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At the end of the session, learners are expected to be able to evaluate the detrimental impact of stress on blue-collar workers’ well-being in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; develop effective strategies to improve stressful conditions experienced by blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse and select appropriate approaches that can help maintain the motivation levels of blue-collar workers in Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; analyse the impact of Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd’s extensive investment in training new blue-collar workers, alongside the subsequent high turnover rate, on the decline in sales and profit; identify the critical changes that the managing director should have implemented to prioritize employee retention among blue-collar workers at Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd; discuss the strategic implementation of mechanization, specifically in the context of automating repetitive processes, as an innovative solution to address the challenges faced by the ship repair and maintenance service industry heavily reliant on blue-collar workers in emerging markets; cultivate thoughtful debates on ways to keep blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, as well as active learner participation and group interaction; develop learners’ analytical and critical thinking skills by guiding them through the analysis of a real-world case study in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, concentrating on the difficulties and potential solutions for blue-collar worker retention; and equip learners with practical knowledge and insights on implementing effective human resources strategies for retaining blue-collar workers in the shipping repair and maintenance industry, emphasizing the conversion of theoretical concepts into workable solutions.

This teaching case study centres on Attainer Engineering Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian conglomerate that bestows ship repair and maintenance services. Regrettably, the corporation has been subjected to a decrease in profitability and productivity owing to its high turnover rate of blue-collar workers. The ship repair and maintenance service industry is accountable for delivering comprehensive repair and maintenance services to ships, including their engines, hulls, machinery and other related components. The fundamental aim of this case study is to ascertain the rudimentary factors that contribute to this issue and foster effective strategies to enhance the motivation and retention rate of blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service corporation, using appropriate management theories, models and concepts. The case study brings to light the importance of discovering the most suitable approaches to retain blue-collar workers in the corporation to improve its profitability and productivity in a highly competitive market. This teaching case study will be beneficial for students and practitioners who want to grasp the disputes associated with retaining blue-collar workers in the ship repair and maintenance service industry and learn how to apply management theories, models and concepts to address these disputes effectively.

This case discussion would be highly suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate university students who are pursuing their studies in management or related fields and are eager to delve into the nuances of the ship repair and maintenance service industry. Furthermore, trainers from both private and public agencies who are keen on gaining a deeper understanding of the issues pertaining to retaining blue-collar workers in this particular industry and devising result-oriented strategies to tackle these concerns would also find this case discussion immensely helpful.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

Career success such as it is classically modelled and measured is not necessarily representative of the perceptions of blue‐collar workers. Therefore, the goal of the present study is to understand what it means to succeed in blue‐collar occupations. A definition and a measure are useful starting points in explaining the individual's evaluation of success and in analysing the behaviour which results from it.

After a review of literature, in order to develop the theoretical framework for the research, 25 exploratory interviews were conducted with blue‐collar workers in order to obtain their criteria for career success. The results are reported, together with the methodological decisions and a proposed explanatory model.

Success is traditionally described as having an objective and a subjective part. In order to understand the perceptions of blue‐collar workers, it is necessary to recognise that their perceptions are influenced by material, psychological and social aspects.

The definitions developed in this paper could be used to develop employment programmes addressing the expectations of blue‐collar workers, and to attract new employees to this kind of occupation. More generally, with the flattening of organizations, it is necessary to re‐evaluate the concept of success for all workers, and to develop policies that are appropriate to changes in the labour market.

The majority of career studies focus on “white collar” workers. Traditional career theory has developed models which consider that all the employees are guided by the same systems of values (status, power, wages, etc.). Thus, this paper fulfils a need to develop an understanding of career success from the perspective of blue‐collar workers.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and white-collar occupations.

Using the comprehensive meaningful work scale (Lips-Wiersma and Wright, 2012) with 1,683 workers across two studies, ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in dimensions of MFW.

While unity with others and developing the inner self were regarded as equally important for white-, blue-, and pink-collar workers, the authors data suggest that white-collar workers placed more importance on expressing full potential and serving others than blue-collar workers. The frequency of experiencing MFW differed across the three groups with white-collar workers experiencing higher levels of unity with others, expressing full potential, and serving others; however no mean differences were found for developing the inner self.

