a business that is committed to bringing people comfort and doing good. In managing the Moomin ecosystem of companies, generosity plays out as a determined and persistent approach to act responsibly and sustainably. Rather than heroic efforts of individuals, generous management the Moomin way is about creating conditions that enable and give rise to acts of generosity. When the environment and humankind are facing unprecedented challenges, and we are surrounded by sadness and grief, managing with generosity is as timely and relevant as it ever was.
