Yates, E. orcid.org/0000-0001-9886-455X (2023) Developing or degrading young workers? How business strategy and the labour process shape job quality across different industrial sectors in England. Work, Employment and Society, 37 (5). pp. 1186-1205. ISSN 1469-8722
Abstract
This article explores variations in job quality for young workers by analysing six employers across three industrial sectors of Greater Manchester, an English city-region. Four aspects of job quality are examined because of their centrality in shaping how youth labour-power is deployed in the labour process: technological utilisation, work-rate, autonomy and discretion, and opportunities for training and career progression. Primary data were collected from 30 semi-structured interviews with business owners, managers, young workers and from workplace observations. Findings reveal job quality is high in advanced manufacturing and creative and digital sectors, but low in business services. Job quality is shaped by the nature of commodity production and accompanying labour process. Development or degradation of young workers in the labour process depends largely on the requirements of the employer, as few countervailing pressures exist. Training provision improves job quality, but demand-side interventions are required to generate sustainable good jobs for young workers.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Keywords: | business strategy; England; Greater Manchester; industrial sectors; job quality; labour process; training and skills; vocational education; young workers |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2022 16:05 |
Last Modified: | 02 Oct 2023 13:18 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09500170211070447 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:193181 |