This study is the first to empirically investigate an oft-discussed but previously untested question: does the experience of MFW differ across white-, blue-, and pink-collar jobs?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Chinese factories can attract and retain blue-collar workers. While higher wages are typically considered to be an effective HR instrument in this regard, this paper argues for the relevance of ethics in the HR domain. To this end, the paper develops and tests the concept of socially responsible blue-collar human resource management (SRBC-HRM).

In a scenario-based experiment, 296 blue-collar employees from a Chinese garment factory responded to questionnaires measuring their job choice determinants regarding a fictitious employer. In the scenarios, pay level (average vs above average) and SRBC-HRM (good vs poor) were manipulated.

The results revealed significantly positive relationships between SRBC-HRM and Chinese blue-collar workers’ job choice determinants (employer attractiveness, employer prestige and recommendation intentions), which were moderated by workers’ perceived importance of employer prestige. However, there was no significant effect of above-average pay on the three job choice determinants. Moreover, average pay in combination with good SRBC-HRM had stronger effects on job choice determinants than above-average pay in combination with poor SRBC-HRM.

The study highlights the economic relevance of the ethical treatment of employees in the manufacturing sector. In addition, the findings challenge the predominant managerial view that monetary rewards are the most important factor for instilling productive employee attitudes and intentions.

Poor labor practices are still widespread in factories in emerging countries. By indicating that SRBC-HRM improves factories’ bottom line, the study provides a powerful rationale for factory managers to improve working conditions.

The present paper introduces the concept of SRBC-HRM specifically tailored to the context of blue-collar workers in emerging countries, who have received little attention in the literature. In addition, the findings demonstrate the economic relevance of SRBC-HRM.

This study sought to examine the attitudes of blue-collar workers toward job automation. The study examined the relations between job automation, fear of job loss and self-actualization.

Using mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative analysis) with 539 participants overall, we examined employees' attitudes toward job automation through two separate studies conducted in a large public organization that employs blue-, white- and pink-collar employees. The blue-collar workers who participated consisted of waste collectors, gardeners and parking supervisors whose work is at risk of job automation.

We found that 74% of the blue-collar employees described technology as a “replacer” that simplifies and reduces human work activities, while only 3% perceived it as an “enabler” that could enrich their jobs and expand human potential. Fifty-three percent of the employees in the white-collar professions described technology as a “replacer,” and 36% perceived it as an “enabler.” Among pink-collar workers, 51% perceived technology as an “enabler,” while only 14% perceived it as a “replacer.” A positive relationship between job automation and self-actualization was evident for pink- and white-collar workers, but not for blue-collar workers.

This study sheds light on how employees in different types of jobs perceive technological advancements at work. A classification of the perception of technology as an “enabler” vs a “replacer” is presented. The relationships between job automation and self-actualization in different job types are explored.

The main purpose of the study is to examine the intellectual structure of academic studies on blue-collar workers. In this context, (1) productivity and evolution of the field, (2) conceptual dimensions, (3) citation density and (4) structure of academic networks related to blue-collar workers were analyzed. The findings of the study produced results covering all fields of science, not just management and organization. As a result of the study, blue-collar studies by years, the most cited blue-collar studies, the researchers who published the most frequently about blue-collar workers, the researchers who conducted the longest research on blue-collar workers, the most frequently used keywords and academic networks in blue-collar studies are determined. The most important finding is that the blue-collar issue is the common intersection point of different fields of science such as health, medicine, finance, management and organization, marketing, psychology and sociology.

Relying on Social Identity Theory (SIT), Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) and System Justification Theory (SJT), this study aims at examining identity enhancement strategies of blue-collar workers who might be described as members of low-status groups having negative social identity. In the scope of this study, individual and collective strategies for identity enhancement of blue-collar workers have been proposed with the support of above mentioned theories. First of all, factors determining identity enhancement strategies have been described. Then, individual mobility conditions were explained and informal workplace learning was suggested as an individual mobility strategy for blue-collar workers to enhance social identity. In addition, it was argued that high self-monitoring blue collars are more likely than low self-monitoring blue collars to use individual mobility strategy. It was also emphasized that through union membership, high identifier blue collars will adopt a collective identity enhancement strategy. Finally, acceptance of low-status strategy was proposed for blue-collar workers in case they perceive their group’s low status as stable and legitimate.

