Precarious Professional Work (eBook)

Entrepreneurialism, Risk and Economic Compensation in the Knowledge Economy

Alexander Styhre (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1st ed. 2017
XIII, 254 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-59566-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This book examines the new conditions under which professional work, often referred to as 'knowledge-intensive work,' is organised and how professional groups who have traditionally been granted jurisdictional discretion now have their work routines renegotiated. In the new economic regime of what has been called 'investor capitalism' and under the influence of shareholder primacy governance, professional work is put under pressure to change. The author explores issues of increased financial and economic volatility, the pressure to outsource and offshore professional work and the increased supply of competitors with tertiary education degrees in the labour market. Examining both macroeconomic conditions and policy that inform and shape the domain of professional work, the book emphasises how the nature of professional work has changed since the 1980s and 1990s and argues that it is no longer a 'safe haven' for a favoured group of elite workers.  Precarious Professional Work underlines how the study of professions must constantly accommodate new economic conditions and managerial practices to better understand how professional work is dependent on and entangled with external social, economic, and political conditions.

Alexander Styhre is Chair of Organisation and Management in the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Inhalt

Preface 5
Acknowledgments 10
Contents 11
1: Introduction: The New World of Precarious Professional Work 12
Introduction 12
The Social Contract of Competitive Capitalism 18
Changes in the Economic System of Competitive Capitalism 22
The Consequences of the Financialization of the Economy 27
The Concept of Precariousness 31
Consequences: The Enterprising Ethos of Precarious Groups 33
The Question of Economic Extraction: Who Does the Job and Who Makes the Money? 35
Research Question and Outline of the Book 40
Summary and Conclusion 44
Note 46
References 47
2: Investor Capitalism and the Decline of the Public Corporation and the Middle Class 53
Introduction 53
Theoretical Perspectives on Investor Capitalism 54
Institutional, Political and Technological Changes in the Postwar Period 54
Managerial Capitalism and Its Decline 57
Investor Capitalism and Financialization 58
Money-Manager Capitalism 60
Two Studies of the Consequences of the Liquidity Preference 63
The Financial Instability Hypothesis: Practical Implications and Consequences 70
Practical Implications 72
Examining the Correlation Between Financialization and Economic Growth 72
The Declining Productivity Growth After 1970 and 2005 in Particular 76
Firm-Level Consequences of Investor Capitalism: Shareholder Welfare Governance and the Decline of the Public Corporation 78
The Decline of the Public Corporation 81
Structural Changes and the Shareholder Primacy Governance: The Rise of Private Equity Firms 85
A Summary of the Arguments 90
Investor Capitalism and the Growth of Economic Inequality: Economic Hardship in the Times of Plenty 91
The Decline of the Middle Class 91
Driver of Economic Inequality: The Divergence Between Economic Compensation and Productivity Growth 95
Stagnating Returns on Human Capital Investment for Some, Higher Returns for Others 97
Human Capital Investment Incentives 100
The Decline of Middle-Class Jobs 103
Implications for Professional Work 104
Summary and Conclusion 106
Notes 107
References 110
3: The New Forms of Professional Work: Entrepreneurialism and Precarious Professional Work 119
Introduction 119
Professionals Work in Contemporary Capitalism 121
Professionals and Professional Work 121
Defining Professions 122
Professional Ideologies 124
Professions and Institutions 125
A Process View of Professionalism: Professionalization and Deprofessionalization 129
Professionalism and Managerialism 130
Professionalism as “Knowledge-Intensive Work” 132
Professionalism: A Summary of Arguments 134
Promoting an Enterprising Ethos and Entrepreneurial Spirit 135
The Entrepreneurial Function of Competitive Capitalism 135
The Growth of Self-Employment 137
A Long Farewell to Career Jobs 137
The Entrepreneurial Professional: Contact Work Outside of Internal Labor Markets 140
The Enterprising Self as Professional Identity 143
Internalizing the Enterprising Ethos: Venture Labor 146
Venture Labor in the Life Sciences: Crossing the Boundary Between Academia and Industry 148
Networking as Career Strategy 154
Summary and Conclusion 159
Notes 160
References 161
4: Conducting and Managing Precarious Professional Work: Hard and Soft Human Resource Management Practices 171
Introduction 171
Entering the World of Precarious Professional Work 172
Getting into the Profession or Industry: Acquiring a Tertiary Education 172
After Graduation: The Internship Economy and  Early-Stage Careers 176
Being Recruited: Passing the Needle’s Eye 178
What Employers Value: Specialization Versus Generalist Expertise 179
Bridging Specialized and Generalist Skills 185
The Concept of Elitism and Its Challenge for Professionalism 187
Inside the Domain of Professional Work 193
Extrinsic Motivation and the Role of Incentive Structures: The Role of Performance-Reward Systems 193
Managing and Monitoring Professional Work: The Role of Metrics and Auditing 198
Audits, Rating, and Ranking: The Metrics of Professional Performance 199
Audit Practices 201
The Further Processing of Audit Information: Rankings and League Tables 206
Into the Heads and Minds of the Workers: Professional Identity Work and Identity Regulation 208
Identity Work in Corporate Professions 211
Professional Identity Work Pathologies 213
Summary and Conclusion 219
References 220
5: The Future of Professionalism: How to Preserve and Justify Jurisdictional Discretion in Investor Capitalism 229
Introduction 229
Financialization and Its Consequences 231
The Consequences of Economic Instability 231
Securitization, the Subprime Loan Crisis, and the 2008 Finance Industry Meltdown 233
Financialization and Economic Inequality 237
On the Gravy Train: Soaring CEO Compensation 239
The Politics of Inequality 240
Fiscal Policy, Deunionization, and Conservatism 242
Implication for Professionalism 247
The Road Ahead 247
Precarious Professional Work Revisited 250
Summary and Conclusion 253
Note 255
References 255
Index 260

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.8.2017
• Zusatzinfo: XIII, 254 p.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Personalwesen
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Wirtschaftsinformatik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Schlagworte: economic regime • Economics • economic volatility • employee relations • Industrial relations • investor capitalism • Labour • Outsourcing • Policy • Prof • professions • shareholder primacy • Social conditions • Work
• ISBN-10: 3-319-59566-0 / 3319595660
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-59566-5 / 9783319595665