Moving Down? Women's Part-time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991-2001

The UK`s Equal Opportunities Commission has recently drawn attention to the `hidden brain drain` when women working part-time are employed in jobs below their level of educational attainment and/or previous experience. These inferences were based on self-reporting. We give an objective and quantitative analysis of the nature of occupational change as women make the transition between full-time and part-time work. In order to analyse down-grading we construct an occupational classification which supports a ranking of occupations by the average level of qualification of those employed there on a full-time basis. We note that the incidence (and by implication the availability) of part-time work differs across occupations, and that occupational concentration is more acute for part-time work. Using a large sample of panel observations over the period 1991-2001 we show that women moving from full- to part-time work are approximately twice as likely to move down as up the occupational ladder, while those moving from part-time back to full-time work are twice as likely to be moving up than down the ranking. These effects are particularly marked when a change of employer is involved. Not all women are equally at risk of downgrading. It is particularly likely among women in management positions; over one-third of women in managerial or high-skilled clerical/administrative jobs downgrade when they move into part-time employment. But women in some occupations with higher specific skill requirements and where employees may have a stronger sense of vocation, notably teaching and nursing, are much less likely to experience downgrading. Nonetheless, 20% of teachers and nurses who change employer and switch into part-time work move downwards. These findings indicate a loss of economic efficiency through the underutilisation of the skills of many of the women who work part-time.Female employment, Part-time work, Occupation, Life-cycle, Downgrade

Benefit for All: How Peer Mentoring Impacts Mentors

Dr. Connolly's poster on the impact of peer mentoring on the those who mentor

Who are Non-Resident Fathers?: A British Socio-Demographic Profile

Despite international growth of, and policy interest in, divorce and separation since the 1970s, there is still surprisingly little known about non-residential fatherhood. This paper presents a ‘father-centric’ analysis and provides one of the first profiles of non-residential fatherhood in early millennium UK. Using data from Understanding Society Wave 1, a nationally representative survey of over 30,000 households in the UK, we found 1,070 men self-identifying as having a non-resident child under 16 years old (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk). We estimate a prevalence of 5 per cent of British men having a non-resident dependent child. Through latent class analysis, four distinct groups of non-resident fathers are identified: ‘Engaged’ fathers, ‘Less Engaged’ fathers, ‘Disengaged’ fathers and ‘Distance’ fathers. Our analysis finds that non-resident fathers form a heterogeneous group in terms of their socio-demographic profile and family behaviour. It is recommended that legislation and policy concerning fathers in post-separation families are sensitive to variation as well as commonality in socio-economic conditions and family lives and situations

Turning points or turning around: Family coach work with 'troubled families'

The study aimed to discover how family coaches work intensively with families with moderately complex problems bringing together perceptions from 20 families, 20 coaches and six other professionals, and exploring potential savings for 50 family cases. The Family Coaching Service is part of the English government’s ‘Troubled Families’ payment by results initiative, seeking to help families ‘turn their lives around’ to save state spending on anti-social behaviour, worklessness and school absence. Results show the work to be a staged process, over six months with the coach combining practical help with relationship building to engage families, set and achieve goals and negotiate endings. Cost savings were made in 82% of cases. Family coaches find the work rewarding but emotionally demanding. Families say their coach is special and different, and describe potential turning point experiences stemming from the work with their coach. There is clear congruence in the perceptions of the service from families, coaches and other professionals. Some tensions were evident in the work with other professionals and in managing relationship boundaries with families. Relationship-based help offered by para-professionals may offer a promising model of family support that statutory social workers in particular can learn from and engage with

'Supranationalism’ in question: beliefs, values and the socializing power of the European Commission revisited

Do international organizations affect the views of the people who work for them? Although increasingly sophisticated methods have been used to address this question, disagreement persists about whether the beliefs of staff are formed before or after they enter the institution, or shaped by instrumental calculation. Drawing on an original dataset based on the first fully representative survey of the European Commission’s workforce, this article breaks new ground by putting different definitions of ‘supranationalism’ to the test and by capturing multiple ways in which individuals may be affected by the experience of working for the organization. For the first time, it demonstrates that commitment to ‘supranationalism’ varies between Commission staff groupings, that the influences on belief vary with the measure of ‘supranationalism’ used, and that both post-recruitment experience and pre-recruitment roles play a part in shaping beliefs

Administrative legitimacy and the democratic deficit of the European Union

This article suggests a new concept of measurement for the EU’s oft-alleged democratic deficit based on two contributions. First, we turn attention to the administrative staff involved in policy-making rather than the (un)accountability of EUs’ parliamentarians and executive agents. Second, building on the idea that policy-makers’ legitimacy depends on the extent to which they can claim to represent some groups or social interests, we assess the extent to which Commission officials’ preferences reflect European citizens’ policy stance. Our results indicate a statistically significant positive correlation between the policy preferences of EU administrative staff and their home country population, which, we argue, can provide EU administrators a basic degree of legitimacy relative to their home country

Issue Brief: Impact Assessment and Responsible Business Guidance Tools in the Extractive Sector: An Environmental Human Rights Toolbox for Government, Business, Civil Society & Indigenous Groups

This issue brief provides an overview of the impact assessment and responsible business conduct toolbox for the extractive sector. The toolbox provides guidance on how governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous groups may encourage and adopt a human rights approach to impact assessment (IA). It forms part of a broader research project aimed at highlighting the interrelationship between IA laws and Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) tools, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant: Informing Best Practices in Environmental & Impact Assessments (the “KSG”)

New Student Orientation in Online Education

This study utilized the standards put forth by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) to assess orientation in online education. Two surveys were used to examine the oldest and largest online degree programs, as well as all-online schools. Descriptive statistics were employed to compare online orientation practices to the CAS Standards. Results suggest that online orientation programs are meeting the standards in some areas and missing them in others. The demographics and needs of online students must be closely examined in order to define engagement in the online environment

Follow the Leader? Leader Succession and Staff Attitudes in Public Sector Organizations

Public sector organizations face regular turnover in top leadership positions. Yet little is known about how such changes affect staff attitudes. The authors argue that top leader succession may influence staff attitudes, particularly when new leaders are “outsiders” and/or subordinates interact regularly with their leaders. Using a unique two-wave survey conducted within the European Commission in 2008 and 2014, this analysis tests these propositions by studying the same individuals before and after shifts in top political (commissioner) and administrative (director-general) positions. The study shows that leadership succession can trigger meaningful shifts in subordinates' stated attitudes regarding the European Commission's supranational identity. These findings are important because staff attitudes about organizational values and aims represent a key driver of individual and organizational performance