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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 September 2022

Christian Kazuo Fuzyama, Ana Heloisa Lemos and Marcelo Almeida de Carvalho Silva

This study aims to understand the production of consent to precarious working conditions in administration students' internship experiences.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to understand the production of consent to precarious working conditions in administration students' internship experiences.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 13 students of an undergraduate program in Business Administration in a private university were interviewed. The students' perceptions about the dynamics of the internship and their engagement in this experience were explored through thematic analysis.

Findings

Internships became more than spaces to learn about the world of work. They are also the locus of professional socialization toward precarious work. The detachment of internships from their educational scope is mediated by neonormative control mechanisms that subjectively mobilize the interns, producing the institutionalization and appreciation of the precarious experience, resignified as something that leads to autonomy, learning and a job position.

Practical implications

The article can help students, universities and companies to assess the role of internships in training future professionals.

Social implications

The research problematizes the internship as a form of professional socialization toward precarious work and its detachment from the original educational purpose. The article critically contributes to the debate about the current professional socialization process of young students.

Originality/value

The article highlights the subjective dimension that supports students' consent to dysfunctional internships, discussing both the experience of work precariousness and exploitation, and the terms of the students' engagement in such dynamics, bridging consent to neonormative controls.

Details

Revista de Gestão, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1809-2276

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 22 November 2019

Siri Suh

To explore the politics of gender, health, medicine, and citizenship in high-income countries, medical sociologists have focused primarily on the practice of legal abortion. In…

Abstract

To explore the politics of gender, health, medicine, and citizenship in high-income countries, medical sociologists have focused primarily on the practice of legal abortion. In middle- and low-income countries with restrictive abortion laws, however, medical sociologists must examine what happens when women have already experienced spontaneous or induced abortion. Post-abortion care (PAC), a global reproductive health intervention that treats complications of abortion and has been implemented in nearly 50 countries worldwide, offers important theoretical insights into transnational politics of abortion and reproduction in countries with restrictive abortion laws. In this chapter, I draw on my ethnography of Senegal’s PAC program to examine the professional, clinical, and technological politics and practices of obstetric care for abortions that have already occurred. I use the sociological concepts of professional boundary work and boundary objects to demonstrate how Senegalese health professionals have established the political and clinical legitimacy of PAC. I demonstrate the professional precariousness of practicing PAC for physicians, midwives, and nurses. I show how the dual capacity of PAC technologies to terminate pregnancy and treat abortion complications has limited their circulation within the health system, thereby reducing quality of care. Given the contradictory and complex global landscape of twenty-first-century abortion governance, in which pharmaceutical forms of abortion such as Misoprostol are increasingly available in developing countries, and as abortion restrictions are increasingly enforced across the developed world, PAC offers important theoretical opportunities to advance medical sociology research on abortion politics and practices in the global North and South.

Book part
Publication date: 19 December 2017

Christine L. Williams

Professional careers have become more precarious in recent decades. Corporations today engage in downsizing even during profitable times, a practice that impacts workers…

Abstract

Professional careers have become more precarious in recent decades. Corporations today engage in downsizing even during profitable times, a practice that impacts workers throughout the labor force, including those with advanced degrees. Using a case study of women geoscientists in the oil and gas industry, I investigate how the increasing precariousness of professional careers reinforces gender inequality. The compressed cycle of booms and busts in the oil and gas industry permits an investigation into how women fare in precarious professional jobs. Extending gendered organization theory, I argue that three mechanisms are built into professional careers today that enhance women’s vulnerability to layoffs: teamwork, career maps, and networking. I illustrate how these mechanisms disadvantage women with in-depth portraits of three geoscientists who lost their jobs during the recent downturn in oil prices. Their personal narratives, collected over a 3-year period of boom and bust, reveal how a particular multinational corporation is structured in ways that favor the white men who dominate their industry. The rhetoric of diversity obscures the workings of gendered organizations during good times, but when times get tough, management’s decisions about whom to lay off belies the routine practices the reproduce men’s advantages within the industry.

Details

Precarious Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-288-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2021

Sylvie Gravel, Daniel Côté, Stéphanie Gladu, France Labrèche, Sabrina Gravel, Bouchra Bakhiyi and Joseph Zayed

The electrical and electronic recycling industry is experiencing significant growth while paying no particular attention to the health and safety of recycling workers. Who are…

Abstract

Purpose

The electrical and electronic recycling industry is experiencing significant growth while paying no particular attention to the health and safety of recycling workers. Who are these recycling workers? How are they recruited and trained in OHS measures? This article will attempt to answer these questions.

