This paper aims to discuss the importance of flexible working time arrangements in the United States (U.S.). Section I creates a framework to analyse the various dimensions of…
Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the importance of flexible working time arrangements in the United States (U.S.). Section I creates a framework to analyse the various dimensions of working time and their impacts. It examines the availability of flexitime and its potential costs and benefits to workers and employers. Section II describes the current distribution and differential access to flexitime by workers' demographic characteristics and by industry and occupational sector. Section III analyses these data to estimate the probability that workers with a given demographic or work characteristic have access to flexitime daily schedules. The fourth and final section discusses the implications of the findings. The empirical findings reveal that many workers are gaining flexibility in the timing of their daily work schedules, but access to flexible schedules remains uneven by characteristics of workers such as gender or race and by their jobs such as skill‐level, job status and hours status. Having flexible scheduling comes at the expense of working long average hours per week, or re‐locating to part‐time or self‐employment status or “unsocial” evening shifts. One implication of this is that a public policy aimed at flexible work hours for workers benefit must seek first to spread such flexibility to those who are currently not sharing it because of their occupation, industry or other personal or labour market characteristics.
Morris Altman and Lonnie Golden
A theoretical economic model is developed to explain the disparities in flexible work scheduling observed across firms, workplaces, sectors, and time periods. Given heterogeneity…
Abstract
A theoretical economic model is developed to explain the disparities in flexible work scheduling observed across firms, workplaces, sectors, and time periods. Given heterogeneity in firms’ costs, the supply of flextime is determined by firms’ costs of enacting versus not adopting it. The innovative practice would be adopted if it generates net unit labor cost savings. If it is cost neutral, the extent to which the supply of flextime falls short of worker demand for it depends on the extent to which employers must accommodate employee preferences for more time sovereignty and are induced by policy incentives to switch to flexible scheduling.
Stuart Glosser and Lonnie Golden
Has the character of adjustment of labor input in the US manufacturing sector been changing over the last few decades? This question is addressed with time‐series estimation using…
Abstract
Has the character of adjustment of labor input in the US manufacturing sector been changing over the last few decades? This question is addressed with time‐series estimation using data through 2001. Impulse responses of employment and average weekly hours to a given shock in output demand are generated from multi‐equation vector autoregressions. The results reveal a marked change in the character of labor input adjustment as compared with the two decades prior to 1979, with some heterogeneity among 18 detailed industries. Adjustment of hours has risen somewhat while adjustment of employment has dropped considerably. This intensifying adjustment of hours vis‐à‐vis employment is consistent with hypotheses regarding employers' potential reactions to a skill‐upgrading of jobs under greater market pressures to restrain cost. US manufacturing employers appear to be increasingly adopting strategies of “lean staffing,” while “hoarding” and shedding work hours, in response to cyclical fluctuation in demand. This phenomenon may be a structural change contributing to a recent “jobless recovery” in the US.
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Jeremy Reynolds and Linda A. Renzulli
This paper uses a representative sample of U.S. workers to examine how self-employment may reduce work-life conflict. We find that self-employment prevents work from interfering…
Abstract
This paper uses a representative sample of U.S. workers to examine how self-employment may reduce work-life conflict. We find that self-employment prevents work from interfering with life (WIL), especially among women, but it heightens the tendency for life to interfere with work (LIW). We show that self-employment is connected to WIL and LIW by different causal mechanisms. The self-employed experience less WIL because they have more autonomy and control over the duration and timing of work. Working at home is the most important reason the self-employed experience more LIW than wage and salary workers.
Taylor Price and Antony Puddephatt
Open access publishing is an increasingly popular trend in the dissemination of academic work, allowing journals to print articles electronically and without the burden of…
Abstract
Open access publishing is an increasingly popular trend in the dissemination of academic work, allowing journals to print articles electronically and without the burden of subscription paywalls, enabling much wider access for audiences. Yet subscription-based journals remain the most dominant in the social sciences and humanities, and it is often a struggle for newer open access publications to compete, in terms of economic, cultural, and symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 2004). Our study explores the meanings of resistance held by the editors of open access journals in the social sciences and humanities in Canada, as well as the views of university librarians. To make sense of these meanings, we draw on Lonnie Athens’ (2015) radical interactionist account of power, and expand on this by incorporating George Herbert Mead’s (1932, 1938) theory of emergence, arguing that open access is characteristic of an “extended rationality” (Chang, 2004) for those involved. Drawing on our open-ended interview data, we find that open access is experienced as a form of resistance in at least four ways. These include resistance to (1) profit motives in academic publishing; (2) access barriers for audiences; (3) access barriers for contributors; and (4) traditional publishing conventions.
