Flexible Despotism

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Alex J. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Flexible Scheduling ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Managerial Power

This introductory chapter provides an overview of flexible despotism. New economic processes are taking hold in the spaces opened up by the steady decline of collective workplace regulation. No longer is working time understood as a standard, stable eight hours, five days a week. Instead, working time is flexible, on demand, and 24/7. Consequently, many workers are increasingly employed flexibly, while others may not even have an employment contract at all, and instead be classified as self-employed—and yet have their labor controlled by a platform. Even workers with standard, full-time, permanent contracts can experience high levels of insecurity as a result of flexible scheduling within this new temporal order. As a result, the benefits and drawbacks of flexible scheduling have been widely debated. These discussions, however, have tended to focus on issues of job quality, work–life balance, and well-being. This book goes further, by drawing attention to important but under-researched issues of managerial power and workplace control. This is necessary, as it is only when one understands paid work as a power relationship that one is able to see how precarious scheduling constitutes flexible despotism—a new regime of control within the workplace.

Despotism on Demand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex J. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Flexible Scheduling ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Managerial Power ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

This book draws attention to the impact of flexible scheduling on managerial power and workplace control. When we understand paid work as a power relationship, the book argues, we see how the spread of precarious scheduling constitutes flexible despotism; a novel regime of control within the workplace. The author of the book believes that flexible despotism represents a new domain of inequality, in which the postindustrial working class increasingly suffers a scheduling nightmare. By investigating two of the largest retailers in the world, the book uncovers how control in the contemporary “flexible firm” is achieved through the insidious combination of “flexible discipline” and “schedule gifts.” Flexible discipline provides managers with an arbitrary means by which to punish workers, but flexible scheduling also requires workers to actively win favor with managers in order to receive “schedule gifts”: more or better hours. The book concludes that the centrality of precarious scheduling to control means that for those at the bottom of the postindustrial labor market, the future of work will increasingly be one of flexible despotism.

scholarly journals Jobs, Careers, and Callings: Exploring Work Orientation at Mid-Career

2021 ◽  
pp. 089484532110228
Author(s):  
Janet Mantler ◽  
Bernadette Campbell ◽  
Kathryne E. Dupré
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Career Satisfaction ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Orientation ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Tripartite Model ◽  
Job Tenure ◽  
Life Balance

Mid-career is a time when work orientation (i.e., viewing ones’ work as a job, a career, or a calling) comes into sharper focus. Using Wrzeniewski et al.’s tripartite model, we conducted a discriminant function analysis to determine the combination of variables that best discriminates among people who are aligned with a job, a career, or a calling orientation in a sample of 251 full-time, North American mid-career employees. Compared to those who approach work as a job, those with a calling orientation were more engaged in work. The career-oriented stood apart from the others as a function of shorter job tenure, greater turnover intentions, work engagement, career satisfaction, and a tendency to engage in career self-comparisons. Work-orientation groups did not differ significantly in terms of family centrality, work–life balance, life satisfaction, or well-being. The results suggest that the work orientations represent distinct and equally valid ways to approach work.

British doctors’ work–life balance and home-life satisfaction: a cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
pp. postgradmedj-2021-141338
Author(s):  
Swati Parida ◽  
Abdullah Aamir ◽  
Jahangir Alom ◽  
Tania A Rufai ◽  
Sohaib R Rufai
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Home Life

PurposeTo assess British doctors’ work–life balance, home-life satisfaction and associated barriers.Study designWe designed an online survey using Google Forms and distributed this via a closed social media group with 7031 members, exclusively run for British doctors. No identifiable data were collected and all respondents provided consent for their responses to be used anonymously. The questions covered demographic data followed by exploration of work–life balance and home-life satisfaction across a broad range of domains, including barriers thereto. Thematic analysis was performed for free-text responses.Results417 doctors completed the survey (response rate: 6%, typical for online surveys). Only 26% reported a satisfactory work–life balance; 70% of all respondents reported their work negatively affected their relationships and 87% reported their work negatively affected their hobbies. A significant proportion of respondents reported delaying major life events due to their working patterns: 52% delaying buying a home, 40% delaying marriage and 64% delaying having children. Female doctors were most likely to enter less-than-full-time working or leave their specialty. Thematic analysis revealed seven key themes from free-text responses: unsocial working, rota issues, training issues, less-than-full-time working, location, leave and childcare.ConclusionsThis study highlights the barriers to work–life balance and home-life satisfaction among British doctors, including strains on relationships and hobbies, leading to many doctors delaying certain milestones or opting to leave their training position altogether. It is imperative to address these issues to improve the well-being of British doctors and improve retention of the current workforce.

scholarly journals JOB QUALITY AND WELL-BEING IN OECD COUNTRIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Xose Picatoste ◽  
Mirela Ionela Aceleanu ◽  
Andreea Claudia Șerban
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Job Strain ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Stressful Situation ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Impact

