Summaries
Winners and losers on the labour market 1990- 1995
The Dutch labour market is characterised by various developments in the structure of em ployment. Employment in agriculture and ma nufacturing is continuously decreasing while employment is rising in the service sectors of the economy. These long-term shifts in the sec toral structure of employment are reflected in changes in the occupational structure of the la bour market. However, every shorter time peri od also has its own characteristic tendencies.
This article deals with the shifts in the occu pational structure of the Dutch labour market during 1990-1995. While the strong growth of management occupations was the key cha racteristic of the developments in the eighties, this article reveals that in the beginning of the nineties, there has been a remarkable growth of the advisers and staff occupations, such as e.g. accountants and organisation experts.
There has been an increasing demand for more educated workers. Using a shift-share- analysis, it is shown that this tendency can part ly be attributed to changes in the structure of employment, while the main part of the shif ting educational level is due to higher educatio nal demands within occupations. Traditionally, these developments are interpreted as indicati ons of over-education, in the sense that higher skilled workers are 'bumping down' lower skil led workers out of their traditional occupatio nal domain. However, more recent literature in dicates a demand-lead'upgrading'of skill requi rements in various occupations, due to techno logical and organisational developments. Organisational implications of the four-day working week
This contribution aims to bring clarity into the 'organisational implications' of one specific form of working time reduction, namely the four-day working week. We start by defining the concept of the four-day working week. In
the second part, we look at ways Belgian au thorities are trying to encourage the four-day working week, met by little enthusiasm from the business world. This reluctance stems from ignorance about the effects on performance and organisation. For this reason, we have con structed a typology of organisational implicati ons in the third part, as well as a conceptual framework that can act as a guiding model for the analysis of organisational implications. With the help of this conceptual framework, we demonstrate in part four that these implica tions vary strongly with the actual format of the four-day working week. We emphasise that the time frame and the application field of the redistribution formula are the two factors that will determine the nature and volume of impli cations.
Price competition and quality of work in the car repair branch
A comparison of industrial relations, working hours, staffing levels, wages, qualification and organisational culture
This article studies how firms realise price competition. Using document analyses and te lephone and face-to-face interviews and writ ten questionnaires, strategies of the specialist service station Kwik-Fit have been compared to those of the garages regarding industrial relati ons, working hours, staffing levels, wages, qua lification and organisational culture. Four stra tegies turn out to be dominant. Firstly, Kwik-Fit explicitly aims at tighter staffing levels. Secondly, the enterprise aims at another col lective bargaining agreement in which lower wages and bonuses have been agreed upon. Thirdly, the enterprise recruits low skilled wor kers, whose training is closely related to their job. Fourthly, the organisational culture aims at cost reduction. The strategies aiming at in dustrial relations and opening hours do hardly differ from those of the garages. Regarding the quality of work, the strategy of price competi
Summaries tion is translated into a higher work pace, lo
wer wages and bonuses, less training facilities, more routine jobs, and the explicit presence of an organisational culture. Hardly any differen ces were found regarding underpayment, co determination, level of division of labour, and work at irregular hours.
Social capital of men and women on the labor market
Starting point of this paper is the research fin ding that there is a positive effect of size of one's social network on labour market behavi or and outcomes for men, but no effect at all for women. Insight is sought at the supply-side of the labour market, focusing on the amount of social capital of men and women and the structure of their social networks. Secondary analyses of six large-scale Dutch data sets (Van der Poel's PRESOS data, the NIVEL/NSZVA- 1990 data, data from the Nijmegen Leeronder zoek 1991/93, the Utrecht Network-1987 data, the Ultee/Sixma 1982 data, and Van Sonde- ren's Social Support data) show, that men in deed have social networks that contain more social capital than the social networks of wo men. However, merely those network contacts were taken into account that are able to help (to provide relevant labour market information and/or support). Future studies on social capi tal should be able to show whether differences between men and women hold, if contacts that are willing to help are also looked upon. Co-worker and/or friend ? A research on the frequency of social contacts with co-workers In labour organisations, people are confronted with co -workers, with whom they can engage in social contacts. In this article, we will analy se to what extent people engage in social con tacts with co-workers, and what influences the frequency of these contacts. We will use data from two Dutch labour organisations: a com mercial and a cleaning organisation. Social contacts are measured as the frequency of soci al activities during and outside working hours. Results show that the respondents generally do
not engage much in social contacts with their co-workers, and if they do, these contacts gene rally are restricted to the workplace. Multiple regression analysis shows that people who are unmarried and have no children, who are male and whose co-workers are similar on the basis of sex and age, engage more frequently in soci al contacts with their co-workers outside wor king hours. However, these characteristics do not explain the frequency of social contacts during workings hours.
Life and work of Dutch soldiers in Bosnia At this moment, circa 3200 Dutch personnel are serving abroad in international operations, mainly in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Until now, hardly any research was carried out concerning the perceptions and experiences of the soldiers in peace missions regarding their living and working conditions during peace missions. In this longitudinal research, we as sessed the opinions and experiences of Dutch soldiers (part of IFOR, the Implementation FORce) in Bosnia, in the period December 1995 - December 1996. In this study, the prepa ration for the mission, job characteristics and working conditions were regarded as indepen dent variables, influencing the job experiences and subjective well-being of the soldiers. Our survey shows that in general the well-being of the soldiers was good. The working conditions of the peace missions were as good as those of civilian employees in factories. The soldiers qualified their work not as dangerous, but as monotonous and without variation. Soldiers with a higher hierarchical position were more satisfied with their work than soldiers with a lower position. The general well-being of the soldiers was good and did not decrease during the six months of the mission. It seems that the type of mission, a good preparation for the mission as well as having sufficient means to carry out the mission, influence the well-being of soldiers during peace missions.
