The dissertation examines the choice between casual and regular labour contracts in Indian agriculture. In particular, it deals with two relevant decision problems: (i) how an employer chooses between casual and regular contracts and (ii) how a labourer chooses between casual and regular contracts. Several models of contractual choice are developed. In the implicit contract model, regular labour contracts are a means through which risk-neutral employers offer some insurance against the wage and employment fluctuations to labourers, in return for lower wages. In the shirking model, regular contracts are used to perform non-monitorable tasks for which casual contracts are not incentive compatible: regular contracts with wages above the reservation wage act as a device to induce the workers not to shirk in non-monitorable tasks. In the collateral model, regular contracts with advance wage payments provide labourers with a means of using their labour services as a collateral substitute. The time constraint model shows that landless labourers have a comparative advantage in regular labour contracts, because the opportunity cost of precommitting labour time tends to be lower for them. In each of these models, it is shown that casual and regular contracts may coexist in equilibrium. Empirical evidence bearing on these different theories is examined using data from three South Indian villages. The evidence is consistent with the implicit contract model, the collateral model and the time constraint model. However, we find no support for the shirking model. Other relevant aspects of labour contracts are also investigated, including labour force participation decisions, unemployment rates, the relative levels of casual-labour and regular-labour wages, the links between labour and credit contracts, and the determinants of labour demand. The thesis concludes with a discussion of recent trends in the incidence of casual and regular contracts in rural India. The incidence of regular contracts has steadily declined in recent years. We argue that this decline primarily reflects a decline in supply (due, inter alia, to an improvement of credit facilities and an expansion of alternative employment opportunities) rather than a decline of demand.

This thesis is an exploration of how the use of temporary agency work in French car plants modifies the experience and mechanisms of labour control in the labour process. Over the last decade, car manufacturers in France have made extensive use of this form of employment, despite regulations which restrict the use of agency labour to exceptional circumstances. Legal challenges aimed at reclassifying temporary agency contracts into permanent employment contracts have revealed that some agency workers have accumulated many years of employment as an agency worker with user-company. The presence of significant proportions of agency workers on assembly lines for long periods of time has implications for the labourcapital relation on the shopfloor. Precarious working conditions for low-skilled workers are assumed to affect the capacity of workers to negotiate relations on the shop-floor. The thesis employs a conceptual framework based upon Burawoy’s (1985) theory of production politics to examine the specific way in which the triadic relationship between the temporary agency worker, temporary employment agency and user-organisation modifies the factory regime within which temporary agency workers labour. Starting from an analysis of the macro- and meso-level development of the post-war French state and of the key economic sectors that constitute the “politics of production”, the thesis focuses on the PSA Peugeot-Citroën plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois as a case study, and combines interview data with other qualitative (textual) data. The research finds that temporary agency workers in the car sector respond to their employment situation in a more complex way than studies of coercion and consent in the labour process suggest. Employment insecurity and the “duality of control” which flows from the triadic relationship upon which the temporary agency contract rests gives rise to a factory regime more conducive to compliance/coercion than consent. However, the “traces of consent” identified by the research illustrate the complex nature of hegemony and despotism in the labour process. Drawing on the findings of the empirical data in the context of France, the thesis develops the concept of hegemonic despotism by examining how hegemonic despotism is expressed across a variety of employment contexts. The thesis identifies a tension between adverse conditions of employment and hegemonic practices, such as the formal adhesion to “soft” models of HRM, alongside the recasting of norms of employment to fit the requirements of contemporary capital accumulation.

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To date there appears to have been little academic research that concentrates on investigating nineteenth century professions and none that could be located which consider their role in relation to the development of small provincial towns during this period of occupational flux. For example Holmes (1982 ) and Corfield (1999 ) concentrate on profession in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; Abbott (1988) nineteenth and twentieth century profession in England, France and America and other researchers on the development of specific occupations such as medicine (Friedson 1970); accountancy (Matthews 2006); librarianship (Goode 1961) and although Larson’s (1977) research locates the beginning of professional mobilisation projects in the nineteenth century, it is primarily concerned with the twentieth. This research therefore explores how professional services developed in small English county towns during the nineteenth century and uses the county town of Stafford as its focus. It takes the form of a series of three interrelated case studies that move from providing a macro view of professional life and work in Stafford; to a more focused case study of one specific occupation, that of chemist/druggist; to investigating one particular Stafford family that for several generations had members who worked as chemists/druggists. This approach provides an overview of the type and level of professional services on offer in Stafford during this period along with an in-depth analysis of one particular occupation. Research results indicate that profession as a concept held little value for the folk of Stafford throughout the nineteenth century and that professional services in the town were slow to develop, even during a period of rapid population growth. A range of twentieth century research theories and frameworks for categorising profession were tested and appeared not to be appropriate for accurately identifying professional work at this time and a nineteenth century framework is proposed. The growth of educational opportunities throughout the century and the use of profession as a marketing tool are however found to be intrinsically linked to the growth of the concept of profession by the end of the nineteenth century.

