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Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.

This paper explores the combined impact of past job histories and present job opportunities on turnover decisions. We predict turnover decisions on the basis of the structural approach, emphasizing previous work experiences (time spent in past job positions) and the organizational approach (focusing on objective and perceived internal and external employment positions opportunities). A cross‐sectional analysis of employees from four occupational groups in eight medical institutions and a follow‐up sample of 81 “quitters” formed the database for the study. The results suggest that past work history and present employment opportunities produce occupation‐dependent differences in turnover behavior. It is shown that differences in employees’ perception of opportunities, modified by the occupation’s “market viability”, influence turnover. These results demonstrate that integrating the structural and organizational approach, involving both past job histories and present opportunities, improve the prediction of turnover decisions.

Political skill has emerged as a concept of interest within the information systems literature to explain individual performance outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to adapt political skill to technology-mediated contexts. Specifically, the authors seek to understand political skill's role in shaping microtask workers' opportunity recognition when utilizing online communities in microtask work environments.

The authors tested their research model using a survey of 348 Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers who participate in microtask-related online communities. MTurk is a large, popular microtasking platform used by thousands of microtask workers daily, with several online communities supporting microtask workers.

Technology-based political skill plays a critical role in shaping the resources microtasking workers rely upon from online communities, including opportunity recognition and knowledge sharing. The ability to develop opportunity recognition positively impacts a microtask worker's ability to leverage online communities for microtask worker performance. Tenure in the community acts as a moderator within the model.

The present study makes several contributions. First, the authors adapt political skill to an online community to account for how microtask workers understand a community's socio-technical environment. Second, the authors demonstrate the antecedent role of political skill for opportunity recognition and knowledge sharing. Third, the authors provide empirical validation of the link between online communities and microtask worker performance.

Reports research findings from a study of equal opportunities officers. Explores different definitions and understandings of equal opportunities held by equal opportunities officers. Argues that the level of support for equal opportunities officers from top executives and equal opportunities officers’ own levels of seniority in organisations are important factors regarding the success of this area of work. Discusses the management role played by some equal opportunities officers. Considers various strategies for the implementation of equal opportunities within organisations, including mainstreaming, building alliances, and prioritisation of issues. Explores some of the advantages and disadvantages of mainstreaming as a strategy for implementing equal opportunities. Makes some recommendations for effective organisational practice in implementing equal opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationships between promotion, development, and recognition opportunities at work and organizational commitment, and whether these relationships are moderated by the job opportunities employees have in other organizations.

An opportunity model of organizational commitment is developed based on social exchange theory and several streams of opportunity research. Factor analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses are carried out to test the hypotheses using data from 550 white-collar employees.

The results of the analyses show that opportunities for development and recognition are predictors of organizational commitment, that job opportunities employees have in other organizations negatively moderate the relationship between recognition opportunity at work and organizational commitment, and that promotion opportunity does not predict organizational commitment.

Future researchers could study the issue in the context of other cultures using data from multiple sources.

Employers who seek to increase their employees’ organizational commitment are advised to divert their energies from struggling to create promotion opportunities for their employees to creating opportunities for development and recognition.

The study explores the under-researched concept of opportunity at work and connects several streams of opportunity research by drawing on social exchange theory as a theoretical framework. The model is the first to address the effects of opportunity and alternative opportunities on organizational commitment.

This study was designed to contribute to the extant literature by discovering the perceptions of restaurant employees and managers toward equal opportunities in restaurant labor and working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment.

A qualitative research approach was utilized. Through in-depth interviews, data were collected purposefully from restaurant workers in different positions (e.g. managers, servers, chefs and cooks) in the USA.

As a result of content analysis, different perspectives emerged on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. While some employees and managers believe that restaurant labor has equal employment opportunities, others think there is a lack of equal employment opportunity and partial equal employment opportunity in the industry. Most participants perceive working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment as beneficial (an opportunity to learn about different cultures and an opportunity to learn different experiences and approaches).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore employees' and managers' perceptions of equal employment opportunity and diversity in the hospitality labor context, specifically restaurant labor. Therefore, the research findings will create value for scholars to understand the view on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. Further, it will assist practitioners in designing their labor structure regarding equal employment opportunity and diversity management for the future.

