1,721,281 research outputs found
The effect of the great lockdown on Homeworking in the United Kingdom
Full text linkIn this report, Darja Reuschke of the University of Southampton and Alan Felstead of Cardiff University present findings of their analysis of homeworking during the Coronavirus lockdown. Based upon data collected from approximately 7,000 people via the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), the report focusses on the effect of the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK on both the extent and intensity of homeworking, its relationship with mental well-being and how these effects have varied between ‘new’ and ‘established’ homeworkers
A flash in the pan or a permanent change? The growth of homeworking during the pandemic and its effect on employee productivity in the UK
No full textPurpose: this paper has three aims. First, it puts the pandemic-induced surge in homeworking into context by charting trends in homeworking in the UK since the early 1980s. Secondly, it examines what effect the growth in homeworking during the pandemic has had on employees’ self-reported levels of productivity. Thirdly, it assesses whether the spike in homeworking is a flash in the pan or a permanent feature of the post-pandemic world. Design/Methodology/Approach: the paper uses cross-sectional and longitudinal data taken from three nationally representative surveys of workers: (1) the Labour Force Survey, an official government survey carried out between 1981 and 2019; (2) a special module of the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, also an official government survey, which has been run every week since the pandemic began in March 2020; and (3) the Understanding Society Covid-19 Study, an online survey of the same people interviewed on six occasions during 2020. Findings: the recent surge in homeworking in the UK during the pandemic has been dramatic. Before 2020 it had taken almost 40 years for homeworking to grow by three percentage points, but its prevalence grew eight-fold virtually overnight as people were instructed to work at home if they can because of the pandemic. However, despite theories and predictions to the contrary, employees reported that their productivity was not adversely affected. Seven out of ten employees said that they were able to get as much done while working at home in June 2020 as they were able to do six months earlier. By September 2020, this proportion had risen to 85%. Originality/Value: there is an urgent need to investigate what effect enforced, as opposed to voluntary, homeworking has had on employee productivity. In addition, in order to decide whether continued homeworking should be encouraged or discouraged, policy makers and employers need to know what effect continuing with these arrangements is likely to have on employee productivity. This paper answers these questions using robust survey data collected in the UK throughout 2020 complemented by evidence taken from a variety of employer surveys.Social Implications: the paper argues that a higher level of homeworking is here to stay. Nine out of ten employees who worked at home during the pandemic said that they would like to continue working at home when they did not have to. Furthermore, those keenest to continue working at home were the most productive, hence providing a business case for a sustained increase in the prevalence of homeworking after the pandemic has past. Nevertheless, the experience of homeworking varies with those with higher domestic commitments reporting significantly lower levels of productivity. Research Implications/Limitations: while there are solid theoretical reasons for the paper’s findings, these data do not allow us to test all of the mechanisms involved. In addition, our outcome measure relies on employees’ self-reports of how their hourly productivity changed when working at home and is not based on a direct measure of changes to output per hour. However, surveys of employers suggest that, on average, productivity has not been reduced by the pandemic-induced surge in homeworking.<br/
Homeworking in the UK: before and during the 2020 lockdown
Full text linkIn this report, Alan Felstead of Cardiff University and Darja Reuschke of the University of Southampton present new and up-to-date evidence on the scale of the shift of paid work into the home in the UK during lockdown, its impact on the mental well-being and productivity of homeworkers, and the likely prevalence of homeworking after social distancing restrictions are fully lifted. The findings are based on three online surveys of workers carried out towards the end of April, May and June 2020. Each survey questioned a representative sample of 6,000-7,000 workers
"I am quite a genuine person": sales training and the limits of moulding instrumentality
No full textSales work is a key feature of the contemporary service economy which has prompted considerable academic debate. This has centred on the processes of standardization exemplified by sales routines and scripts. It is frequently suggested that these management devices are unproblematically embraced by workers who share a mutual interest with management in controlling customer behaviour and masking the contradictions of simultaneously displaying empathy while ‘closing the deal’. In these accounts, sales workers are denied agency. This paper questions this assumption by presenting empirical evidence from a casestudy of sales advisors in a large chain of private fitness clubs whose job is to sell annual memberships. The research involved eight interviews with trainers and managers at head office. We were also able to tape record and participate in a five day training course that all newly appointed sales advisors have to attend. We carried out interviews with all eight trainees a couple of months after the end of the course. This allowed us to follow the path of newly appointed sales advisors by hearing, seeing and experiencing the training they receive, and thengathering data on the extent to which the training is followed on the ground. The data show that although the training course placed strong emphasis on routines designed to control customers and maximize the commission received by sales advisors, once back on ‘home’ territory advisors often chose to approach customers with less instrumentality. This contrast is explained by reference to the advisors’ past dispositions and experiences, and to the specific local conditions in which sales take place
Improving working as learning
No full textInterest in learning at work has captured the attention of many people around the world, often taking centre stage in policy debates about improving economic performance, prosperity and well-being. This book is about the learning that goes on in workplaces – ranging from offices, factories and shops to gyms, health centres and universities – and how it can be improved. Such learning includes everyday work activity, on-the-job instruction and off-the-job training events.Improving Working as Learning is the first book to analyze systematically learning at work in different settings by developing and applying a new analytical framework. The Working as Learning Framework connects the particularities of work tasks with the way jobs are organized and the wider pressures and constraints organizations face for survival, growth and development. The authors convincingly demonstrate that the framework offers a sophisticated understanding of how improving the work environment – both within the workplace and beyond – can enhance and sustain improvements in learning at work.Each chapter presents evidence – taken from both private and public sectors – to illustrate how the Working as Learning Framework provides a means by which employers, researchers and policy-makers can:Improve the conditions for nurturing and sustaining learning at workBuild appropriate workforce development plans within given constraintsRecognize that the creation and use of knowledge is widely distributed
Mobilize existing workplace resources to support learningEnhance and extend our understanding of how workplace learning is shaped by relationships at, and beyond, the workplaceThis topical book will appeal to an international readership of undergraduate and postgraduate students, vocational teachers and trainers, human resource professionals, policy-makers, and researcher
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