Successful Approaches to Change-MaineDOT’s Experience (2015 State of the Bay Presentation)

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Dance and Its Importance in Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello

Before J. S. Bach, the cello was rarely used as a solo instrument. With his suites for solo cello, however, Bach took the instrument out of the background of dance accompaniment and basso continuo, and placed it on the center stage for musical audiences. He accomplished this by using dance movements, a style in which the cello was already a familiar accompanying instrument. The forms of these dance movements were also used in such a way as to uniquely express the cello’s potential as a solo instrument. Ultimately, it was these suites that would inspire other composers to write solo works for the cello. By looking to the past, Bach created a work that looked to the future. This paper explores the musical elements in this work that contribute to their lasting influence

The future of professional work? The rise of the `network form¿ and the decline of discretion

This article explores the implications of `networked¿ and `flexible¿ organisations for the work and skills of professionals. Drawing on material from four different case studies it reviews work that is out-sourced (IT professionals and housing benefit caseworkers), work done by teachers contracted to a temporary employment agency and work done through an inter-firm network (chemical production workers). In each of these cases work that was out-sourced was managed very differently to that which was undertaken in-house, with managerial monitoring replacing and reducing employees¿ discretion. New staff in these networks had fewer skills when hired and were given access to a narrower range of skills than their predecessors. By contrast, the production staff employed on permanent contracts in the inter-firm network were given (and took) significant amounts of responsibility, with positive results for both their skills and the work processes. Despite these results, out-sourcing and sub-contracting are a far more common means of securing flexibility than organisational collaboration and the implications of this for skills is considered

Applying a gender lens to employment relations: Revitalisation, resistance and risks

Employment relations is on the defensive. A gender lens provides opportunities for revitalisation through bringing in social reproduction alongside production, introducing intersectional identities alongside class, developing gendered critiques of ‘neutral’ markets and recognising the ‘doing of gender’ within the workplace. However, resistance within research and practice is evident in gender blindness, marginalisation of gender issues or preference for male interests. Three risks associated with a gender lens are identified: first, feminist critiques may be used by employers or neoliberal policymakers to deregulate employment; second, by making gender visible, gender differences may be used to legitimise gender inequalities; and third, in representing workers’ interests many pitfalls need to be navigated in steering a path between excessive fragmentation and reproducing hierarchy, whether by class, gender or race. Nevertheless, the costs of not embracing a gender perspective go beyond missed opportunities for renewal and leave employment relations at risk of further decline

A case of employers never letting a good crisis go to waste? An investigation of how work becomes even more precarious for hourly paid workers under Covid

From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: pub-electronic 2021-08-18Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: Economic and Social Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269; Grant(s): ES/P000665/1Abstract: The fragility of employers' voluntary, business‐case‐based improvements to employment standards for front‐line hourly paid staff is revealed in two organisational case studies from the art and care sectors. For different reasons, Covid provided a catalyst for employers to enact passive and active exit strategies that made work more precarious

Reinforced or disrupted ideal worker norms in the pandemic? Analyzing the gendered impact of the pandemic on professional specialisms in a Professional Services Firm in Kuwait

This paper uses a critical case study of a subsidiary of a multinational Professional Services Firm (PSF) in Kuwait to explore whether new organizational routines and ways of working in the pandemic created opportunities for gendered ideal worker norms to be challenged or modified. We revisited research findings from an in-depth case study conducted in the pre-Covid context where differentiated patterns of gendered ideal norms across Consulting, Audit and Tax professional specialisms were identified. We reveal how tenacious these ideal norms are by showing how early possibilities of rethinking ways of being “ideal” in the pandemic were superseded by a return to pre-Covid ways of working. The primacy of the client-ethos and being available remained intact, although the paper reveals the importance of situating changes in localized contexts and recognizing the uneven nature of change across professional specialisms and within organizational contexts. Specifically, shifts to more flexible working for the Audit specialism may have created opportunities for women to progress; but male dominance of the Tax specialism in Kuwait was entrenched further by a rigid return to normal. Significantly, the globalized nature of PSF professional identities appeared constant in the context of change, but their impact on gender equality in PSFs may still be shaped by the particular cultural and institutional context

Gender, choice and constraint in call centre employment

This paper examines the genderised experience of employment in call centres. While existing studies have acknowledged structural and agential constraints on women in the workplace, this paper goes further by illustrating the gendered nature of career choice and progression in a context which, in certain respects, appears to have benefitted women's desires for advancement. Drawing on quantitative and in-depth qualitative data from four Scottish call centres, the study provides evidence of gender inequality shaped by structural and ideological workplace and household constraints