The study analyses personnel records over the past two decades from a sample of multinationals with matched plants in the US, UK, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. It examines trends in production workers' employment opportunities and the effect of labour market regulation, in particular employment protection. Labour market regulation in general - as indicated by insider power - and employment protection in particular, is expected to increase recruitment standards for permanent employees as well as to increase the use of temporary employment. The expected positive effect of employment protection on recruitment standards is found in simple correlations and regressions, but is not generally supported by the multivariate analysis once other influences are held constant. However, union density is found to increase recruitment standards, and might take over the effect of employment protection as an indicator of overall regulatory pressure. Insider power - as measured by average tenure of a plant's workforce - is found to increase the recruitment of younger, more educated, people. I also find a strong substitutability between recruits' prior experience and education. This substitutability indicates the power of education to widen job opportunities for inexperienced workers. As for temporary employment, the expected effect of employment protection and insider power on temporary employment is not confirmed in the multivariate analysis. Nevertheless there are indications that laws against temporary employment have the desired effect of driving temporary employment downwards. Since I also find that permanent and temporary hires are strong substitutes, these laws tend to drive up permanent employment. Another finding is that increased labour cost - as measured by the tax wedge - drive temporary employment down, presumably because temporary employees cannot deliver the required high productivity.

This thesis examines the influence of institutional and government policy change, in the form of public management reform, on the professional development of teachers, nurses and social workers, described as 'social service professionals', delivering public services in England between 1979 and 2010. The influence of institutional and government policy changes were assessed through a textual analysis of public policy documents; an analysis of the changing size and structure of the three groups highlighting gender, age and ethnicity; an analysis of training reforms through changing institutional arrangements and course content and: the perceptions of six key informants from trade unions and professional associations which represent these professions. These findings were tested on a consultative group of twelve experts in the field of employment relations in the public sector. This thesis found that there were similarities in the reforms introduced by government throughout this period to these three professional groups, which were characterised by the imposition of increased documentation and record keeping, targets and inspections. The control of the work process decreased, with a reduction of professional autonomy and accompanying reforms to professional training. All three professions have been dominated by women throughout the period and the proportion of men has changed little but they are disproportionately represented in management. The introduction of senior practitioner roles has not resulted in women exerting a stronger control over their profession. For all three groups, there has been a tension between higher education institution (HEIs) providers of training, government and employers as well as a lack of consensus about what constitutes appropriate professional training. This is not necessarily a new phenomenon but public management reforms have intensified it and the introduction of ‘learning on the job’ training will further weaken the role of HEIs in vocational training. One of the criticisms used to justify public service reforms was the apparent insensitivity of public services to the needs of users. Some of the responses by trade union and professional organisations to these attacks on professional autonomy have resulted in the exploration of a concept of democratic professionalism, which aims to strengthen the relationship between professionals and service users, so addressing one of the original criticisms of these professionals. This concept represents a different response to public management reforms which has the potential to address problems of democratic involvement in public services and defend them from government attacks. This thesis has two main original contributions to knowledge: it contributes to research showing how 'social services professionals' have been affected by public management reforms and how they are building a concept of democratic professionalism and; it further develops comparative professional studies.

Labour process theory has been a key resource for the sociological study of work for over four decades. Yet, labour process theory has been conspicuous by its absence from research into cultural labour (Banks, 2007; Dean and Jones, 2003; Hesmondhalgh and Baker et al., 2011). This thesis firstly examines value production and the dynamics of managerial control and creative autonomy within the recorded music industry. Acknowledging the weaknesses identified with “critical theory” approaches in failing to consider the “content” of cultural work (Banks, 2007; McKinlay and Smith, 2009), this thesis considers the art-commerce relation in terms of the interaction between identity, interests and habitus. The thesis draws on data collected from research participants active within the recorded music industry. The data collected consists of forty participants through thirty-one semi-structured interviews and secondary data from four group interviews. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is to conceptualise the art-commerce relation in the recorded music industry as a conflict over potential exchange-value in terms of Bourdieu’s forms of capital. Empirical findings from this research show forms of managerial control consistent with responsible autonomy, simple control and bureaucratic control (Edwards, 1979; Friedman, 1977). Rather than control based on maximising economic surplus value, music companies seek to reduce uncertainties of converting objectified cultural capital produced in the labour process into forms of economic or symbolic capital. Control within the recorded labour process depends on forms of legitimate authority in terms of economic control of the labour process and “artistic authority” (Ryan, 1992) based on Bourdieu’s notions of cultural and symbolic capitals. The relationship between art and commerce is also considered through the interaction between artistic identity, conflicts of interests and a musical habitus. Artistic identity exists as an acted identity where musicians’ social identities are managed based on the levels of capital. The pursuit or possession of large amounts of economic capital acts as a stigma for which musicians engage in repair work (Goffman, 1968; Jenkins, 2014). Similarly, lack of cultural capital leads to impression management over how musicians identify themselves. Economic inequality of the musicians’ employment relationship is not seen as a key determinant of conflict. Rather it is compromise and a lack of autonomy that leads musicians to resist creative control. Musicians’ sense of self, and motivation to put up with low pay and poor conditions, is reflected by the internal drive to make music characteristic of an artistic habitus.

