Les employés de la grande distribution font aujourd’hui face, de manière relativement docile et durable, à des bouleversements majeurs au sein de leur entreprise, tant sur le plan stratégique qu’organisationnel, dans un contexte national de remise en question du régime de croissance de la branche et de forte visibilité sociale des firmes oligopolistiques. Si les contraintes économiques semblent particulièrement peser sur leurs actions, leur consentement n’est pas uniquement composé d’un horizon de contraintes indépassables et accablantes (souffrance, peur du chômage) marquant leur activité. Dans un cadre exigeant l’accumulation illimitée du capital par des moyens formellement pacifiques (Boltanski, Chiapello, 1999) et dans une branche en proie à une crise du régime d’accumulation (Boyer, Durand, 1993), quels sont les ressorts du consentement des salariés ? Notre réflexion s’organise en trois temps: une approche historique revenant sur les orientations (idéologiques, stratégiques et organisationnelles) structurelles du secteur, sur ses spécificités à l'échelle nationale et sur les indices productifs d'une récente rupture; une analyse diachronique des dispositifs matériels et symboliques de médiation des restructurations à l'échelle institutionnelle et organisationnelle; et étude du travail quotidien au sein des grandes surfaces, entre trajectoire sociale, parcours professionnel et configuration des magasins. Elle met en exergue un consentement spécifique aux salariés de la grande distribution. Ce dernier repose en effet sur un processus d’installation dans les services, au sein d’une organisation à la fois de plus en plus ouverte au public (place du client dans l’organisation) et de plus en plus isolée du pouvoir stratégique (centralisation des décisions, de la conception). / In a context questioning the growth regime and exposing the oligopolistic retail capital to a high social visibility, retail employees seem to be relatively docile. They face major strategic and organizational changes in the branch. Within a framework requiring the unlimited accumulation of the capital by formally peaceful means and in a sector facing a crisis of accumulation, how is the consent of the employees organized? After a historical approach reconsidering on the structural character of the ideological, strategic and organisational orientations of the sector, this thesis underlines the national specificities and the productive indices of recent ruptures. Then a diachronic analysis of the institutional and organisational means of production highlights the development of material and symbolical systems of mediation of the productive restructurings. Then, combining an ethnographic approach observing the daily work, the study of social trajectories, professional paths and configurations of the retail stores, this thesis highlights a specific form of employees consent. The servicization is based on a process of incorporation in the unskilled jobs of the services. Retail stores tend to be at the same time increasingly opened to the public (place of the customer in the organization and in the production of the service) and isolated from the strategic power (decisions and design centralization).

<p>This study is an examination of the process of unionization in a nursing home. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with the employees of Journey's End Nursing Home, Prosperity Point, Nova Scotia. The focus of my research was three-fold. First to develop an understanding of why employee's unionized we examined the labour process and general work conditions prior to unionization. Second we examined the process or how the employee's went about getting unionized. Third we undertook an examination of the results of unionization. The central argument in this thesis is that the employees of Journey's End Nursing Home unionized in order to change the labour process. Specifically they wanted 'out' of what they saw as a domestic labour process. This thesis clearly demonstrates two things: firstly, that these women were employed in a domestic labour process secondly, that as a result of unionization the labour process has changed. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

In Sweden, the labour movement historically had influenced both society and politics. In recent times, it is considered a change in society with a stronger employer party while the unions weakened by reduced unionisation. This study aims to highlight the presence of individualistic and collectivistic approaches to the labour market in relation to union density. The different approaches are investigated in the labour market by means of a quantitative survey. The study's survey items are workers in the timber industry. The study results indicate that the study's workers union level corresponding national average. The decline in union membership also includes the study workers. The study results also show that younger workers are less susceptible to join unions. The results do not reject the existence of individualistic approach, but demonstrates predominantly collectivistic approach among the study's workers. The study results can be understood from the trade organization's historically strong position in the industry. The employees' strong collective approach emphasizes the union's continued relevance to the labour market.

