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I historically compare changes in institutional frameworks creating academic positions linked to temporary employment by analyzing university employment statistics in Chile, Colombia, Germany, and the USA. I find that temporary academic positions were institutionalized through the creation of previously inexistent academic categories called a contrata in Chile, de cátedra in Colombia, “junior professor” without tenure in Germany and “postdoc” in the USA; used in higher education and employment laws since 1989, 1992, 2002, and 1974, respectively. Under institutional frameworks demanding the maximization of students and research, universities have increasingly contracted academics through temporary contracts under rationales that differ between regions. In Colombia and Chile, public university leaders and owners of private universities contract such teaching positions to expand student numbers through lowering costs. In Germany and the USA, employment insecurity is mostly driven by temporary scientific positions under a main rationale of scientific expansion. The share of temporary positions has increased exponentially in Colombia and Germany in recent decades, whereas in the USA there has only been an increase since 2012. Moreover, in Chile, the share of permanent positions has decreased since 2012. The common trend is one of isomorphism of vertical academic structures sharing a pyramidal form, with a wide base of academics working under conditions of contractual insecurity. Such trends follow a rationale for maximization of student numbers as well as administration, and scientific production that is in tension with prioritizing wellbeing and improvement of academics’ working conditions. Yet, in these environments, the institution of tenure in the USA and recent Chilean regulations on accreditation represent mechanisms counteracting precarious employment.

In this chapter, we theorize about online freelancers’ approaches to work flexibility. Drawing from an ongoing digital ethnography of US-based online freelancers pursuing work on digital platforms, our data question the common conceptualizations around the flexibility of online freelancing. We posit that the flexibility of where to work, not when to work, is the most important attribute of their work arrangement. Our data show (1) the online freelancers in our study prefer the stability and sustainability of full-time work over freelancing when both are offered as remote options; (2) full-time remote employment increases these workers’ freelancing control / flexibility; (3) these workers keep freelance work options open even as they transition to more permanent full-time work arrangements. We discuss how these findings relate to workplace culture shifts and what this means for contemporary working arrangements. Our insights contribute to the discourses on knowledge-based gig work and for what it means to study individuals online.

Research has shown that young adults face strong economic burdens when it comes to establishing their intimate relationships in times of labor market deregulation and economic recession. However, little is known about possible protective effects of the transition to cohabitation on subjective worries. Based on economic and gender-specific assumptions, the present paper uses data from the German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) from 1991 to 2020. Longitudinal analyses show that the transition into cohabitation reduces the economic worries of German women, especially in times of macroeconomic crisis. For men, cohabitation is only protective against economic worries if they or their partner have high economic resources. The latter may indicate that young men in precarious living situations perceive the male breadwinner model as a subjective burden in the context of cohabitation.

Introduction: The Udaan Scheme was implemented in response to enduring conflict, economic downturn, and employment scarcity. Under the Rangarajan Committee, the scheme aimed to address unemployment in a selected region through skill development programmes. Based on practical experience, Udaan aimed to build a competitive workforce for India and the global economy.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the success ratio of the Udaan Scheme in addressing the employment challenges faced by the youth.

Need of the study: The chapter highlights the potential of the scheme to be a part of a resilient industry for job employability in politically disturbed areas.

Methodology: The compiled data were analysed using a spreadsheet collected from online sources, providing information on the number of registrations for the skill development programme between March 2012 and May 2018, that is, the programme’s implementation in the pre-UT era, mainly sourced from the Udaan Impact Assessment Report and the Review of the Udaan Scheme in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Findings: The programme, which provided professional training and increased the job-securing capacity of youth, has had a dismal success rate despite the government’s investment of Rs 246 crore. The initiative has employed less than 10,000 individuals, or at most 10% of the target population, falling short of its claimed goals.

Significance of the study in the global market: The scheme addresses unemployment and career development for educated youth, enhancing India’s economic growth and global competitiveness. By providing skill development and exposure to the corporate sector, it empowers youth and attracts international business opportunities. It aligns with global efforts to bridge the skills gap and showcases India’s commitment to human capital development in a conflict-driven state.

Industry 4.0 refers to an era in which human work, creative activities and professional knowledge are largely replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) and robots. Due to the current exponential rate of technological development and the infinite expansion and generalisation of technologies, it is not difficult to predict that these technologies will spread at exponential rates and will spur massive changes in the adopted production, management and governance mechanisms and in the future employment market. Especially, employment changes are inevitable with the rise in automation and the job scope and prospects are bound to vary widely. In this chapter, confrontation strategies for employment in Industry 4.0 are proposed. It is hoped that this study will be able to provide an accurate direction for future employment and will be able to contribute to the study of employment policies and Industry 4.0.