The lifestyle of world citizens has suffered an unprecedented impact as a result of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19. Economies and worldwide societies expect huge damages comparable to that caused by war. To the effects of this crisis on employment and wages must be added those produced in the workplace, with a foreseeable increase in job strain, not only as of the result of the health security reasons in the workplace but also to the effects on work-life balance, training and promotion possibilities, etc. This research analyses the impact of the economic situation on health, the influence of health on labour strain and on job quality. Using OECD data and a structural equation model, we have investigated the relationship between economy, health, quality of the job, work-life balance and well-being. The importance of security and safeness in the workplace is one of the items for evaluating job strain, particularly when they become even more crucial in pandemic times. This issue implicates not only the real risk of individual and social health but also a stressful situation for workers. The main contribution of our paper relies on establishing and prove causal relations among social and economic variables related to health, well-being and job quality, including safeness at the workplace. Considering that this relationship will probably become reinforced after a pandemic, like COVID-19, the actual relevance of the analysed topic and the achieved results becomes crucial.

Exploration of the contentious relationship between increased work engagement and service worker well-being

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nicolle M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Academic Advisors ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Positive Psychology Intervention

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study sought to examine the efficacy of a positive psychology intervention for increasing work engagement within the workplace for collegiate academic advisors. This study employed embedded design methodology, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. This study consisted of four full-time collegiate academic advisors. The Person Activity Fit Diagnostic was used to individualize the positive exercises per participant. Also, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was used to assess the work engagement measures for all three participants by looking at their degrees of vigor, dedication, and absorption. Qualitative (A Day in the Life Journal and interviews) and quantitative (UWES) data was collected as pre and post measures, with the quantitative measures supporting the qualitative data. Qualitative data (Participant Manuals) were used throughout the entire positive psychology intervention. All four participants perceived a positive influence on their work engagement. Overall, participants reported that the positive psychology intervention also helped with positive thinking and work-life balance. The findings of this study suggest that educating academic advisors on self-care practices, such as a positive psychology intervention, may ensure a healthier work-life balance in a field that can be hard to leave work at work.

scholarly journals Work-Life Balance versus Work-Life Merge: a Comparative and Thematic Analysis of Workplace Well-Being

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sharkey ◽  
Barbara Caska
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Significant Difference

The aim of this mixed-methods research study was to test the traditional concept of work-life balance, which suggests workers can experience better well-being by being able to psychologically switch on and off. Participants were 133 full-time workers, split into two groups according to where their job was performed strictly at their place of business, or from a combination of workplace and home. Each participant completed quantitative online surveys that measured their perceived stress, life satisfaction and job satisfaction. Results indicated participants who worked from a combination of the workplace and home had significantly greater job and life satisfaction levels than their workplace-based counterparts. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups on perceived stress. Participants also answered qualitative questions about how their job impacted their personal life, how their job might be changed to improve personal time, and what motivated them to work. A strong emergent theme centred around time. Many complained of long working hours, giving them very little time to spend with family, friends or on personal pursuits. For some, stress and worry about their jobs bled into their home life, culminating in moodiness and difficulty in psychologically switching off. Whilst others were happy with the balance between their working and private lives, many wished for fewer and more flexible working hours. Conclusions drawn suggest there is real merit in offering flexible constructs to today’s workers in order to harvest better psychological well-being in the workplace.

THE FACTORS OF CAREER SELF-DETERMINATION OF STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
Inna Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Young Person ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right

Choice of profession is a social phenomenon that every person has to face in life. Numerous studies convince us that not only the well-being of a person depends on the chosen work, but also his attitude to himself and life in general, therefore, the right and timely professional choice is very important. Research about factors of career self-determination of students of higher education institutions in Ukraine shows that self-determination is an important factor in the socialization of young person, and the factors that determine students' career choices become an actual problem of nowadays. The present study involved full-time and part-time students of Institute of Philology and Mass Communications of Open International University of Human Development "Ukraine" in order to examine the factors of career self-determination of students of higher education institutions (N=189). Diagnostic factors of career self-determination of students studying in the third and fourth year were carried out using the author's questionnaire. Processing of obtained data was carried out using the Excel 2010 program; factorial and comparative analysis were applied. Results of the study showed that initial stage of career self-determination falls down on the third and fourth studying year at the university, when an image of future career and career orientations begin to form. At the same time, the content of career self-determination in this period is contradictory and uncertain, therefore, the implementation of pedagogical support of this process among students is effective.

Work Life Balance and Job Satisfaction - A Structural Equation Modeling

GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 156-162
Author(s):  
Dr. D. Shoba ◽  
Dr. G. Suganthi
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Study Results

Work-Life balance has its importance from ancient days and the concept is very old, from the day the world has been created. There was a drastic change that has occurred in the market of teachers and their personal profiles. There are tremendous changes in various families which have bartered from the ‘breadwinner’ role of traditional men to single parent families and dual earning couples. This study furnishes an insight into work life balance and job satisfaction of teachers working in School of Villupuram District. The sample comprises of 75 school teachers from Government and private schools in Villupuram District. The Study results that there is increasing mediating evidence in Work-life balance as well as Job satisfaction of teachers are not affected by the type of school in which they are working. Job satisfaction or Pleasure of life will be affected as a whole by Work life balance of an individual which is the main which can be calculated by construct of subjective well being.

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