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Work Intensity in the Post-Modern World of Work: Development, Causes and Consequences
Work Intensity in the Post-Modern World of Work: Development, Causes and Consequences
Abstract Submissions Closed
Wednesday, 24 February 2021: 14:15-15:45
Location:
RC30 Sociology of Work (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
The world of work is characterised by numerous intertwined and intensifying changes. Innovations in information and communication technology, intense global competition, digitisation in industry and services as well as the sectoral transformation from an industrial to a service or knowledge society, involve new business models and changes in work organisation. Therefore, organisations and employees also face changing demands, for example in terms of (time) flexibility and self-organisation. Recent empirical findings suggest an increase in work intensity during the last decades (Burke/Singh/Fiksenbaum 2010; Green 2001, 2006) while discussing a variety of potential determinants (e.g. digitalisation, job cuts, new organizational strategies; Flecker et al. 2017; Paškvan & Kubicek, 2017). Whereas work intensification is not a new phenomenon, it can be understood as a constant companion of capitalist economic processes. Already at the beginning of the 1970s Balduin (1974) stated that the concepts of "economization" and "work intensification" play an important role in labour policies. Against this background, the aim of the session is to shed light on what is new about the current intensification of work, what are the causes of work intensification in the current world of work. Moreover, a special emphasis is put on potential changes with respect to the job quality as well as employee well-being that (this new kind of) work intensification involves. Theoretical and empirical (especially based on longitudinal data) contributions are welcome.
Session Organizers: