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Advanced education is often thought to respond to the demands of the economy, market forces create new occupations, and then universities respond with new degrees and curricula aimed at training future workers with specific new skills. Presented here is comparative research on an underappreciated, yet growing, concurrent alternative process: universities, with their global growth in numbers and enrollments, in concert with expanding research capacity, create and privilege knowledge and skills, legitimate new degrees that then become monetized and even required in private and public sectors of economies. A process referred to as academization of occupations has far-reaching implications for understanding the transformation of capitalism, new dimensions of social inequality, and resulting stratification among occupations. Academization is also eclipsing the more limited professionalization processes in occupations. Additionally, it fuels further expansion of advanced education and contributes to a new culture of work in the 21st century. Commissioned detailed German and US case studies of the university origins and influence on workplace consequences of seven selected occupations and associated knowledge, skills, and degrees investigate the academization process. And to demonstrate how universal this could become, the cases contrast the more open and less-restrictive education and occupation system in the US with the centralized and state-controlled education system in Germany. With expected variation, both economies and their occupational systems show evidence of robust academization. Importantly too is evidence of academic transformations of understandings about approaches to job tasks and use of authoritative knowledge in occupational activities.

This study developed new measures of the routine and non-routine task contents of managerial, professional, technical, and clerical occupations from a workload perspective. Here, we present a comparative analysis of the workload structures of state and industrial sector employees.

Our method involves detailed descriptions of work processes and an element-wise time study. We collected and analysed data to obtain a workload structure that falls within three conceptual task categories: (i) non-routine analytic tasks, (ii) non-routine interactive tasks and (iii) routine cognitive tasks. A total of 2,312 state and industrial sector employees in Kazakhstan participated in the study. The data were collected using a proprietary web application that resembles a timesheet.

The study results are consistent with the general trend reported by previous studies: the higher the job level, the lower the occupation’s routine task content. In addition, the routine cognitive task contents of managerial, professional, technical, and clerical occupations in the industrial sector are higher than those in local governments. The work of women is also more routinary than that of men. Finally, vthe routine cognitive task contents of occupations in administrative units are higher than those of occupations in substantive units.

Our study sought to address the challenges of using the task-based approach associated with measuring tasks by introducing a new measurement framework. The main advantage of our task measures is a direct approach to assessing workloads consisting of routine tasks, which allows for an accurate estimation of potential staff reductions due to the automation of work processes.

The authors aim to explore the link between the gender composition of occupations and women's access to managerial positions in four societal contexts.

Using EU-LFS data for 2015, the authors measure the relative gender equality performance of France, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK regarding women's access to managerial positions, defined as levels 1 and 2 of the 2008 ISCO classification coupled with the exercise of managerial responsibilities.

While gender-mixed working environments offer the largest number of managerial positions, they are also where women are least likely to reach such a position. Overall, except in Switzerland, women fare best in male-dominated occupations. Women do not appear to fare worse than men in female-dominated occupations, except in France.

The findings question the relevance of policies aimed simply at reducing occupational gender segregation without providing safeguards against the deleterious effects that gender mixing may have on women's career advancement.

The disparities between countries found here show that individual career advancement towards a managerial position may be driven by the social policies, gender ideology and institutions of the societal context. Examining how the societal dimensions involved in the poor performance of women in France and Switzerland are likely to differ sheds light on mechanisms behind the gender gap in management.

Based on the role congruity theory (RCT), this study aims to determine the effects of gender roles on life satisfaction and occupational commitment levels of female employees working in law enforcement.

Hypotheses were tested through a series of hierarchical regression analyses on the data collected from 394 female respondents who are having their first year in law enforcement.

Both male and female gender roles were positively related to the life satisfaction levels of women working in law enforcement. Female gender role was also positively linked to higher levels of occupational commitment. The link between male gender role and occupational commitment was nonlinear; therefore, the positive relationship between the variables turns into a negative one for higher levels of male gender role.

This study furthers the understanding of RCT and its implications regarding how gender roles link to work-related outcomes, especially for women working in a male-dominated work context.

Data science promises new opportunities for organizational decision-making. Data scientists arguably play an important role in this regard and one can even observe a certain “buzz” around this nascent occupation. This paper enquires into how data scientists construct their occupational identity and the challenges they experience when enacting it.

Based on semi-structured interviews with data scientists working in different industries, the authors explore how these actors draw on their educational background, work experiences and perception of the contemporary digitalization discourse to craft their occupational identities.

The authors identify three main components of data scientists’ occupational identity: a scientific mindset, an interest in sophisticated forms of data work and a problem-solving attitude. The authors demonstrate how enacting this identity is sometimes challenged through what data scientists perceive as either too low or too high expectations that managers form towards them. To address those expectations, they engage in outward-facing identity work by carrying out educational work within the organization and (paradoxically) stressing both prestigious and non-prestigious parts of their work to “tame” the ambiguity and hype they perceive in managers’ expectations. In addition, they act upon themselves to better appreciate managers’ perspectives and expectations.

This study contributes to research on data scientists as well as the accounting literature that often refers to data scientists as new competitors for accountants. It cautions scholars and practitioners alike to be careful when discussing the possibilities and limitations of data science concerning advancements in accounting and control.

This study examines why and when nurses' role ambiguity leads to their work alienation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Survey data were collected from 335 hospital nurses in Ma’anshan, China. The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression and bootstrapping.

Occupational disidentification mediated the relationship between role ambiguity and work alienation. This mediating effect was not significant when nurses possessed a high level of perceived climate of prioritizing COVID-19 infection prevention (PCIP).

To reduce nurses' work alienation in a pandemic situation, the hospital management team should pay attention to and try to minimize the nurses' role ambiguity and occupational disidentification. When doing so, the management team will find it particularly helpful if they can make nurses perceive a strong climate of PCIP.

This study contributes to the existing knowledge of role ambiguity and work alienation by highlighting occupational disidentification as a mediator after controlling for organizational identification in the context of COVID-19. It further demonstrates when the mediating role of occupational disidentification is likely to be strong or weak by studying the moderating effect of perceived climate of PCIP.

Situated in the Chilean context, this study investigates how Vocational Education and Training (VET) teacher profiles, based on their perceptions of prior work experience in industry, relate to their current motivation and perception of teaching in VET. By doing so, the authors seek to provide valuable evidence to inform the development of policies to attract and maintain well-qualified teachers from industry in Chile and other countries facing similar changes.

The authors used a descriptive cross-sectional design to collect data from 660 VET teachers using a two-scale instrument: Perception of Prior Occupation (PPO) and adapted FIT-Choice scales. By adopting a typological approach, the authors constructed profiles of VET teachers based on their perception of past industry experience. The authors then analyzed how these profiles vary regarding individual teacher characteristics, motivation and perception of teaching in VET.

The authors found a significant degree of heterogeneity among VET teachers' prior industry experiences, leading them to identify three distinct VET teacher profiles: “High Perception of Prior Occupation,” “Learning and Teaching-Oriented” and “Low Perception of Prior Occupation.” Notably, the most distinguishing characteristics across these profiles were age, VET teaching area, holding a job outside of teaching and years of prior industry experience. Furthermore, the authors found that motivation and perceptions of teaching varied significantly across these VET teacher profiles.

There needs to be more research on the factors that attract and retain industry workers as VET teachers in high schools. This study is among the first to address this topic in a non-European context.

The purpose of this study was to examine the boundary conditions of Kanter's (1977) tokenism theory as applied to the gender wage gap. The authors aimed to discover if there was a point where the relationship between the percentage of women in a job category and the gender wage gap changed, and, if so, where the threshold was located and what was the nature of the shift in relationship.

The authors used the Andrews’ (1993) threshold effects technique. Using 22 separate years of publicly available Canadian wage data, they examined the relationship between the percentage of females in 40 unique occupational categories and the female-to-male earnings ratio (for a total of 880 observations).

The results showed the existence of a threshold point, and that early gains in percent female within an occupation, up to approximately 14% female in the occupation, associate with strong gains in the female-to-male wage ratio. However, beyond that point, further gains in percent female associate with smaller improvements in the female-to-male wage ratio.

The findings are useful in understanding the dynamics of occupational group gender composition, potential theoretical reasons for the nuances in relationship, as well as opportunities that may facilitate more equitable outcomes.

The results show that, though improvements were made above and below the threshold point, enhancements in the wage gap are actually larger when there are less women in the job category (e.g. tokens).

This study investigates occupational segregation, microaggression, and social exclusion as antecedents of social invisibility to predict employee intentions to leave. Furthermore, the authors question whether felt obligation moderates the relationship between social invisibility and intentions to leave. Finally, researchers explore various forms of occupational segregation, miscoaggression, and social exclusion from employee's perspective.

Two studies are conducted. Study 1 is quantitative where the data were collected from 273 nurses employed in various hospitals in Pakistan. Study 2 is qualitative where twelve confirmatory interviews were conducted to enrich our contextual understanding of the proposed relationships. The quantitative data are analyzed using partial least square methods via SmartPLS. The qualitative data analysis is based on a content analysis of interviews.

Surprisingly, occupational segregation does not predict social invisibility. Moreover, the relationship between occupational segregation and intentions to leave is not mediated via social invisibility. The issues such as social hierarchy and high power distance are reflected via the findings of the qualitative study.

The results provide insightful strategies to counter feelings of social invisibility among individuals performing those jobs which are considered stigmatized occupations.

This study uniquely presents three antecedents of social invisibility, its mediating role, and the moderation of felt obligation between social invisibility and intentions to leave.

A hybrid of architectural design and engineering, architectural engineers (AEs)design and remediate problems with internal and external structures and systems of building and facilities in the US. Trained and credentialed in academic programs awarding approximately 1,000 degrees annually, AE is a mid-sized specialty engineering degree comparable to computer software, nuclear, or materials engineering. The case outlines the origins and history of the occupation and illustrates three aspects of the academization process: integration of the university’s charter for knowledge production within an occupation; possibilities for conflict and power within universities that can shape occupational outcomes; and the role of the university and collaborations with practitioners in creating change in theoretical conceptions, on-the-job skills, and problem-solving strategies. AE demonstrates academization in a field with specific physical outcomes and functional requirements that are technically bounded. As counterfactuals, possible alternative occupational paths for the work roles of AEs are considered, along with reasons why they did not happen. What did occur demonstrates the impact of the academization process, with both credentialing and new research. AE is an informative example of constructed functionalism, formed and continually shaped by the university.