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Employment: A Key Idea for Business and Society introduces a topic that many of us take for granted yet is central to how we understand business and management.
List of contents
Introduction: What is Employment and Why Does it Matter?What is Employment?
Chapter 1: A Critical History of EmploymentThe Beginnings of Work
The Industrial Revolution
Exploitation
Scientific Management
Labour Process Theory
Struggles Over Employment in Britain
The Employment Relationship Today
Chapter 2: The Global Division of LabourEmployment Across the World
Imperialism
Reshaping Global Employment
Unemployment
Informal Work
Unpaid Labour
A Global View of Employment
Chapter 3: The Management of WorkHuman Resource Management
Recruitment and Selection
Pay and Rewards
Retention, Engagement, and Turnover
Employee Voice
Management in Practice
Chapter 4: Key Dynamics of Contemporary EmploymentState Regulation and Employment Rights
The Public Sector and the State as Employer
Post-Industrial Employment
Emotional Labour
Precarious Work
Platforms and the Gig Economy
Trade Union Decline and Renewal
Chapter 5: Researching EmploymentA Brief History of Researching Employment
Research Questions for Understanding Employment
Research Ethics
Collecting Data
Quantitative research
Interviews
Ethnography
Why Research on Employment Matters
Chapter 6: Future(s) of EmploymentThe Different Futures of Work?
Academic Exercises
About the author
Dr Jamie Woodcock is a senior lecturer at the University of Essex and a researcher based in London. He is the author of
The Fight Against Platform Capitalism (University of Westminster Press, 2021),
The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019),
Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and
Working the Phones (Pluto, 2017). His research is inspired by workers' inquiry and focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organising, and video games. He is on the editorial board of
Notes from Below and
Historical Materialism.
Summary
Employment: A Key Idea for Business and Society introduces a topic that many of us take for granted yet is central to how we understand business and management.