This thesis set out to examine how teachers understand, experience and respond to mandated curriculum reforms in English in years 11 and 12 at a Senior High School in Western Australia over the period 2004 – 2005. The time period is significant as it is a halfway point between the commencement of the new policy driving reform of senior secondary education and the partial settlement of the policy and curriculum reform. The research is conceptualised using labour process theory as a means of analysing how teachers are being separated from their intellectual work throughout this curriculum reform process. The methodology chosen to inform this research is a dual approach using critical ethnography of lived individual experiences and critical policy ethnography to analyse the changing landscape of education policy in Australia. This dual approach offers a system level of understanding of mandated curriculum reform with an emphasis on the individual experience of expert teachers implementing the contested curriculum reform. Several central themes emerged over the course of the research: growing deprofessionalisation of teachers’ work; intensification of workload and curriculum creation; technocratisation of teacher roles; diminishing autonomy, increased accountability and responsibility; and heightened external surveillance and control. Significantly, the data also captured and analysed in this research demonstrates how teachers are continually experiencing the processes of reprofessionalisation as a consequence of sustained critical reflective practice and the imposition of mandated curriculum reform. The data also relates the need for an authentic consultation between teachers and policy makers/government authorities in order for curriculum reform to be successfully established and taken up in secondary State schools. The processes of reprofessionalisation are a source of continued professional renewal and reinvigoration for the teachers involved.

The global food industry continues to grow through mergers and acquisitions. The consolidation of grocery chains has necessarily led to increasingly large, heavily industrialized food processing firms. These manufacturers rely on large-scale, automated and mechanized production technologies to deliver controlled, consistent, and safe products to retailers. Using Bravermans (1974) deskilling thesis, and Standings (1992) three-part definition of skill as the basis for investigation, this research explores the effects of technological changes on the skills of food workers and focuses on the baking industry. The primary research site is the in-store bakery of a Co-op grocery store in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Observation took place over a two-week period, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the bakers in the facility. Other research sites included two large-scale industrial bakeries in western Canada and a flour milling facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The bread-making processes involved at the research sites are compared, and the impact of the technologies on the skills of workers at each site is discussed. The findings from the research support Bravermans deskilling thesis that bakers in the industrialized food system are experiencing deskilling. This erosion of skills is not only a result of the technological changes, but also, more importantly, the result of the social relations of production. The research also explores Human Resources and Social Development Canadas Essential Skills program. The findings of the research support the argument that the Essential Skills program is a classification scheme that is rooted in scientific management, and can serve to marginalize workers employed in non-knowledge-based occupations. Discussion of the findings also points toward the need to investigate different forms of ownership and their role in preserving the skills and knowledge of workers.

The global food industry continues to grow through mergers and acquisitions. The consolidation of grocery chains has necessarily led to increasingly large, heavily industrialized food processing firms. These manufacturers rely on large-scale, automated and mechanized production technologies to deliver controlled, consistent, and safe products to retailers. Using Bravermans (1974) deskilling thesis, and Standings (1992) three-part definition of skill as the basis for investigation, this research explores the effects of technological changes on the skills of food workers and focuses on the baking industry. The primary research site is the in-store bakery of a Co-op grocery store in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Observation took place over a two-week period, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the bakers in the facility. Other research sites included two large-scale industrial bakeries in western Canada and a flour milling facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The bread-making processes involved at the research sites are compared, and the impact of the technologies on the skills of workers at each site is discussed. The findings from the research support Bravermans deskilling thesis that bakers in the industrialized food system are experiencing deskilling. This erosion of skills is not only a result of the technological changes, but also, more importantly, the result of the social relations of production. The research also explores Human Resources and Social Development Canadas Essential Skills program. The findings of the research support the argument that the Essential Skills program is a classification scheme that is rooted in scientific management, and can serve to marginalize workers employed in non-knowledge-based occupations. Discussion of the findings also points toward the need to investigate different forms of ownership and their role in preserving the skills and knowledge of workers.

<p>One tenet of labour process theory is the contention that, when confronted by degraded work, people will resist through militant behaviour or in other ways. However, that "resistance hypothesis" has been tested rarely.</p> <p>Canadian postal workers have manifested some considerable militancy, for instance through legal and wildcat strikes and through frequent recourse to the grievance mechanism. Too, their work has been subjected to technological change often pointed to as a prime example ofjob degradation. But not all aspects of postal work have been subjected to technological change.</p> <p>Thus, postal workers constitute a test ofthe "resistance hypothesis:" if degraded work provokes militancy, then ceteris paribus postal workers involved in automated work will be more militant than those who are not.</p> <p>In this study, a group of postal workers employed in "Cancity" in 1985-6 (N=152) were surveyed regarding their attitudes and experiences. Factor analytic techniques were used to construct a scale of attitudinal militancy, and hierarchical set analysis - summarised using dummy variable path coefficients -- was used to examine the causal links between this outcome and logically prior factors, including job degradation, employment history, and achieved and ascribed statuses including sex.</p> <p>The results indicate that job degradation does have an impact on attitudinal militancy, but that this impact is modest at best, and weakens as other influences are taken into account.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Yes / This article reasserts the value of the examination of class relations. It does so via a case study of tax-processing sites within HM Revenue and Customs, focusing on the changes wrought by the alterations to labour and supervisory processes implemented under the banner of ‘lean production’. It concentrates on the transformation of front-line managers, as their tasks moved from those that required tax knowledge and team support to those that narrowed their work towards output monitoring and employee supervision. Following Carchedi, these changes are conceptualised as strengthening the function of capital performed by managers, and weakening their role within the labour process.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2016-08-11T13:31:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Leonardo Luiz Auricchio.pdf: 730719 bytes, checksum: cbd80667daac96dd9ec45431fdb4f5e5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-11T13:31:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leonardo Luiz Auricchio.pdf: 730719 bytes, checksum: cbd80667daac96dd9ec45431fdb4f5e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-13 / This paper aims to bring the discussion on the importance of using the outsourcing services for companies competing in a globalized world. A market that increasingly becomes essentially specific, more objective, more debugged also requiring companies to him pegged, become, equally, experts in what is proposed, we will call "Original Vocation" or "Core Business". Meanwhile, exclusive commitment to a chosen business follow-up, when the formation of the company leads to detachment from other areas who understand. Thus, through the need to channel all efforts to its core bussines without letting the other areas that do not have direct or related connection with the company's Core, will languish or perish due to lack of time and investment required if justifies the Institute of Outsourcing. Also, important to emphasize the potential of outsourcing services concerning the creation of new jobs. Faced with such a framework we can consider outsourcing as an important tool in the service of social inclusion through work, so necessary today / O presente trabalho tem como principal objetivo trazer a discussão sobre a importância da utilização da terceirização de serviços para as empresas que competem em um mundo globalizado. Um mercado que, cada vez mais, se torna essencialmente específico, mais objetivo, mais depurado, exigindo também que as empresas a ele atreladas, tornem-se, de igual forma, especialistas naquilo a que sepropõem, ao que chamaremos de “Vocação Original” ou “Core Business”. Outrossim, a dedicação exclusiva a um determinado seguimento empresarial eleito, quando da formação da empresa, conduz ao desprendimento das demais áreas que a compreendem. Dessa forma, através da necessidade de canalizar todos os esforços ao seu core bussines sem deixar que as outras áreas que não tenham ligação direta ou correlata com o Core da companhia, venham a definhar ou sucumbir em decorrência da ausência de tempo e investimento necessário, se justifica o instituto da Terceirização. Outrossim, importante salientarmos o potencial da terceirização de serviços concernente a criação de novos postos de trabalho. Diante de tal quadro, podemos ponderar a terceirização como importante ferramenta a serviço da inclusão social do trabalhador, tão necessária nos dias atuais

This dissertation explores the claim that, in advanced capitalist countries like Canada, a powerful knowledge class is assuming increasing dominance within the social relations of production. Attached to such theories are claims of trends toward post-bureaucratic organizations, rising job complexity and autonomy, and increased power within operational and strategic decision-making processes. In my study I focus on Canadian “specialist” employees (professionals and semi-professionals) and managers. I present aggregated and disaggregated data from two Canadian surveys conducted in 1983 and 2004 and complement this with original interviews with information technology (IT) workers and engineers. I find a seeming paradox within the labour process of specialists and managers, with task-level autonomy declining even as job complexity and involvement in organizational decisions are rising. I provide evidence that imperatives for profit/cost effectiveness are leading to efforts to make specialist and managerial labour and knowledge more transparent, integrated, and manageable, but this is not the same as degradation or proletarianization. In contrast to my expectation, I find boundaries in the division of labour are durable despite this “socialization” of many labour processes. I argue that a specialist-and-managerial class (SMC) exists in Canada, and will continue to exist, though it is subordinate to and exploited by the capitalist elite even as it excludes and exploits the working class through occupational closure and credential barriers. The SMC is thus contradictory, internally heterogeneous and fraying at its borders, but simultaneously resilient. The resiliency comes via possession of specific strategic knowledge and consequent ability to secure rents and/or control specific organization assets via delegated authority. Resiliency is also structural, with management in many organizations retaining an interest in separating planning and design (“conception”), on the one hand, from process and completion (“execution”), on the other, in order to maximize efficiency and productivity through more centralized control.