Design/methodology/approach

As part of a toxicological study carried out on five companies, samples were taken from employees (n = 100) and their working environment. Among them, 26 workers and six managers also participated in interviews on the management of OHS preventive practices. This article presents analyses of the recruitment strategies for these workers and the management of preventive measures.

Findings

The main findings were that preventive practices vary according to the company's social mission and recruitment strategy. OHS preventive practices vary among the companies, even though the workers are similarly exposed to multiple contaminants. Precarious employment relationships put these workers in a vulnerable position.

Originality/value

Although recycling electrical and electronic equipment (e-recycling) has been an ecological and moral concern in Western societies for several decades, occupational health and safety (OHS) management in recycling plants has received little attention.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2021

Viviane de Oliveira Cubas, Frederico Castelo Branco, André Rodrigues de Oliveira and Fernanda Novaes Cruz

The authors examine predictors of self-legitimacy for police officers belonging to the Military Police force of São Paulo (Brazil). Considering the variables mobilized by the…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors examine predictors of self-legitimacy for police officers belonging to the Military Police force of São Paulo (Brazil). Considering the variables mobilized by the literature on self-legitimacy, the authors seek to identify what explains the self-legitimacy of militarized police officers.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was applied to 298 frontline police officers in the city of São Paulo, analyzing indicators separated into two groups: relationship dimension and organizational dimension. An ordinary least square model is used to test the “relationship” and “organizational” variables on police officers' self-legitimacy.

Findings

Effectiveness is the strongest predictor for self-legitimacy. Organizational justice and distributive justice also present important effects, as the perception of citizens' attitudes toward police reinforces the conception of self-legitimacy as a dialogical construct, comprising here the public's expectations of police work as well as the police officers' perceptions that they are respected and considered important by the public.

Originality/value

There are no other studies on self-legitimacy related to Brazilian police officers or exploring these aspects among police officers submitted to a militarized structure. These results contribute to the ongoing debate on the militarization of police activities and their possible effects on police legitimacy.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 44 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2005

François Lépineux

Stakeholder theory is a “weak” theory, which suffers from a number of flaws. This article is based on the intuition that many of these problems are linked together, and that they…

7218

Abstract

Stakeholder theory is a “weak” theory, which suffers from a number of flaws. This article is based on the intuition that many of these problems are linked together, and that they are fundamentally due to the fact that stakeholder theory fails to appreciate the place of civil society as a stakeholder. It starts with an examination of the confusing status of society in stakeholder theory, and suggests that civil society should be on top of the stakeholder list. It then underlines the emergence of a global society, distinct from national societies. An extended classification system is presented, which comprises a binary categorization, an intermediate taxonomy, and a developed typology; this system is illustrated in the form of a mapping. The article then addresses the issue of the theory’s normative underpinnings: the concept of social cohesion is proposed as an alternative justification. The meaning of this concept is specified, and its relevance as a normative foundation is justified. Eventually, this reinterpretation of stakeholder theory, which emphasizes the importance of civil society and social cohesion, provides some rationales for the connection of its empirical and normative streams – thus rendering it more consistent and more robust.

Details

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 September 2021

Jason Woolley and Fiona Christie

This chapter examines the evolving nature of work patterns and income streams for contemporary Musicians in the United Kingdom. It explores the experiences of independent…

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolving nature of work patterns and income streams for contemporary Musicians in the United Kingdom. It explores the experiences of independent, portfolio career Musicians working in the Rock/Pop/Indie/Jazz Live Music scene. The Music industry is reported to contribute £5.2bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the economy, of which according to UK Music (2019) £2.5bn is generated by ‘Creative Sector’ workers, which includes performing Musicians. Despite these high revenues, UK Music (2019) consistently reports that many Musicians earn below the average working wage of other professions. Challenges to Musicians' work and income streams have been compounded by changes in consumption of Music due to digitization, a lack of systematic support from government for grassroots venues and unequal revenue distribution. In this context, we reveal findings from research interviews with Musicians, which were conducted just before and during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic (mainly in the North of England and Wales). Our research discovers how these Musicians utilize informal community mechanisms to navigate poor working conditions, value ‘dignity’ and ‘meaningfulness’ above remuneration and often default to individualist assumptions regarding career success.

