Skill and Occupational Change (Social Change & Economic Life Initiative S.) - Hardcover

"The book clearly advances the study of skill and occupational change in many ways. It deepens our understanding of the dynamics of those phenomena among female workers, especially women in part-time employment. It expands our knowledge about the agreements and disagreements between workers and employers in their definitions and evaluations of skills. It improves on the study of the relations between job-required skills and worker's actual skills. It pioneers the study of how changing job skills affect the work ethic. It decisively demonstrates that the findings of systematic surveys and case studies agree. It reduces disagreement on the question of whether skills are socially or technically defined by various occupational groups. And it refutes ideologically inspired theories about the degradation of skills. These indeed are formidable achievements."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "The book clearly advances the study of skill and occupational change in many ways. It deepens our understanding of the dynamics of those phenomena among female workers, especially women in part-time employment. It expands our knowledge about the agreements and disagreements between workers and employers in their definitions and evaluations of skills. It improves on the study of the relations between job-required skills and worker's actual skills. It pioneers the study of how changing job skills affect the work ethic. It decisively demonstrates that the findings of systematic surveys and case studies agree. It reduces disagreement on the question of whether skills are socially or technically defined by various occupational groups. And it refutes ideologically inspired theories about the degradation of skills. These indeed are formidable achievements."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "The book clearly advances the study of skill and occupational change in many ways. It deepens our understanding of the dynamics of those phenomena among female workers, especially women in part-time employment. It expands our knowledge about the agreements and disagreements between workers and employers in their definitions and evaluations of skills. It improves on the study of the relations between job-required skills and worker's actual skills. It pioneers the study of how changing job skills affect the work ethic. It decisively demonstrates that the findings of systematic surveys and case studies agree. It reduces disagreement on the question of whether skills are socially or technically defined by various occupational groups. And it refutes ideologically inspired theories about the degradation of skills. These indeed are formidable achievements."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "The book clearly advances the study of skill and occupational change in many ways. It deepens our understanding of the dynamics of those phenomena among female workers, especially women in part-time employment. It expands our knowledge about the agreements and disagreements between workers and employers in their definitions and evaluations of skills. It improves on the study of the relations between job-required skills and worker's actual skills. It pioneers the study of how changing job skills affect the work ethic. It decisively demonstrates that the findings of systematic surveys and case studies agree. It reduces disagreement on the question of whether skills are socially or technically defined by various occupational groups. And it refutes ideologically inspired theories about the degradation of skills. These indeed are formidable achievements."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review

In this major work, leading economists, sociologists and psychologists present their original research into changes in the job structure of Britain in the 1980s. Combining large-scale sample surveys, personal life-histories and case studies of towns, employers and worker groups, their findings give sometimes surprising answers to questions debated by social and economic observers in all advanced countries. Does technology destroy skills or rebuild them? How does skill affect the attitudes of employees and their managers towards their jobs? Are women gaining greater skill equality with men, or are they still stuck on the lower rungs of the skill and occupational ladders? The book also takes up neglected issues and challenges and discredits the widely held view that new technology has de-skilled the workforce. The authors exemplify many new techniques for researching skills at work: as an economic resource; as a motor of occupational change; and as a basis for personal careers and identity. It provides an authoritative set of conclusions on skill trends and their implications as it draws an authoritative new map of skill-change in British society.