This paper aims to provide insights into current issues, such as changing expectations and needs of blue-collar workers, from both an employee and HR perspective, to provoke further research in the business context on this crucial cohort, as well as broaden the current understanding of Human Resources Management (HRM) measures and incentives implemented by the respective foreign companies.

The author conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 Chinese employees of German multinational companies working in the automobile industry located in Shanghai. Among them, 17 were blue-collar workers and 8 were white-collar workers (General Manager or HR Manager).

Besides factors attributed to work conditions, all of the work values are located in the individual domain, regarding their level of focus (Facet C according to Lyons et al.). Work values in the growth orientation domain (Facet B according to Lyons et al.) show a mix between context- and growth-oriented factors. However, context-oriented factors are still outnumbering the frequency of growth-oriented ones. Regarding the modality of work values (Facet A), all of the categories (instrumental, social, cognitive and prestige) were reflected in the answers of the blue-collar workers.

Due to the limited number of interviewees no final statement can be made on how age, education, gender, or other demographics influence certain work values. Additionally, Inglehart and Abramson (1994) also mention other potential explanations for observed differences, such as inflation or unemployment rates, and per capita gross national product which were not discussed in this research. Furthermore, the HR management selected the interview candidates regarding the blue-collar cohort which could indicate biased answers of the interviewees.

HRM systems (e.g. reward systems or job design) should be adapted to meet the individual preferences of employees and be sensitive toward a potential value change among certain generational cohorts. The findings showed that although pay is still on the mind of the blue-collar worker, career development seems to be even more important for the future blue-collar workforce. Therefore, companies should as well consider non-financial retention strategies in the future.

Due to the talent shortage in China, employee’s ability to assert their interests, wishes and values could be taken to a new level. However, this does not hold true for the (still increasing) flood of migrant workers, often suffering from bad working conditions or discrimination incurred by their hukou status. Although recent changes in the labor regime have taken place (e.g. social insurance reform and labor contract law), the protection of migrant workers still remains insufficient.

By examining the work values of blue-collar workers, this paper draws meaningful implications for talent management with regard to work outcomes, in particular voluntary employee turnover, which is considered to be an issue of concern by both economists and businessmen.

Gender divisions are embedded in and essential to the structure of capitalist production. While most men and women in the United States both now work for wages, they rarely work together. Gender segregation has been identified as one of the major issues of the earnings gap between men and women. An explanation of the forces responsible for this has been difficult to achieve. Most theories fail to consider the contribution of demand‐side factors to gender segregation. Neo‐Marxist analysis of labour market segmentation and theories of the dual economy have provided new frameworks for investigating these structural or demand‐side features of industrial organisation. The pattern of blue‐collar segregation in US manufacturing industries is examined drawing on these theories. Employment data from the US census is used to identify how the levels of blue‐collar segregation in manufacturing industries are influenced by the industry's location within the core or peripheral sector of the US economy. Many of segregation's proposed remedies stress the role of supply‐side factors. These strategies focus attention almost exclusively on male and female workers and ignore the structure of the workplace. Strategies that ignore the dualistic nature of the US economy offer only partial solutions and may be counter‐productive. If forced to eliminate or reduce segmentation, employers may simply restructure their labour processes in a way that undermines rather than contributes to gender inequality. It is apparent that the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace is intrinsically related to and dependent on the broader efforts of workers to achieve greater control over production, both at the workplace and in the economy as a whole.

This paper presents the second-generation estimates for the Italian engineering industry in 1911, a year documented both by the customary demographic census, and the first industrial census. The first part of this paper uses the census data to estimate the industry’s value added, sector by sector; the second further disaggregates each sector by activity, and estimates the value added, employment, physical product, and metal consumption of each one. A third, concluding section dwells on the dependence of cross-section estimates on time-series evidence. Three appendices detail the specific algorithms that generate the present estimates; a fourth, a useful sample of firm-specific data.