This research aims to address the issue of occupational aspirations and attitudes of the young people towards the agricultural sector and a career in agriculture in Brunei. Brunei's history of a rich oil and gas country has made it possible to 'leap-frog' typical development stages leading to the relative neglect of agriculture in supporting economic growth. However, with declining oil reserves and the global environment of food insecurity, Brunei is currently striving to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and food security. One of the key constraints in achieving this goal is the shortage of skilled labour and one aspect of this appears to be the lack of interest shown by young people towards the agricultural sector. No research has been done to investigate this problem of youth attitudes towards agriculture as a career. Building upon an established theory of occupational aspirations, this study applies a sequential exploratory mixed method research design employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The first phase involves a qualitative exploration of the reasons behind the lack of young people's involvement in the agricultural sector and the relationship to career aspirations. In-depth interviews with policymakers in the agricultural sector, education sector and agri-entrepreneurs were conducted to determine the institutional factors. Focus groups were carried out with 1) young people of different age groups and education levels and 2) parents. Four common themes emerged across policymakers, young people and parents namely "institutional barriers", "challenges of agricultural education", "rentier attitude of young people", and "the role of parents and family" in determining career choice. The findings from the qualitative study were then used for the development of a survey for the subsequent quantitative phase. A total of 407 questionnaires were collected from the target population consisting of young people aged 15-30 years. Factor analysis and ordinal regression were used to further refine the factors to produce a quantified analysis that can be generalised to a larger population. The findings imply that in order to promote the agricultural sector, there needs to be a clear vision for the development of modern agriculture which can generate secure income and that carries the same level of status as other respected jobs to meet the occupational aspirations of young people. There needs to be collaborative development between the government, industry and the education sector to change the agricultural landscape of Brunei in to one that is modernised, mechanized and focusing more on off-farm which can create more employment opportunities for the young people.

In keeping with the goverment aim of institutionalizing the process of labour nationalisation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), otherwise known as Emiratisation, more efforts are being made to place Emiratis in the private sector in view of the declining number of jobs available in the public sector. Guided by the theory of self-determination (SDT), in the context of Emiratisation, this study explores both social and work environments with the purpose of determining whether the existing conditions – in the context of Emiratisation – tend to encourage or discourage Emiratis when it comes to seeking or staying in jobs in technical firms. Self-determination Theory (SDT) is a theory of motivation that focuses on the intrinsic attributes of individuals. It has been used to obtain an understanding of the effects of self-regulated behaviour on one’s work motivation, pursuit of goals and job search behaviour. Under Self-determination Theory (SDT), interventions can be made that offer opportunities to satisfy jobseekers’ Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) for autonomy, belongingness and competence, whether in the workplace or in the family environment. Thus, this study explores the potential of SDT for alleviating problems related to the lower status associated with private-sector jobs. To enhance knowledge and obtain theoretical guidance, the literature on classic motivational theories, Emiratisation and SDT was reviewed. The examination was carried out by following the main tenets of the basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) within the Self-determination Theory (SDT) framework. The literature indicated the usefulness of SDT in HR research, due to its consideration of the mediating role “psychological needs satisfaction” plays in work outcomes. XXI This study presents an examination of the intrinsic motivation (IM) of Emirati jobseekers to participate in the technical/vocational-oriented workforce in the private sector. It aims to develop certain measures that will enhance the drive to seek a job. The workforce development perspective was mostly derived from the context of Emiratisation – the labour nationalisation programme of the UAE. Other complementary determinants – consisting mainly of demographic and socioeconomic variables – were gathered in order to establish whether they had an influence on an applicant’s drive to become employed. As a research stance, the qualitative method was chosen due to the in-depth, rich data the researcher aimed to acquire and analyse. In administering the main study, two types of research instrument were employed – written questionnaires for the employed and unemployed Emiratis, and survey questions (structured, semi-structured and unstructured) administered in face-to-face interviews with non-Emirati employers. The major contribution is the application of Self-determination Theory (SDT) to Emiratisation policy. Also, the research provides original findings that include contributions to the body of knowledge that may be useful for academic, practical and career management applications. For the UAE government and its population, the information offered may be repurposed to stimulate awareness among the public concerning how the current imbalance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, in the context of finding work, could impact on the UAE economy over the long term. For the lead agencies promoting Emiratisation, this study propounds that foreign companies with enhanced levels of labour force nationalization / internalisation are better able to deliver superior working conditions and more flexible HR policies that are favourable to Emirati workers.