Chris Warhurst - Böcker

The aim of this Handbook is to produce an interdisciplinary and international benchmark text for anyone wanting to understand job quality. Job quality matters and has long and continually done so, even if the terminology used to describe it has, and continues, to vary. Debate about the future of work and job quality in the twenty-first century centres on the impact of the new digital technologies of the putative fourth industrial revolution. This debate compounds existing concerns about the restructuring of employment and, importantly, a worrying proliferation of poor-quality jobs, often within the context of neo-liberal political-economic hegemony since the early 1980s or the economic crisis that followed the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000s. Job quality is offered as a solution to challenges such as health, welfare, productivity, innovation, economic competitiveness, democracy and democratic participation, Bildung/cultivation, societal equality, individual and collective quality of life, and environmental sustainability. As job quality is a key factor in addressing these and the other challenges, it needs to be understood in all its complexity in terms of what it affects as well as what affects it. This Handbook draws together into a single volume: first, an explicit focus on job quality both as a significant factor in and of itself and as producing instrumental effects on a range of other processes and outcomes; second, a catalogue of the diverse range of multiple contributions and applications related to job quality; and third, the complexity and multiple interpretations of the concept of job quality. Each chapter provides distinct responses to the question of why job quality matters, coupled to a contention about for whom or for what job quality matters most. As the chapters with their respective answers and arguments attest, there are a range of ways in which job quality is relevant to an equally broad range of social, economic, and political concerns.

Skills and workforce development are at the heart of much research on work, employment, and management. But are they so important? To what extent can they make a difference for individuals, organizations, and nations? How are the supply and, more importantly, the utilization of skill, currently evolving? What are the key factors shaping skills trajectories of the future?This Handbook provides an authoritative consideration of issues such as these. It does so by drawing on experts in a wide range of disciplines including sociology, economics, labour/industrial relations, human resource management, education, and geography. The Handbook is relevant for all with an interest in the changing nature - and future - of work, employment, and management. It draws on the latest scholarly insights to shed new light on all the major issues concerning skills and training today. While written primarily by leading scholars in the field, it is equally relevant to policy makers and practitioners responsible for shaping the development of human capability today and into the future.

Skills and workforce development are at the heart of much research on work, employment and management. But are they so important? To what extent can they make a difference for individuals, organisations and nations? How are the supply and - more importantly - the utilisation of skill - current evolving? What are the key factors shaping skills trajectories of the future? This Handbook provides an authoritative consideration of issues such these. It does so by drawing on experts in a wide range of disciplines including sociology, economics, labour/industrial relations, human resource management, education, and geography. The Handbook is relevant for all with an interest in the changing nature, and future, of work, employment and management. It draws on the latest scholarly insights to shed new light on all the major issues concerning skills and training today. While written primarily by leading scholars in the field it is equally relevant to policy makers and practitioners responsible for shaping the development of human capability today and into the future.

An edited book in the Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment Series that is associated with the annual International Labour Process Conference, it focuses on job quality: debates, developments, issues and trends; workplace practice and interventions. Written by world-leading academics, it contains cutting-edge research.

The boundary between work and life is today seen as a major point of tension. New forms of employment and changing locations of work have blurred the distinction between paid labour and private life.Work Less, Live More? refocuses the debate from how we balance life and work to the increasingly ambiguous point where they meet. Leading scholars present international research to demonstrate the effects of this shift. Case studies include, amongst others, call centre workers, hairstylists and even professional athletes.Authoritative yet accessible, Work Less, Live More? investigates dramatic changes at the heart of Human Resource Management, Sociology and Organisation Studies.Key Features:- Offers a critical understanding of new modes of work and how workers experience and manage the resulting tensions between work and life- Rethinks work-life balance and the boundary between work and life internationally and across a range of occupations- The only textbook to focus on changing patterns and definitions of the relationship between work and life

Workplaces of the Future examines change in workplace structures and relations and considers what the contemporary workplace looks like. The book contains a wide range of issues and examples from factory and office, manual and non-manual work, public and private sector that illustrate the nature of the future of work. Contributions are drawn from the key names in this field and include international material.

The Skills That Matter is an edited collection written by leading academics from the UK, Europe, the USA and Australia in the area of skills acquisition, formation and development. It combines academic evidence and policy debates with a critical analysis, making it an asset to students of HRM, industrial relations, sociology of work and business and management at both undergraduate and postgraduate level as well as being a useful resource to researchers and policy makers working in the field of skill formation.

Is digitalisation threatening the future of work and welfare?Drawing on cutting-edge research from the EU-funded project BEYOND 4.0, this major empirical study explores how digital technologies are transforming work and welfare across Europe. Moving beyond speculative forecasts, it offers grounded, multi-level analysis of how automation and AI are reshaping labour markets, skills, production and social policy. The authors—leading scholars and policy advisors—show that, with the right choices, technology can support inclusive growth in Europe offer stronger welfare systems, and a better future for workers.

Is digitalisation threatening the future of work and welfare?Drawing on cutting-edge research from the EU-funded project BEYOND 4.0, this major empirical study explores how digital technologies are transforming work and welfare across Europe. Moving beyond speculative forecasts, it offers grounded, multi-level analysis of how automation and AI are reshaping labour markets, skills, production and social policy. The authors—leading scholars and policy advisors—show that, with the right choices, technology can support inclusive growth in Europe offer stronger welfare systems, and a better future for workers.

This accessible and exciting new text looks at the implications of aesthetic labour for work and employment by contextualizing debates and offering a critical approach. The origins of aesthetic labour are explored, as well as the relevant theories from business and management, and sociology. Coverage includes key topics such as: corporate strategy; recruitment and selection practices; and discrimination.

Key features include:

- a range of case studies from across different types of organizations and popular culture

- the exploration of topics such as branding, 'lookism', 'dressing for success' and cosmetic surgery

- suggestions for further reading.