This chapter presents the findings from an exploratory mixed-methods study that examined the significance of social location(s) and intersectionality in shaping the opportunities and experiences of an international sample of individuals engaging in education consulting work. Educational consulting is a growing field, attracting entrepreneurial professionals from practitioner and academic communities around the world (Gunter & Mills, 2017); however, very little research exists on this diverse and diffused group of workers. The research sought to answer two questions: (a) What is the influence of social identity and social position(s) on education consulting opportunities and experiences? (b) What benefits and challenges do educational development consultants experience in their work? Insights from feminist intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991) and theories concerning implicit bias (Williams, 2014) guide the analysis and discussion. The central argument made, based on the findings from the online survey and interviews with consultants, is that identity and social positioning are significant factors shaping who secures contracts and the nature and value of such experiences for individuals’ personal and professional development, as well as their professional contributions and impact overall. The findings clearly suggest that identity and social position are believed to be influential as enabling and constraining factors on education consultants work experiences. While geographic location emerged as pivotal in shaping who had access to consulting opportunities, intersections with socioeconomic status, class, ethnicity, and age were thought by participants to either further marginalize them or enhance their consulting opportunities and experiences.

Utilising data from 18 in‐depth case studies, this study seeks to explore training, development and human resource development (HRD) practices in European call centres. It aims to argue that the complexity and diversity of training, development and HRD practices is best understood by studying the multilayered contexts within which call centres operate. Call centres operate as open systems and training, development and HRD practices are influenced by environmental, strategic, organisational and temporal conditions.

The study utilised a range of research methods, including in‐depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, documentary analysis and observation. The study was conducted over a two‐year period.

The results indicate that normative models of HRD are not particularly valuable and that training, development and HRD in call centres is emergent and highly complex.

This study represents one of the first studies to investigate training and development and HRD practices and systems in European call centres.

This study aims to investigate what motivates nurses who live in a rural region with many vacant positions to choose a longer commute to work in a more populous capital region.

A qualitative descriptive design was used for this study. Nineteen commuting nurses were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling and interviewed over the telephone. The interviews were analyzed using a manifest and latent content analysis.

The findings showed how the participating nurses' motivations to work in the capital region far away from their home were grounded in reaching the unique opportunity for work as a part of the unique organizational conditions, the unique positions and the unique work environment. The analysis showed how the nurses believed in better possibilities for themselves regarding opportunities for careers, specialized positions, development and education, as well as a lower hierarchy in management.

Studies of commuting among nurses are sparsely investigated in the literature and especially through the lens of motivation. The few existing studies report on cross-sectional data, and to the authors’ knowledge, no studies have been investigated using a qualitative design. For future research, it would therefore be relevant to investigate nurses' motivation to commute to work in other countries in a larger sample and perhaps with larger commuting distances. This could contribute to a broader and more nuanced understanding of the factors that motivate nurses to commute long distances to work, not just nationally but also internationally.

The authors have conceptualized which factors most affect nurses' motivation to commute to work from a rural to more populous capital region in Figure 2. Here, the findings of the study are presented alongside the two theoretical perspectives used to frame the study. The figure can be used as a benchmark for organizational leaders who are interested in recruitment and retention of nurses, and in particular whether they are interested in the specific factors affecting nurses' motivation to commute to work. Based on the study findings, the authors suggest that rural hospital organizations can benefit from focusing on building their reputation and including what factors make them unique and desirable. However, this is a balancing act for organizational leaders, as they must deliver on promises made to nurses when they are engaged in recruitment. If they fail to do so, as indicated in the findings, nurses are likely to leave the organization for other job opportunities.

This study contributes to new knowledge on why nurses decide to commute to work from rural areas to more populated areas. Looking at the nurses' reasons and perspective for commuting, the authors must acknowledge the difficulties in retaining nurses in rural regions. From a recruitment and retention perspective, nurse employers in rural regions must increase their offerings of unique work opportunities, including maintaining competitive pay and offering career, development and educational opportunities.