Arne L. Kalleberg - Böcker

Work occupies a pivotal role in the daily activities and over the course of a lifetime of members of modern societies. In anticipation, work influ­ ences education and training; it has much to do with shaping current earned income and status in the community; and in retrospect, it influ­ ences retirement income and activities. It is a powerful force affecting personal associations. In our society work is deeply encased in moral and religious values: As Poor Richard says, A Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two Things. Do you imagine that Sloth will afford you more Comfort than Labour? No, for as Poor Richard says: ... Industry gives Comfort, and Plenty and Respect. Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. But few words have as many different meanings and nuances as "work": to forge or to shape, to stir or to knead, to solve, to exploit, to practice trickery for some end, to excite or to provoke, to persuade or to influence, to toil, and the like. A need for precision in meaning is requisite with respect to work, not only in common discourse, but, even more so, in scholarly communication.

This comprehensive handbook provides an overview of the key developments in a variety of labour market contexts and in the analyses of these that have occurred during the two decades since the publication of the 1981 volume "Sociological Perspectives on Labor Markets". A distinguished roster of authors (sociologists as well as economists) examines the interplay between social institutions and markets in producing important outcomes for producers of goods and services, their organizations' owners, and their customers. For example, the authors investigate how social institutions such as unions, business organizations, and the government interact with labour, product, political, and capital markets to produce a variety of labor market outcomes, widening income inequality, career paths, and a variety of changing employment relationships.

Much of the hoopla surrounding quality circles, teams, and high-performance work systems has been based on anecdotes and very thin evidence. It has not been established that those employee involvement strategies amount to anything more than another series of management fads or ruses designed to get more out of workers without giving them anything in return. This revelatory book, written by some of the skeptics, lays some of the suspicion to rest.Based on their visits to 44 plants and surveys of more than 4,000 employees, Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg concluded that companies are indeed more successful when managers share knowledge and power with workers and when workers assume increased responsibility and discretion.The study of steel, apparel, and medical electronics and imaging plants revealed much. In self-directed teams, workers were able to eliminate bottlenecks and coordinate the work process. In task forces created to improve quality, they communicated with individuals outside their own work groups and were able to solve problems. Expensive equipment in steel mills operated with fewer interruptions, turnaround and labor costs were cut in apparel factories, and costly inventories of components and medical equipment were reduced.And what did the employees think? The worker survey showed that jobs in participatory work systems often provide more challenging tasks and more opportunities for creativity. Employees in apparel had higher hourly earnings; those in steel had both higher hourly earnings and higher job satisfaction. Workers in more participatory settings were no more likely than others to report heavy workloads or excessive demands on their time. They were, however, less likely to report involuntary overtime or conflict with co-workers, and were more likely to be satisfied with their surroundings. Manufacturing Advantage provides the best assessment available of the effectiveness of high-performance work systems. Freestanding chapters near the end of the book provide full documentation of research data without interrupting the narrative flow.

Much of the hoopla surrounding quality circles, teams, and high-performance work systems has been based on anecdotes and very thin evidence. It has not been established that those employee involvement strategies amount to anything more than another series of management fads or ruses designed to get more out of workers without giving them anything in return. This revelatory book, written by some of the skeptics, lays some of the suspicion to rest.Based on their visits to 44 plants and surveys of more than 4,000 employees, Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg concluded that companies are indeed more successful when managers share knowledge and power with workers and when workers assume increased responsibility and discretion.The study of steel, apparel, and medical electronics and imaging plants revealed much. In self-directed teams, workers were able to eliminate bottlenecks and coordinate the work process. In task forces created to improve quality, they communicated with individuals outside their own work groups and were able to solve problems. Expensive equipment in steel mills operated with fewer interruptions, turnaround and labor costs were cut in apparel factories, and costly inventories of components and medical equipment were reduced.And what did the employees think? The worker survey showed that jobs in participatory work systems often provide more challenging tasks and more opportunities for creativity. Employees in apparel had higher hourly earnings; those in steel had both higher hourly earnings and higher job satisfaction. Workers in more participatory settings were no more likely than others to report heavy workloads or excessive demands on their time. They were, however, less likely to report involuntary overtime or conflict with co-workers, and were more likely to be satisfied with their surroundings. Manufacturing Advantage provides the best assessment available of the effectiveness of high-performance work systems. Freestanding chapters near the end of the book provide full documentation of research data without interrupting the narrative flow.

Based on the findings of The National Organizations Study, Organizations in America provides a comprehensive review of the first national survey of organizations in the United States. Using a statistically representative sample, this work is the most authoritative database on the workings of organizations available. The principal investigators of the study use this data set to define what we know about the structures and human resource practices in American organizations and describes: The National Organizations Study and its implications Specific employment practices--hiring, training, promotion, performance measurement, benefit packages, contingent work--and how they compare between different businesses and business sectors Differential treatment of employees according to ethnicity and gender This breakthrough publication is an indispensable reference tool for those in the areas of organizational studies, human resources, sociology of work, industrial psychology, social stratification, labor, and labor economics.

Based on the findings of The National Organizations Study, Organizations in America provides a comprehensive review of the first national survey of organizations in the United States. Using a statistically representative sample, this work is the most authoritative database on the workings of organizations available. The principal investigators of the study use this data set to define what we know about the structures and human resource practices in American organizations and describes: The National Organizations Study and its implications Specific employment practices--hiring, training, promotion, performance measurement, benefit packages, contingent work--and how they compare between different businesses and business sectors Differential treatment of employees according to ethnicity and gender This breakthrough publication is an indispensable reference tool for those in the areas of organizational studies, human resources, sociology of work, industrial psychology, social stratification, labor, and labor economics.

This book documents the conventional wisdom that Japanese workers displayed significantly more commitment to their organizations than did American workers. But as the authors point out in their new prologue, the world is very different from when this survey of U.S. and Japanese manufacturing firms first appeared; the latter are now moving closer to the American "market individualist" model. Originally published by Cambridge University Press in 1990.

Commentators today generally agree that we are at an inflection point in the history of capitalism. This economic system in its long-regnant neoliberal form—privileging free international trade, promoting the transnational movement of capital and labor, and advocating a limited role for the state—has faltered, if not failed, and needs to be superseded by a new political-economic architecture that accommodates pressing concerns relating to national security, climate change, inequality and equity, and resiliency among others. Few serious writers are calling for capitalism to be razed, as this system has proven far superior to others in generating wealth and providing higher living standards. Moreover, since its emergence centuries ago, capitalism has proved highly adaptable, able to survive, even to thrive, in both hospitable and inhospitable circumstances and surroundings, often in the face of stiff competition and outright opposition.In Challenging Capitalism, an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars addresses some of the likely challenges of a new political-economic order that minimizes capitalism’s deficiencies without impeding unduly its ability to facilitate and support wealth creation and human flourishing. An introductory chapter traces the development of capitalism as an economic system and identifies the three major eras in the modern version of capitalism. This chapter sets the stage for a baker’s dozen chapters that examine important features and forms of the dominant economic system, including racial capitalism, platform capitalism, surveillance capitalism, authoritarian capitalism, and stakeholder capitalism. The authors approach capitalism and its future from different angles and from a variety of ideological perspectives, offering keen insights into the capitalist paths we have traveled, our position today, and the road or roads ahead.The book is essential reading for anyone interested in capitalism from across the social sciences and humanities, including political economy, sociology, history, political science, public policy, and economics.

Commentators today generally agree that we are at an inflection point in the history of capitalism. This economic system in its long-regnant neoliberal form—privileging free international trade, promoting the transnational movement of capital and labor, and advocating a limited role for the state—has faltered, if not failed, and needs to be superseded by a new political-economic architecture that accommodates pressing concerns relating to national security, climate change, inequality and equity, and resiliency among others. Few serious writers are calling for capitalism to be razed, as this system has proven far superior to others in generating wealth and providing higher living standards. Moreover, since its emergence centuries ago, capitalism has proved highly adaptable, able to survive, even to thrive, in both hospitable and inhospitable circumstances and surroundings, often in the face of stiff competition and outright opposition.In Challenging Capitalism, an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars addresses some of the likely challenges of a new political-economic order that minimizes capitalism’s deficiencies without impeding unduly its ability to facilitate and support wealth creation and human flourishing. An introductory chapter traces the development of capitalism as an economic system and identifies the three major eras in the modern version of capitalism. This chapter sets the stage for a baker’s dozen chapters that examine important features and forms of the dominant economic system, including racial capitalism, platform capitalism, surveillance capitalism, authoritarian capitalism, and stakeholder capitalism. The authors approach capitalism and its future from different angles and from a variety of ideological perspectives, offering keen insights into the capitalist paths we have traveled, our position today, and the road or roads ahead.The book is essential reading for anyone interested in capitalism from across the social sciences and humanities, including political economy, sociology, history, political science, public policy, and economics.