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I am pleased to introduce the second issue in Studies in Symbolic Interaction's “Blue Ribbon Paper” series. In contrast to the chapters in the first issue that focused exclusively…
Abstract
I am pleased to introduce the second issue in Studies in Symbolic Interaction's “Blue Ribbon Paper” series. In contrast to the chapters in the first issue that focused exclusively on theoretical matters, the chapters in this one are focused on empirical problems. In John Johnson's and Andrew Melnikov's provocative article, “The Wisdom of Distrust: Reflections on Ukrainian Society and Sociology,” they examine the results of a nation-wide poll that shows among other things that Ukrainian citizenry paradoxically displays little faith in any of the branches of their democratically elected government. On the one hand, this finding is paradoxical because democracy is a relatively new experience for present day Ukrainians. Since their country had been for years a puppet state of the former Soviet Union, one would think that they now would be elated by the opportunity to elect their leaders. On the other hand, the founding fathers of our nation also displayed considerable distrust in government, including democratically elected ones, such as our own. In fact, their distrust was so great that it led them to build into our constitution an intricate system of checks and balances of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our government. Although conventional psychological wisdom is that distrust of others is a sign of paranoia, Johnson and Melinkov conclude that being wary of governmental institutions and politicians may be a healthy state of affairs for a country's citizens.
In our paper, Randy Starr, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for committing murder, tells his life story with my help. Our collaboration helps erase the fictitious…
Abstract
In our paper, Randy Starr, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity for committing murder, tells his life story with my help. Our collaboration helps erase the fictitious line traditionally drawn between subject and analyst in life stories. We cover the period from his early childhood to his late twenties when he committed the homicide that led to his involuntary commitment to a state’s mental health system. In telling his life story, we vividly describe his passage through the four stages of the violentization and later descent into “self disorganization,” which is seen as a normal part of the process of dramatic self change. It is made clear by us that the severe self disorganization into which he descended did not originate independently from his violentization, but instead was a direct by-product of it. We conclude that he should have been adjudged a “disorganized dangerous violent criminal” and found “guilty, but in need of and susceptible to treatment.” A plea is made to make this verdict available to judges and juries in such cases.
Various sociological theories about the nature of money are reviewed here and a claim that money could be fruitfully examined from the standpoint of Peircian semiotics and Meadian…
Abstract
Various sociological theories about the nature of money are reviewed here and a claim that money could be fruitfully examined from the standpoint of Peircian semiotics and Meadian interactionism is presented. The work of Marx and Simmel are interpreted in semiotic terms leading to the claim that the selves of human agents are constituted within a political and social economy resulting in the emergence of semiotic subjectivation and objectivation of money as features of the self.
Satyanarayana Parayitam, Lonnie D. Phelps and Bradley J. Olson
Research on strategic decision‐making has emphasized the importance of team decision‐making as it brings the benefits of synergy. Literature on healthcare is silent on the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on strategic decision‐making has emphasized the importance of team decision‐making as it brings the benefits of synergy. Literature on healthcare is silent on the role of professional doctors in the strategic decision‐making process and their impact on decision outcomes. The purpose of the present paper is to empirically examine the outcomes of decisions when physician executives were involved in strategic decision‐making process in healthcare organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a structured survey instrument, this paper gathered data from 361 senior executives from 109 hospitals in USA and analyzed the data using regression techniques on whether the presence of physicians in strategic decision‐making processes enhanced decision quality, commitment, and understanding.
Findings
Results showed the presence of professional doctors in the decision‐making process enhances commitment and decision quality in healthcare organizations.
Research limitations/implications
Only the healthcare industry was considered. Self‐report measures may have some inherent social desirability bias.
Practical implications
This study contributes to both practicing managers as well as to strategic management literature. This study suggests that healthcare administrators need to engage physician executives in strategic decision‐making to have successful decision outcomes.
Originality/value
To the extent strategic decision‐making process is similar in other industries, the findings can be generalizable across other industries.