Styhre Precarious Professional Work

Entrepreneurialism, Risk and Economic Compensation in the Knowledge Economy
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-59566-5
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 263 Seiten

Reihe: Progress in Mathematics

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Styhre, Alexander

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Preface;5
2;Acknowledgments;10
3;Contents;11
4;1: Introduction: The New World of Precarious Professional Work;12
4.1; Introduction;12
4.2; The Social Contract of Competitive Capitalism;18
4.3; Changes in the Economic System of Competitive Capitalism;22
4.4; The Consequences of the Financialization of the Economy;27
4.5; The Concept of Precariousness;31
4.5.1; Consequences: The Enterprising Ethos of Precarious Groups;33
4.6; The Question of Economic Extraction: Who Does the Job and Who Makes the Money?;35
4.7; Research Question and Outline of the Book;40
4.8; Summary and Conclusion;44
4.9; Note;46
4.10;References;47
5;2: Investor Capitalism and the Decline of the Public Corporation and the Middle Class;53
5.1; Introduction;53
5.2; Theoretical Perspectives on Investor Capitalism;54
5.2.1; Institutional, Political and Technological Changes in the Postwar Period;54
5.2.1.1; Managerial Capitalism and Its Decline;57
5.2.2; Investor Capitalism and Financialization;58
5.2.2.1; Money-Manager Capitalism;60
5.2.3; Two Studies of the Consequences of the Liquidity Preference;63
5.2.3.1; The Financial Instability Hypothesis: Practical Implications and Consequences;70
5.3; Practical Implications;72
5.3.1; Examining the Correlation Between Financialization and Economic Growth;72
5.3.1.1; The Declining Productivity Growth After 1970 and 2005 in Particular;76
5.3.2; Firm-Level Consequences of Investor Capitalism: Shareholder Welfare Governance and the Decline of the Public Corporation;78
5.3.2.1; The Decline of the Public Corporation;81
5.3.3; Structural Changes and the Shareholder Primacy Governance: The Rise of Private Equity Firms;85
5.3.4; A Summary of the Arguments;90
5.4; Investor Capitalism and the Growth of Economic Inequality: Economic Hardship in the Times of Plenty;91
5.4.1; The Decline of the Middle Class;91
5.4.2; Driver of Economic Inequality: The Divergence Between Economic Compensation and Productivity Growth;95
5.4.2.1; Stagnating Returns on Human Capital Investment for Some, Higher Returns for Others;97
5.4.2.2; Human Capital Investment Incentives;100
5.4.3; The Decline of Middle-Class Jobs;103
5.4.4; Implications for Professional Work;104
5.5; Summary and Conclusion;106
5.6; Notes;107
5.7;References;110
6;3: The New Forms of Professional Work: Entrepreneurialism and Precarious Professional Work;119
6.1; Introduction;119
6.2; Professionals Work in Contemporary Capitalism;121
6.2.1; Professionals and Professional Work;121
6.2.1.1; Defining Professions;122
6.2.1.2; Professional Ideologies;124
6.2.1.3; Professions and Institutions;125
6.2.2; A Process View of Professionalism: Professionalization and Deprofessionalization;129
6.2.3; Professionalism and Managerialism;130
6.2.3.1; Professionalism as “Knowledge-Intensive Work”;132
6.2.4; Professionalism: A Summary of Arguments;134
6.3; Promoting an Enterprising Ethos and Entrepreneurial Spirit;135
6.3.1; The Entrepreneurial Function of Competitive Capitalism;135
6.3.2; The Growth of Self-Employment;137
6.3.2.1; A Long Farewell to Career Jobs;137
6.3.2.2; The Entrepreneurial Professional: Contact Work Outside of Internal Labor Markets;140
6.3.3; The Enterprising Self as Professional Identity;143
6.3.4; Internalizing the Enterprising Ethos: Venture Labor;146
6.3.4.1; Venture Labor in the Life Sciences: Crossing the Boundary Between Academia and Industry;148
6.3.5; Networking as Career Strategy;154
6.4; Summary and Conclusion;159
6.5; Notes;160
6.6;References;161
7;4: Conducting and Managing Precarious Professional Work: Hard and Soft Human Resource Management Practices;171
7.1; Introduction;171
7.2; Entering the World of Precarious Professional Work;172
7.2.1; Getting into the Profession or Industry: Acquiring a Tertiary Education;172
7.2.2; After Graduation: The Internship Economy and  Early-Stage Careers;176
7.2.3; Being Recruited: Passing the Needle’s Eye;178
7.2.3.1; What Employers Value: Specialization Versus Generalist Expertise;179
7.2.3.2; Bridging Specialized and Generalist Skills;185
7.2.3.3; The Concept of Elitism and Its Challenge for Professionalism;187
7.3; Inside the Domain of Professional Work;193
7.3.1; Extrinsic Motivation and the Role of Incentive Structures: The Role of Performance-Reward Systems;193
7.3.2; Managing and Monitoring Professional Work: The Role of Metrics and Auditing;198
7.3.2.1; Audits, Rating, and Ranking: The Metrics of Professional Performance;199
7.3.2.2; Audit Practices;201
7.3.2.3; The Further Processing of Audit Information: Rankings and League Tables;206
7.3.3; Into the Heads and Minds of the Workers: Professional Identity Work and Identity Regulation;208
7.3.3.1; Identity Work in Corporate Professions;211
7.3.4; Professional Identity Work Pathologies;213
7.4; Summary and Conclusion;219
7.5;References;220
8;5: The Future of Professionalism: How to Preserve and Justify Jurisdictional Discretion in Investor Capitalism;229
8.1; Introduction;229
8.2; Financialization and Its Consequences;231
8.2.1; The Consequences of Economic Instability;231
8.2.1.1; Securitization, the Subprime Loan Crisis, and the 2008 Finance Industry Meltdown;233
8.2.2; Financialization and Economic Inequality;237
8.2.2.1; On the Gravy Train: Soaring CEO Compensation;239
8.2.2.2; The Politics of Inequality;240
8.2.2.3; Fiscal Policy, Deunionization, and Conservatism;242
8.3; Implication for Professionalism;247
8.3.1; The Road Ahead;247
8.3.2; Precarious Professional Work Revisited;250
8.4; Summary and Conclusion;253
8.5; Note;255
8.6;References;255
9;Index;260