Kate Purcell

In-sourcing, Outsourcing, and the Growth of Contingent Labour as Evidence of Flexible Employment Strategies

There is a growing body of piecemeal evidence that an increasing number of wellestablished companies are developing radically new staffing policies, based on the strategic use of contract labour companies, and justified on the basis of cost reduction in the face of growing competition. Using evidence from labour force survey data, interviews with senior human resource managers, and the preliminary results of a case study of a contract labour agency, this article assesses the evidence of such growth in labour contracting and the extent to which it reflects human resource strategies increasingly linked to business strategy. It is concluded that, although the picture is far from uniform, trends and case evidence support the contention that the strategic use of segmented labour force strategies among major employers has developed strongly in the 1990s and is likely to continue.

‘As cooks go, she went’ : is labour churn inevitable?

This study draws upon qualitative research carried out in the latter half of 1999 as part of a major project to provide evidence on skill deficiencies for the National Skills Task Force. Case studies involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with owners, managers and staff in 21 establishments across five sectors of the hospitality industry. The article sets out to shed light upon the causes and consequences of labour churn in the industry, and the coping strategies and counter-measures of employers. It demonstrates that labour turnover is substantially within the control of management, and it has useful implications for practitioners.

Is mass higher education working? Evidence from the labour market experiences of recent graduates

This paper uses a variety of recent sources of information to explore the labour market experiences of those who gained a degree in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, we address the issue of ‘overeducation’ - the view that the expansion of higher education in the 1990s created a situation in which increasing numbers of graduates were unable to access employment that required and valued graduate skills and knowledge. Two complementary approaches to this issue are adopted. We review available evidence on the graduate earnings premium and change in the UK occupational structure, and we conduct a detailed examination of the earnings and characteristics of jobs done by a large sample of 1995 graduates seven years after graduation. We conclude that, while there may have been a decline from the high premium enjoyed by older graduates, for those who graduated in 1995 the average premium was holding up well, despite the expansion. Although we found differences between established graduate occupations and the newer areas of graduate employment, our evidence suggests that the development of new technical and managerial specialisms and occupational restructuring within organisations has been commensurate with the availability of an increased supply of highly qualified people.

The experience of unemployment

Increasingly high unemployment has brought with it a multitude of consequences affecting those without jobs and, beyond them, their families, friends and communities. This book reports findings from original research. It explores, often in the words of the unemployed and others involved, what life without a job is like. It challenges many widely held beliefs about the unemployed - that they are work shy, price themselves out of jobs or earn money illegally on the side - and explores where such misconceptions come from. It reveals the inherent contradictions involved in trying to search for work whilst coping with the experience of unemployment.

Diverse Expectations and Access to Opportunities: is there a Graduate Labour Market?

Restructuring of the labour market has led to changing demand for skills and concern about potential mismatch between needs of employers and competences developed in higher education courses. This paper extends analysis of the Great Expectations survey of UK final-year undergraduates in 1996 to explore the development of skills and competences in different disciplinary areas and the anticipated career trajectories of students. A detailed assessment is undertaken of the extent to which respondents appear prepared, both in terms of the employment-related skills they consider they have developed as undergraduates and in their expectations, for the changes which have taken place in the labour market in the latter part of the twentieth century. While findings from transitional early careers need to be interpreted cautiously, it does appear that expectations varied less than emerging outcomes for this cohort in the vanguard of mass higher education. Subject and gender differences in expectations and outcomes were significant and ‘non-traditional’ graduates were more likely than others to report that they were experiencing difficulties in the transition from education to employment. The graduates themselves had a flexible approach to the labour market but it seems that employers may have more inflexible recruitment graduate practices. Further research is required but there is clearly a danger that wider access may not lead to correspondingly wider career opportunities.

Human resource management in the Bulgarian hotel industry: from command to empowerment?☆

Bulgaria has one of the most successful tourism industries in Central and Eastern Europe, but the residues of Communist ideologies and practice are still apparent and present a handicap to those organizations which wish to compete for increasingly demanding global tourism clients. Drawing on findings from a comparative postal survey and follow-up interviews with hotel general managers in Bulgaria and U.K., current employment practices and management styles in the Bulgarian hotel industry are evaluated. The authors consider the extent to which Bulgarian managers appear likely to adopt current Western ideas about staff development and empowerment in the new economic circumstances of the developing market economy. It is concluded that culturally entrenched custom and practice presents formidable obstacles to change, but that the transition to privatization, sensitively handled, could provide the catharsis required to enable the industry to move into new markets.

Equal opportunities in the hospitality industry : custom and credentials

Although the U.K. hospitality industry is characterised by a predominantly female workforce, women are not well represented at management levels. With reference to previous research findings, the results of a survey of young people who completed Hotel and Catering Management degree courses at Oxford Polytechnic in 1985, 1986 and 1987 are examined, in order to explore similarities and differences in the employment orientations, transition from education to employment and early career experiences of women and men. The evidence suggests that, while changes in the industry and the increasing importance of formal credentials challenge gendered custom and practice, it may be particularly difficult for women to achieve equal opportunities in a female-dominated industry because they are less likely to be recruited, developed and rewarded as career staff with senior management potential.

Up to the Job? Graduates’ Perceptions of the UK Higher Education Careers Service

This article investigates graduates’ perceptions of their careers guidance needs and the extent to which these are met by the higher education careers service. It reports the findings of a survey conducted by the Employment Studies Research Unit in support of the work of the recent Higher Education Careers Service Review Group chaired by Professor Sir Martin Harris. It places the findings in a context between recent and ongoing research on transitions from higher education to employment and considers the implications of these, and of wider changes in recruitment practices, for the role of the higher education careers service.

Achieving Equality in the Knowledge Economy

How is women’s employment shaped by family and domestic responsibilities? This book, written by leading experts in the field, examines twenty-five years of change in women’s employment and addresses the challenges facing women today.

Restructuring and Recession

The late 1970s and early 1980s have been a period of global recession but there is considerable diversity of opinion about when it started and how long it will last. Richard Brown, in discussing the implications of this for sociologists, reflected that: It is certainly plausible to suggest that we are living at a time when the pattern of work with which we have been familiar for nearly two centuries may be changing more rapidly than ever before, and when the categories in terms of which we have been accustomed to think about work are proving less and less appropriate. …The tasks of describing, understanding, explaining and criticising the structure and experience of work and unemployment are as important as they have ever been. We need to know the conditions of our present plight, to develop alternative futures and to explore the conditions necessary for their realisation. (Brown, 1984, p. 320)