The study set out to understand how the regional competitiveness index (RCI) in the department of Ancash related to the human development index (HDI) from 2008 to 2021. For a more complete understanding of the findings, each component or dimension of the RCI was analyzed. Ancash's HDI and its competitiveness index over a 14-year period were used as the population for this applied, longitudinal, descriptive-correlational study, which was based on secondary data extracted from the “Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática” (INEI) and business school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (CENTRUM) statistical databases. Multiple linear regression was used to find the relationship. The research found a strong and positive correlation between regional competitiveness and human development between 2008 and 2021. No correlations were found between the HDI and the health, education, employment, or institutional dimensions of regional competitiveness, but direct and significant correlations were established between the economic environment and the HDI and between the infrastructure dimension and the HDI.

A growing body of research finds that gig economy platforms use gamification to enhance managerial control. Focusing on technologically mediated forms of gamification, this literature reveals how platforms mobilize gig workers’ work effort by making the labour process resemble a game. This chapter contends that this tech-centric scholarship fails to fully capture the historical continuities between contemporary and much older occurrences of game-playing at work. Informed by interviews and participatory observations at two food delivery platforms in Amsterdam, I document how these platforms’ piece wage system gives rise to a workplace dynamic in which severely underpaid delivery couriers continuously employ game strategies to maximize their gig income. Reminiscent of observations from the early shop floor ethnographies of the manufacturing industry, I show that the game of gig income maximization operates as an indirect modality of control by (re)aligning the interests of couriers with the interests of capital and by individualizing and depoliticizing couriers’ overall low wage level. I argue that the new, algorithmic technologies expand and intensify the much older forms of gamified control by infusing the organizational activities of shift and task allocation with the logic of the piece wage game and by increasing the possibilities for interaction, direct feedback and immersion. My study contributes to the literature on gamification in the gig economy by interweaving it with the classic observations derived from the manufacturing industry and by developing a conceptualization of gamification in which both capital and labour exercise agency.

This chapter is devoted to sustainable human resource management that leads to sustainable competitiveness. It features the ways human resources can be managed to carry out sustainable goals and the impact of sustainability on employees' attitudes and behaviours. The aim of this study is to explore the complex objectives of sustainability and human resource management and empirically investigate the dynamic relationship between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness in the case of 35 European countries. Our contribution emphasizes this interrelationship and its causality. For this research, we applied a vector auto-regression (VAR) model, and the Granger causality method to examine the relationship between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness. A panel data included 314 observations between 2012 and 2021. The panel VAR for analysing the impulse response function was enriched with the 5% and 95%, using Monte Carlo simulations. The research results revealed bidirectional causality in the European countries between human resources in science and technology and sustainable competitiveness. Human resources in science and technology trigger sustainable competitiveness and vice versa. As an element of originality, our study demonstrates that human resources in science and technology contribute to sustainable performance, and, on the other hand, a more competitive and sustainable environment contributes to the development of human resources in science and technology. Thus, the chapter outlines the role of human resources in science and technology with regard to sustainable human resource management (HRM), and how to navigate these objectives so that they can positively influence sustainable competitiveness.

Purpose: The assessment of the linkage between quality and several SDGs is crucial due to the significant impact quality has on multiple dimensions. This study employs a comprehensive methodology to elucidate the various dimensions of quality. Additionally, it examines the relationship between quality and multiple SDGs, a topic that has not been previously investigated.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The question arises here that how maintaining quality leads to sustainability; well this question is answered in this study through a content analysis of previous studies and showing the importance of theme quality in various aspects of sustainability like TBL, sustainable development goals (SDGs), etc.

Findings: Quality has proven to be an admirable approach towards sustainability. The risen need for sustainability has brought many perspectives of the world. It can be environmental, social and economic and further these aspects have their own areas for improvement. The complexity of the structure of sustainability requires a basic common area to be focused on, and in this study, quality has proven to be one.

Implications: Through the SDGs it can be derived that each goal had an area where quality needed to be worked on. The several zones of quality are interlinked. Quality of life will automatically improve the education, health water and sanitation services. Therefore, the focus should be laid on attaining sustainability through quality. Quality is achieving excellence in something or a substance that satisfies the requirements needed from it or the resources are utilised effectively and efficiently.

Originality/Value: This study uses a holistic approach in which dimensions of quality have been explained and further the linkage of quality with different SDGs was assessed which has not yet been explored earlier.