A distinguished roster of contributors considers the state of the art of the field at the turn of the 21st century and charts an ambitious agenda for the future. Following what the editors describe as an `evolutionist' approach to the study of labor markets, the chapters address issues of continuity and discontinuity in a wide range of topics including: markets and institutional structures; employment relations and work structures; patterns of stratification in the United States; and public policies, opportunity structures, and economic outcomes.

Work occupies a pivotal role in the daily activities and over the course of a lifetime of members of modern societies. In anticipation, work influ­ ences education and training; it has much to do with shaping current earned income and status in the community; and in retrospect, it influ­ ences retirement income and activities. It is a powerful force affecting personal associations. In our society work is deeply encased in moral and religious values: As Poor Richard says, A Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two Things. Do you imagine that Sloth will afford you more Comfort than Labour? No, for as Poor Richard says: ... Industry gives Comfort, and Plenty and Respect. Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. But few words have as many different meanings and nuances as "work": to forge or to shape, to stir or to knead, to solve, to exploit, to practice trickery for some end, to excite or to provoke, to persuade or to influence, to toil, and the like. A need for precision in meaning is requisite with respect to work, not only in common discourse, but, even more so, in scholarly communication.

Precarious Asia assesses the role of global and domestic factors in shaping precarious work and its outcomes in Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia as they represent a range of Asian political democracies and capitalist economies: Japan and South Korea are now developed and mature economies, while Indonesia remains a lower-middle income country. With their established backgrounds in Asian studies, comparative political economy, social stratification and inequality, and the sociology of work, the authors yield compelling insights into the extent and consequences of precarious work, examining the dynamics underlying its rise. By linking macrostructural policies to both the mesostructure of labor relations and the microstructure of outcomes experienced by individual workers, they reveal the interplay of forces that generate precarious work, and in doing so, synthesize historical and institutional analyses with the political economy of capitalism and class relations. This book reveals how precarious work ultimately contributes to increasingly high levels of inequality and condemns segments of the population to chronic poverty and many more to livelihood and income vulnerability.

Employment relations in advanced, post-industrial democracies have become increasingly insecure and uncertain as the risks associated with work are being shifted from employers and governments to workers. Arne L. Kalleberg examines the impact of the liberalization of labor markets and welfare systems on the growth of precarious work and job insecurity for indicators of well-being such as economic insecurity, the transition to adulthood, family formation, and happiness, in six advanced capitalist democracies: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Denmark. This insightful cross-national analysis demonstrates how active labor market policies and generous social welfare systems can help to protect workers and give employers latitude as they seek to adapt to the rise of national and global competition and the rapidity of sweeping technological changes. Such policies thereby form elements of a new social contract that offers the potential for addressing many of the major challenges resulting from the rise of precarious work.

Employment relations in advanced, post-industrial democracies have become increasingly insecure and uncertain as the risks associated with work are being shifted from employers and governments to workers. Arne L. Kalleberg examines the impact of the liberalization of labor markets and welfare systems on the growth of precarious work and job insecurity for indicators of well-being such as economic insecurity, the transition to adulthood, family formation, and happiness, in six advanced capitalist democracies: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Denmark. This insightful cross-national analysis demonstrates how active labor market policies and generous social welfare systems can help to protect workers and give employers latitude as they seek to adapt to the rise of national and global competition and the rapidity of sweeping technological changes. Such policies thereby form elements of a new social contract that offers the potential for addressing many of the major challenges resulting from the rise of precarious work.

This volume presents original theory and research on precarious work in various parts of the world, identifying its social, political and economic origins, its manifestations in the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Global South, and its consequences for personal and family life. In the past quarter century, the nature of paid employment has undergone a dramatic change due to globalization, rapid technological change, the decline of the power of workers in favor of employers, and the spread of neoliberalism. Jobs have become far more insecure and uncertain, with workers bearing the risks of employment as opposed to employers or the government. This trend towards precarious work has engulfed virtually all advanced capitalist nations, but unevenly so, while countries in the Global South continue to experience precarious conditions of work. This title examines theories of precarious work; cross-national variations in its features; racial and gender differences in exposure to precarious work; and the policy alternatives that might protect workers from undue risk. The chapters utilize a variety of methods, both quantitative statistical analyses and careful qualitative case studies.  This volume will be a valuable resource that constitutes required reading for scholars, activists, labor leaders, and policy makers concerned with the future of work under contemporary capitalism.