IER News & blogs

A new book on job quality, co-edited by IER Director Chris Warhurst, has been published in Australia by Federation Press. Job Quality in Australia examines the range of disciplinary perspectives on job quality, and conceptual and methodological problems with current understanding of job quality as well as offering proposals for developing that understanding and delivering better policy to improve job quality.

For more information go to the Federation Press website.

Wendy Patton, Associate Fellow IER, will be one of two speakers presenting at the University of Warwick Careers Studies Event, which will take place on 10th June. The title of Wendy's seminar will be Changing the discourse of women's work: Challenges for theory, research and practice.

The topic for Professor Patton’s presentation will be: Changing the discourse of women’s work: Challenges for theory, research and practice. The presentation will draw from 3 key recent books:

• Bimrose, J., McMahon, M., Watson, M. (2015). (Eds.). Women’s career development throughout the lifespan: An international exploration. London: Routledge

For further information about the presentation and registration details, go to:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/courses/professionaldevelopment/careerstudies/about/events/

As part of the Social Sciences Festival celebrating the University of Warwick 's 50th Anniversary, the University's network on Connecting Research on Employment and Work (CREW) will be holding an event on 8th May, 11 am - 3 pm, to be held at the University's Ramphal building.

This event will identify key changes in work and employment that have taken place over the years since the University of Warwick was established in 1965. In the morning session senior scholars will review some of the continuities and changes (and how we think about them) in their fields of study. After a complimentary lunch, there will be presentations by newer members of the faculty looking ahead to future trends and practices.

Colleagues from trades unions, enterprise or training councils and other academic organisations are welcome to attend and further details of the event can be found here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/festival2015/eventprogramme/friday8thmay/looking_back_v3.pdf

Professor Chris Warhurst gave a seminar to delegates entitled "If It’s job innovation you want, think about job quality".

The Summit was a management event that brought together 500 business, social, cultural and political leaders for a discussion of new trends and innovation and was designed to start an important dialogue around the ideas and practices that are reshaping business in the region, in Latin America and across the world.

Chris spoke about how innovation is important to companies but that current government policy is not boosting innovation in workplaces, and national and company competiveness is constrained.

The current emphasis on a science-centric model of innovation is important but not sufficient. Policy needs to extend its understanding of what innovation is. Most innovation is organisational innovation, about processes rather than products. How this other model of innovation can be better levered also needs to be addressed. Evidence suggests that more effective innovative occurs when supported by good job quality: better jobs provide higher innovative capacity in companies.

The choices senior managers make therefore about job quality don’t just impact the well-being of their employees; those choices also affect the innovative capacity and competitiveness of their companies.

Men on lower incomes are more likely to help their partners with housework than higher-earners, although women are still by far doing the most around the home, no matter how many hours they work or how much they are paid.While the burden of keeping the home clean is starting to be shared more equally between couples, signs of a class divide are beginning to emerge, a researcher from the University of Warwick has found.

“There’s a stark difference in couples’ attitudes towards gender equality depending on how much they are earning,” explained Dr Clare Lyonette, from the Institute for Employment Research, who led the study.

“It seems men on lower incomes are happily picking up the dusters, filling the dishwasher and generally starting to do their bit. Times are changing and they acknowledge there’s now a need for more equality in the home.

“But there’s a different attitude when it comes to higher earners. We found that while men in these households do also recognise the need to help their partners, they remain reluctant to lift a finger and appear to simply throw money at the issue by hiring a cleaner instead.

“And although men in general are starting to make themselves more useful around the house, regardless of income, the age old theory remains the same – women, on the whole, are doing the most.”

Dr Lyonette’s findings in Sharing the load? Partners’ relative earnings and the division of domestic labour have just been published in the February 2015 edition of the British Sociological Association’s Work, employment and society journal. It is available to download for free here.

She interviewed a number of partnered men and women for the project, all of whom had at least one child under the age of 14.

“There’s certainly a fairer division of household labour between couples than in the past but inequality still exists and that’s perpetuated, in part, by the so-called ‘myth of male incompetence’,” added Dr Lyonette.

“This is a belief by some women – and our study shows it’s still rife – that men are unable to complete housework to an acceptable standard.

“Women know their contribution to the household should be fairly reflected in the sharing of housework and are often frustrated by their lack of success in changing the situation – but their frustrations are to some extent mollified by the idea that men are inept at domestic chores.”

One participant in the survey told the researcher: “I think they do it on purpose, men, don’t they? Using the cleaner, he’ll just clean around things, then all of a sudden you’ll move the sofa and you’re like, ‘What is that under there?’ … or he says, ‘Don’t clean upstairs now because no one goes up there bar us, you don’t need to hoover’ is his argument’.”

Dr Lyonette concluded: “Men from lower-income families certainly seem to be starting to do their bit around the home. But at the same time, until all men are willing to take on more domestic tasks, so allowing women to take on greater responsibility within the workplace, any hoped-for progress in gender equality is likely to stall.”