The Road to Functional Flexibility
White Collar Work and Employment Relations in a Privatised Public Utility
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3462974 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julia O’connell Davidson (0000-0002-5525-4142, corresponding author), Julia O''Connell Davidson, Julia O'Connell Davidson (Department of Sociology University of Bristol) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 689-711 |
| Publication date | 1990-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-954x.1990.tb00935.x |
| OpenAlex | W2126657282 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 11 |
This paper is concerned with the changing nature of office work in one region of a privatised public utility, which will be referred to as National Utility (NU). It describes how clerical work at NU, traditionally characterised by a detailed division of labour and functional specialism, is being transformed by the introduction of on-line processing and multi-functional team-working. At the same time, NU management is seeking to change the nature and pattern of clerical employment. The intention is to increase the ratio of part time to full time staff, to increase the 'personal accountability' of staff, and to move towards a performance-based, rather than a seniority-based, pay and promotion structure. These changes are of some broader theoretical significance. As Batstone et al. (1987) note, much industrial sociology literature has focused on job content as the primary determinant of a number of features of work and employment, including worker autonomy, supervisory styles, and management control strategies. Indeed, much recent industrial sociology, management and institutional economics literature has tended to link employment patterns and conditions, as a whole, with job content, in a direct and unproblematic fashion. In particular, it is often assumed that in order to secure multiple skills, high quality work and the innovative capacities of labour, employers will have to offer not only better pay, but also a better package of conditions, job security, fringe benefits and training and promotion opportunities. Developments at National Utility suggest that the link between job content and employment relations may be weaker than has sometimes been implied, and cast doubt on the theoretical basis for 'post-Fordist' confidence in the emergence of a new deal for labour as a result of flexible methods of work organisation
Autonomy · Business · Control (management) · Economic growth · Economics · Flexibility (engineering) · Job security · Labour economics · Management · Political science · Promotion (chess) · Public relations · Quality (philosophy) · Seniority · Sociology · Work (physics) · Workforce · Engineering · Industrial relations · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Marketing
Beyond Contract
The second industrial divide
New Production Concepts? The West German Debates on Restructuring
Work and Politics
Dismantling flexibility
New Technology and the Process of Labour Regulation
The reality of workplace flexibility
Voting for Ford
Technical Innovation and Work Reorganisation in British Manufacturing in the 1980s
The Uncertainties of Management in the Management of Uncertainty
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1993 - 2008 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |