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The role and contributions of blue and gray collar employees in strategy making in practice are generally ignored, and left out of scientific inquiry. However, the authors argue that they are “hidden actors” in the strategy making process, and “silent heroes” of the strategy. Their participative role is generally seen limited to operational phases of strategy. Nevertheless, recent literatures have fruitful implications on blue and gray collars workers’ contributions in formulation phase. Upper echelon (Hambrick, 1987; Hambrick & Mason, 1984) and strategy as practice (SAP) literatures (Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009; Whittington, 2006) are suggested to be closely scrutinized since the former has incorporated the middle- and low-level teams of management in the explanation (Carpenter, Geletkancz, & Sanders, 2004), and the latter takes “practice” as a prominent research perspective, and thus enable us to approach strategy phenomena from a wider context of practitioners, practices, and praxis (Jarzabkowski, Balogun, & Seidl, 2007; Jarzabkowski & Wilson, 2002). Overall, this chapter suggests that future studies could question the hidden assumptions behind strategy approaches to trace the assumed image and role of blue and gray collars in strategy making, and go further to integrate their deserved role in strategy process, content, context, and cognition.

Understanding disabled people as gray-collar workers who are under-paid, under-valued and under-employed is recognized as in urgent need of attention but remains unaddressed. Based on 30 semi-structured interviews with disabled people, observations and document analysis, the authors argue that the disabled gray-collar workers in the performing arts provide a context and socio-cultural perspective on how gray-collar workers can attain dignity through social inclusion. Building on a novel framework of four dimensions of social inclusion theory – access, participation, representation and empowerment – the authors identify social interactions portrayed in the performing arts in order to deconstruct the processes that normalize and reinforce exclusion and inequality. The authors demonstrate how social inclusion can be “enabled” which has implications for theory, policy and practice.

Leadership is a social phenomenon. Therefore, it has to be examined according to its social context. The point to be underlined by the social context is the social network in which the leader emerges. Considering the studies, the social network side of leadership is relatively ignored comparing with sociometric studies. In that sense, the aim of this study is to reveal whether there is a relationship between the positions of the military personnel, who are defined as one of the gray-collar working groups in the literature, within the social network mechanisms of which they are members, and their self-leadership perceptions. To answer the question, a self-leadership scale was applied to 69 gray-collar employees working in a military unit and network analyses were performed. According to results, there is a strong, positive and significant relationship between the network mechanism centrality criteria indegree, reach centrality and closeness and the self-leadership perceptions of individuals. In addition, there was no significant relationship between eigenvector centrality and honest brokerage, which are among the network mechanism criteria, and the actors’ self-leadership perceptions. The study has aimed at accenting and adding different perspectives to the leadership studies and gray-collar literature.

Some fuzzy definitions such as gray collar workers (GCW) needs to be constructed by academic research in management and organization field. The authors propose a framework for researchers who are interested in studying gray collar workforce after the fourth industrial revolution (I4.0) with network perspectives and methods. Hence, understanding different classes of workforce in the new industrial era needs better understandings of fuzzy concepts and well collected data for decision-making processes. Since literature of management studies are not sufficient to identify and study those new classes, the authors begin with the definition of collar colors in management studies. Following that section, referring to the importance of GCW research, a new literature construction via different types of network analyses is discussed. Three different methods of network concepts are matched with three main social science paradigms. The authors believe that the three perspectives are in the same importance about constructing a literature of future workforce in organizations in particular the GCW who are more exposed in technological developments and organizational changes.

With the pandemic and digital developments, digital transformation has begun in Human Resources Management (HRM). Applications such as robotic applications, information technology, IIoT, Industry 4.0 have led to a decrease in the need for human resources (HR) and an increase in the need for skilled workers. Along with this need, new-collar, digital-collar, cyber-collar, and metal-collar employee types have been added to the distinction between blue-collar and white-collar. To adapt to Industry 4.0 and to survive the pandemic process, businesses have also met the digitalization process very quickly and almost unpreparedly. In this context, the HRM of the businesses has started to experience digital transformation. With the digitalization of HR processes, digital conflicts have also emerged. Conflict management problems arising from digital transformation and the pandemic process, health problems, and cyber-attacks due to remote working have become one of the most important problems of the digital age. In this chapter, the issue of digital conflicts in HRM is discussed. In this context, first of all, the concept of digital conflict is included. Then, Industry 4.0, information technology and HR, the impact of information systems on digitalization and HR, digital transformation in HRM, opportunities, and threats arising from digitalization, and HR conflict management problems in the COVID-19 pandemic, collar change of employees during the pandemic, possible problems that may arise after the pandemic, future predictions, and strategic principles are mentioned.

This study aims at investigating creative labor and its production process in late capitalism. With technological convergence and digitalization, there emerged an information society and information economy. In the processes and procedures of this era, conditions and climate of working areas and labor processes directly based on innovation and creativity have undergone radical transformations. Also, it has become indispensable to scrutinize the concepts such as immaterial labor, autonomy, and subjectivity. So, this study focuses on Turkish freelance illustrators to highlight their production, autonomy, and value in transformed time and space. It aims to establish a better understanding of the Turkish freelancer illustrators’ valorization of labor and economic insecurity in the digital era of creative industries by using the techniques of open-ended questions and online semi-structured interviews with 12 freelance illustrators. Therefore, this study traces the question of how the working processes and work ethos of digital career fields in the creative industry are evaluated from the perspective of illustrators. It cannot be overlooked that this new working ethos allows them to work as self-employed, offering through non-contractual relationships, and non-standard contracts with the clients which give them more flexibility and autonomy as an artist to plan their own creative production processes. It is also clear that illustrators who adapted themselves to produce in a transformed time–space are aware of the difficulty in measuring and valorizing the value of the creative and emotional labor they put to work. In such a case, it can be said that illustrators, who see themselves as both an employer and employee at the same time, position themselves beyond the distinctions of blue collar and gray collar and blur the boundaries in organizational hierarchies.

Nursing homes experience high nursing staff turnover. Nursing staff in nursing homes is comprised of gray and blue collar workers that include registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nurse assistants (CNAs). The relationship between human resource management (HRM)practices, organizational culture, and nursing staff turnover is examined in underresourced (high Medicaid) nursing homes. Survey data from 348 nursing home administrators (NHAs) of USA high Medicaid (85% or higher) facilities were merged with secondary data sources for 2017–2018. The dependent variables (nursing staff turnover rates) consisted of the percentages of RNs, LPNs, and CNAs that had voluntarily quit the organization during the past year. The independent variables were: (1) HRM practices (employee-centered and high involvement practices); and (2) organizational culture: clan, market, hierarchical, and non-dominant. Organizational and market variables were controlled for. Data were modeled using Poisson log-linear regression, and propensity score weights were used to adjust for potential survey non-response bias. Results show high involvement HRM practices and having a clan culture are associated with lower RN, LPN, and CNA staffing turnover. Study findings suggest that organizational culture and HRM practices may be instrumental in reducing nursing turnover in underresourced nursing homes.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the repercussions of work and employment in low-status jobs upon the collective organisation and representation of Egyptian immigrant workers.

Focusing on results from 117 in-depth interviews, the qualitative research (2010-2013) and analysis examines the case of Egyptians in Athens, Greece and on how the frame of their work and their employment affects participation in the immigrant work association Union of Egyptian Workers in Greece/EL-RAPTA and in Greek trade unions as well.

Evidence from in-depth interviews proves that Egyptians are supported by friendly and relative relations in search for solidarity; they develop individualistic behaviours and find alternative solutions for survival and protection.

Through the research, what is analysed is how immigration has affected social welfare and collective forms of representation but also how the immigrants themselves view and act within the collective frameworks. The results are of great concern to immigration policymakers to facilitate integration, combat undeclared work and identify weaknesses in worker rights and organisations.

The research, the first in Greece specifically for Egyptians immigrant workers and their work association, contributes to the broader body of sociological literature on the study of labour migration and immigrant voluntary associations and it is original as it is based on primary research on the experiences of Egyptian immigrants.