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Martí López Andreu

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour market has been strongly hit by the 2007 recession. Furthermore, after 2010 and in the benchmark of “austerity”, several reforms were implemented to further flexibilise employment regulation. At the same time, public sector budgets suffered severe cutbacks, that impacted working conditions and prospects of public sector workers. These reforms were implemented by different governments and substantially changed previous existing patterns of employment. This paper explains how these reforms have reinforced previous existing trends towards greater flexibility and weaker employment protection and how they lead to a shift in the position of work in society.

Design/methodology/approach

The emerging patterns that these changes provoked are illustrated thorough data from narrative biographies of workers affected by a job loss or a downgrading of working conditions. The workers of the sample had relatively stable positions and careers and were affected by changes that substantially modified their paths.

Findings

The paper shows how reforms have expanded work and employment insecurities and have broken career paths. It demonstrates how the reforms have weakened the position of work and organised labour in society and how, when institutional supports are jeopardised, the capacity to plan and act is harassed by the traditional social inequalities.

Originality/value

The paper enhances the knowledge about the impact of institutional changes by analysing their effects in individual working lives by means of narrative biographies.

Details

Employee Relations, vol. 39 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 13 December 2021

Jutta Haider, Veronica Johansson and Björn Hammarfelt

The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers…

2209

Abstract

Purpose

The article introduces selected theoretical approaches to time and temporality relevant to the field of library and information science, and it briefly introduces the papers gathered in this special issue. A number of issues that could potentially be followed in future research are presented.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review a selection of theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of time that originate in or are of particular relevance to library and information science. Four main themes are identified: (1) information as object in temporal perspectives; (2) time and information as tools of power and control; (3) time in society; and (4) experiencing and practicing time.

Findings

The paper advocates a thorough engagement with how time and temporality shape notions of information more broadly. This includes, for example, paying attention to how various dimensions of the late-modern time regime of acceleration feed into the ways in which information is operationalised, how information work is commodified, and how hierarchies of information are established; paying attention to the changing temporal dynamics that networked information systems imply for our understanding of documents or of memory institutions; or how external events such as social and natural crises quickly alter modes, speed, and forms of data production and use, in areas as diverse as information practices, policy, management, representation, and organisation, amongst others.

Originality/value

By foregrounding temporal perspectives in library and information science, the authors advocate dialogue with important perspectives on time that come from other fields. Rather than just including such perspectives in library and information science, however, the authors find that the focus on information and documents that the library and information science field contributes has great potential to advance the understanding of how notions and experiences of time shape late-modern societies and individuals.

Article
Publication date: 18 March 2022

Betina Szkudlarek, Linh Nguyen and Aegean Leung

This study aims to respond to repeated calls for more process-focused research on effectual entrepreneurship. It illustrates how effectuation takes place, particularly through…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to respond to repeated calls for more process-focused research on effectual entrepreneurship. It illustrates how effectuation takes place, particularly through gaining the commitment of actors with diverse resources, knowledge and needs in a context characterized by power disparities. It illuminates the ethical concerns faced by effectual entrepreneurs and the impact these concerns could have on the service design.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative investigation involved in-depth interviews with 30 intercultural trainers-entrepreneurs delivering repatriation training in the context of international assignments. The authors supplemented primary data with the analysis of training and promotional materials.

Findings

The authors identify four key elements of the effectual process, in which entrepreneurs aim to elicit commitment while reconciling potentially conflicting demands of the actors involved: surfacing needs; value framing; co-creation; and joint affordable loss. The authors show how the acquisition of commitment has a consequential impact on subsequent steps of effectual entrepreneurship. The authors highlight how the interdependence of entrepreneurs, their services, clients and end-users impacts the availability of means and goals. More importantly, the authors also demonstrate how resource dependence, knowledge disparities and power imbalance between actors partaking in effectual entrepreneurship can lead to numerous ethical concerns and result in suboptimal service designs.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates the dark side of effectual entrepreneurship in a resource-constrained environment. The authors show how power disparities and resource-dependence can lead to ethical dilemmas and inferior service designs, where entrepreneurs follow the lead of influential and resource-abundant stakeholders at the expense of the end-users.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

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