The Lives and Deaths of Jobs: Technical Interdependence and Survival in a Job Structure

Universiteternes stillingsstruktur har betydning for, hvordan universiteterne kan varetage undervisning og forskning – herunder sikre samspillet mellem hovedopgaverne. Artiklen kortlægger hvordan de 5 stillingscirkulærer der har været fra 1994 til i dag har ført til forskydninger i ansættelsespraksis på universiteterne i retning af relativt flere midlertidige stillinger med altovervejende fokus på forskning. Det konkluderes, at der er behov for et fornyet politisk fokus på hvordan samspillet mellem forskning og undervisning kan styrkes, og at stillingsstrukturen er et vigtigt sted at sætte ind. The Job Structure for Academic Staff affects how universities organize teaching and research and particularly how they can ensure interplay between the two fundamental tasks. The article maps how five different Job Structures from 1994 to today have led to a shift in employment practices at universities towards temporary positions with a focus on research. It is concluded that the interplay between research and teaching could be strengthened, and that a revision of the Job Structure for Academic Staff is an important element in this endeavour.

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The Lives and Deaths of Jobs: Technical Interdependence and Survival in a Job Structure

10.31235/osf.io/ur7ky ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

John-Paul Ferguson ◽

Rembrand Koning ◽

Sharique Hasan

Keyword(s):

Labor Markets ◽

Academic Staff ◽

Prior Work ◽

Quarter Century ◽

The Face ◽

Job Structure ◽

The Impact

Prior work has considered the properties of individual jobs that make themmore or less likely to survive in organizations. Yet little researchexamines how a job's position within a larger job structure affects itslife chances and thus the evolution of the larger job structure over time.In this article, we explore the impact of technical interdependence on thedynamics of job structures. We argue that jobs that are more enmeshed in ajob structure through these interdependencies are more likely to survive.We test our theory on a quarter-century of personnel and job-descriptiondata for the non-academic staff of one of America’s largest publicuniversities. Our results provide support for our key hypotheses: jobsthat are more enmeshed in clusters of technical interdependence are lesslikely to die. At the same time, being part of such a cluster means that ajob is more vulnerable if its neighbors disappear. And the "protection" oftechnical interdependence is contingent: it does not hold in the face ofstrategic change or other organizational restructurings. Weoffer implications of our analyses for research in organizationalperformance, careers, and labor markets.

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Bridging structural and micro-level factors in cultural labor studies

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies ◽

10.1108/stics-03-2019-0007 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 15-37

Author(s):

Victor K.W. Shin ◽

Ling Tung Tsang ◽

Tommy H.L. Tse

Keyword(s):

Working Conditions ◽

Performing Arts ◽

Labor Turnover ◽

Cultural Industries ◽

Arts Organizations ◽

Personal Factors ◽

Career Expectations ◽

Content Type ◽

Micro Level ◽

Job Structure

Purpose This study aims to examine how the organizational structure of arts groups and their administrative personnel’s socio-demographic attributes affect the working conditions of and create tensions for their staff. Recent discussion about the cultural industries and labor has pursued two strands – macro-level research expounds on the organization of cultural industries and labor market; and micro-level studies focus on the work and employment of cultural practitioners. Very few of them, however, articulate the relationships between the two levels. This study contributes to the literature with a multilevel framework that examines the interplay between the structural conditions and personal factors in which labor–capital relationships evolve. Design/methodology/approach This study applies a qualitative approach to collect and analyze data. It conducted 39 in-depth interviews with arts managers and administrators from a sample of 18 performing arts organizations across four performing arts sectors in Hong Kong, namely, drama, music, dance and opera. The stratified sample covers arts organizations of different funding models – the public “nationalized” form, the mixed-economy form, and the privatized form. Findings This study shows that the funding and organization model of arts organizations resulted in various forms of job structure, and that the practitioners’ socio-demographic background shapes their career expectations. The job structure and career expectations together affect the labor turnover and influence organization strategies. Originality/value This study’s methodological contribution lies on its application of a multilevel framework to analyze the relationships between the macro- and the micro-level factors underpinning the working conditions of labor in the cultural industries. Besides, it contributes to the discussion about “labor precariousness” with empirical evidence from a comparative study of arts managers and administrators from organizations across four performing arts sectors.

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