Journal Article

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine employee satisfaction with an employer-imposed compressed workweek (CWW) schedule within a US municipality (City). Design/methodology/approach - The study utilizes an employee survey (n=779) to test factors related to employee satisfaction with the CWW, a four-day, ten-hours/day workweek (4/10 schedule). Findings - Employee satisfaction with the schedule is influenced by previous 4/10 pilot experience, work schedule preference, and happiness with the 4/10 schedule’s implementation. Additionally, sick leave figures and survey results regarding informal substitute work schedules suggest that worker fatigue may limit the overall organizational value of the 4/10 schedule. Research limitations/implications - The study is opportunistic in nature and therefore constrained by the City’s HR Department concerns for survey length and respondent anonymity. This meant an inability to collect demographic data or to utilize validated scales. Practical implications - Analysis suggests that the potential work-life benefits of flexible work schedules may not apply equally to employer-imposed vs employee-chosen compressed work schedules. Further, CWWs engender greater fatigue despite employee satisfaction, an issue manager should consider when weighing schedule costs and benefits. Originality/value - The study highlights the importance of employee choice in conceptualizing flexibility and for capturing CWW benefits, namely: an initiative’s voluntary or involuntary nature should be considered when determining whether it is likely to be beneficial for employees.

Research with Syrian women refugees in Jordan suggests that, despite significant challenges, the gig economy has some potential to help refugees participate in host communities and to bolster their economic participation. As elsewhere in the world, the gig economy--in which companies develop mobile platforms which bring together workers and the purchasers of their services--is fast taking root in Jordan. These platforms enable businesses to order timed and monetised tasks from an available worker, with a fee or commission commonly charged to the worker or client by the platform. A 2017 study commissioned by the International Rescue Committee and carried out by the Overseas Development Institute explored the potential of the gig economy to provide economic opportunities to Syrian women refugees currently living in Jordan. Furthermore, structural constraints--both practical and political--to accessing gig work present a barrier to entry for marginalised communities. For example, for many refugees in Jordan, Internet connectivity is limited or non-existent

Purpose - Ensuring effective usage of Web 2.0 within government organisations is not as straightforward as it seems. The organisations should be aware of a number of issues when implementing Web 2.0 internally. This paper introduces a theoretical model that highlights the importance of management, technology and people issues influencing the level of Web 2.0 usage from an internal perspective. The purpose of this paper was to identify and explore these issues in a government context. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) analysis to identify the issues that should be focused on for achieving effective usage of Web 2.0 among government employees. A combination of interviews, surveys and usage data collected from two government organisations was used to gather the data. Findings - The main finding is that, a policy will act as an initial catalyst for culture change and effective usage of Web 2.0 technologies in a government environment. It was also found that it is important to develop an understanding among senior management about the motivation for their employees to utilise Web 2.0 internally. As a result, the proposed theoretical model could assist government organisations in developing effective adoption approaches through identifying their employees’ motivation to adopt Web 2.0 technologies and developing a suitable organisational social media policy. Research limitations/implications - There is the issue of the small number of both qualitative and quantitative respondents within the research. Such limitation is because the research relies solely on the voluntary participation of the employees. This limitation was coupled with the fact that both organisations had different security requirements that had affected the amount and level of feasible information that was accessible to the researchers. Practical implications - This paper extends the understanding of issues applicable to the adoption of Web 2.0 tools from a government organisations’ perspective. The developed theoretical model acts as an adoption guide for organisations to achieve effective Web2.0 tools usage. At the same time, this paper also examines related motivation aspects which higher management should consider while using a new social media or Web 2.0 platform internally. Originality/value - This paper highlights suitable overview approaches for organisations to consider in increasing adoption of Web 2.0 among their employees. This paper also provides an initial foray into identifying other complex issues that may exist within different government organisations in relation to internal technology usage.

We combine matched Danish worker-firm-trade data with detailed individual-worker training data. We find: 1) workers displaced from offshoring firms take up more vocational-training and have a harder time getting re-attached to the labor-force than other displaced workers, and they also exhibit higher vocational-training take-up rates 2 years before layoffs; 2) the staying workers with offshoring firms take up more vocational-training than those with non-offshoring firms; and 3) the post-secondary-training take-up rates for displaced workers are no different than for the general population.

Digital technologies and the standards underlying them are omnipresent in healthcare. Despite a wealth of knowledge about the relation between standards and issues of autonomy, control and accountability in professional work, we know much less about how digital technologies alter these relations. To address this gap, we present the findings of an in-depth qualitative case study in a medium-sized German hospital and its hospital information system (HIS) with a particular focus on the operating room (OR)-module used in the operating rooms. Conceptually, we draw on the notion of digital objects which allows studying information entities as well as visualizations that represent information entities and their relations in a visual gestalt (e. g. coloured boxes that represent surgeries on a timetable). We found that during 'normal' situations, digital objects influenced professional work towards conforming with professional standards. During 'hot' situations such as emergencies, however, professionals took over and worked around the system. In unexpected situations, control by professional norms effectively overruled control by the standards and guidelines encoded in digital objects. Relatedly, we found that digital objects produce a specific kind of accountability that is mainly rooted in 'visibility management', which determines what becomes represented - i. e. available and accessible - to whom and what not.

This article outlines the obstacles to widely shared prosperity in the labor markets of older communities in the United States. It addresses the need for more and better jobs, for the education and training programs to give workers the skills to fill these jobs, and for improved access to good jobs and schooling for minority and low-income residents. Examples of successful or promising approaches in each area are provided. Policy implications include government efforts to encourage the creation of more high-wage, high-performance jobs; provide more resources and incentives to community colleges to improve the employment outcomes of disadvantaged students; expand sector-based training and high-quality career education and apprenticeships; and expand services that would link all residents in a metropolitan area to good schools and jobs.

Algorithmically recommending workers to employers for the purpose of recruiting can substantially increase hiring: in an experiment conducted in an online labor market, employers with technical job vacancies that received recruiting recommendations had a 20% higher fill rate compared to the control. There is no evidence that the treatment crowded out hiring of non-recommended candidates. The experimentally induced recruits were highly positively selected and were statistically indistinguishable from the kinds of workers employers recruit “on their own.” Recommendations were most effective for job openings that were likely to receive a smaller applicant pool.

Automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and a working style that can have more of an impact on our mental, rather than physical, health have all combined to create major changes in the everyday life of the working person. Since the Health and Safety at Work Act was introduced in 1974, fatal and non-fatal workplace injuries have dropped by 85% and 58% respectively. Employee assistance programmes, health screenings and discounted gym memberships are common offerings being made to try to boost staff morale and wellbeing, but businesses must take a forward-thinking, people-centred approach to mitigate future risks. According to British Safety Council chief executive Mike Robinson: "Whether it's 24/7 working, the 'gig' economy or the drive towards automation, our mental and physical health, even our very sense of self, is at risk.

The accelerating digitization and automation of work, known as the 4th industrial revolution, will have an enormous impact on individuals' career experiences. Yet, the academic literature in vocational psychology and career research has been remarkably silent on this trend so far. This article summarizes some of the most important issues of the 4th industrial revolution as they pertain to career development. The author then critically reviews how current models and frameworks of career development are suitable for addressing these emerging issues. Opportunities for future career development research and practice are outlined.