Summaries
Information technology and labour market opportunities
PM. de Graaf, E.J.C. Josten, P.T. van den Berg and R. Luijkx
This paper sets out for three goals. First, we in vestigate the penetration of information tech nology (IT) on the Duch labor market. We de velop an IT-index for 55 occupational segments of the Dutch labor force. This index measures the extent to which workers in a given occupa tional segment are using computers at work. Second, we investigate the relationship between the IT-index, educational qualifications and job status. Third, we investigate how the IT-index affects labour market opportunities in the Neth erlands. The main hypothesis are that opportu nities will be favourable for workers in seg ments where information technology has pene trated strongest, first because these workers have acquired new and valuable skills, and sec ond because these segments were expanding in the eighties. Four types of labour market transi tions are analyzed: job changes within segments and between segments, job changes implying upward socio-economic mobility, and becoming unemployed. The results of an event history analysis confirm the main hypothesis: workers in segments with more information technology have better opportunities, also
after the expansion of these segments has been controlled for.
All-rounf teamwork: fiction or reality? M. van Klaveren and T. Tom
Sociotechnical (ST) and related approaches to organizational renewal, characterized by autonomous work group or task groups, do not necessary improve the quality of working life. Based on their own experiences as employees' consultants, the authors confirm the persistent
existence of major problems of task segregation and work stress within such groups during and after renewal trajectories. They argue that often subtile forms of resistance of (middle) manage ment to the necessary delegation of power to task groups are more important in this respect than fallacies of ST design. Organizational re newal efforts are badly in need for accompany ing policies to counter-act the continuation of the existing division of labour within ST groups. Such policies should be based on an analysis of differences between workers in terms of skills, labour market perspectives and sources of power.
Relation between business policy and personnel management
F. Kluytmans and E. van Sluijs
Theories on strategic personnel management view a better fit between personnel manage ment and business policy as the ideal way of improving both. Until now, however, no em pirical evidence has been found to support this view. The question then is whether the assump tions upon which such theories are based can be correct. The authors of this article have tested a number of these assumptions against the re search results achieved by Paauwe and ten Have, and have discovered that the link be tween business policy and personnel manage ment is frequently less direct than such theo ries have assumed. The parties involved always have sufficient leeway to shape personnel man agement as they see fit. The theories further more neglect to consider other non-strategic factors which also influence personnel manage ment.
We must therefore question whether it is in fact desirable or even possible to achieve a perfect fit between personnel management and
Summaries
ness policy. Instead, it seems that the leeway for social and personnel policy is determined to some extent by the nature of the production processes, the market and by internal organiza tional issues. Creating greater leeway appears to be more important than trying to achieve a per fect fit.
Caring labour: cause for concern? Marjolein Morée and Marij Vulto
The home health care sector gets increasingly stuck between government cutbacks and a con stantly growing number of elderly clients. In government policy as well as in the sector prior ity is given to keeping up the quality of care, while the quality of caring labour tends to be neglected. This turns out to be a mistake: in re cent years a lot of personal care attendants are quitting their jobs, suffering from burn-out or because they are on the outlook for better work ing conditions. In most research the quality of labour is measured by looking at tasks. The quality of caring labour however, seems to be determined more by different types of clients than by different kinds of tasks. The conclusion is that the prevailing methods for researching the quality of labour have to be adapted for car ing labour.
Women and reorganization of education institutes G. Noordenbos
This article is about the consequences of reor ganizations for the position of women in Educa tion in the Netherlands, from lower education to higher education. Reorganizations at differ ent levels of education are often introduced by using gender neutral arguments, but the effects of such reorganizitions during the last 10 years, show that the position of women is much lower than before. Different explanations are given for this increasing vertical sex-segregation. Men in these organizations are older than women, they have more work experience, and their position is seen as more important, compared with women. Also, the work of men and the school or department where men work receive a higher status. It is found 'normal' that men are the best equipped for a higher position and it seems
quite difficult, or impossible for women to sur pass men, which often creates a lot of problems and conflicts.
To improve the position of women, different measures are mentioned by the committees for the emancipation of women, but only a few of these are realized and evaluated. The effects of two important measures are described in this article. These effects appear to be very small or of no importance at all for improving the posi tion of women. Only where measures are taken in advance, and where women are actively stimulated and promoted, will they hava more possibilities to get a job at a higher level posi tion. The conclusion is that it is important to take the consequences of reorganziations for the position of women into account before the reorganization is realized, and to promote women actively in getting or keeping a higher position.
Preferential treatment and constraints P.A.T. Oden
The influence of preferential treatment has been studied in relation to the influence of rules already in place in the social fields con cerned: the workplace and the home. The ques tion addressed was what happened when prefer ential treatment was added to the existing rules of these social fields.
The research as a whole leads to the conclu sion that preferential treatment in Groningen was inadequately developed and not consis tently applied. It also appears that women on the whole did not take the policy into account in their consideration whether to make them selves available for certain vacancies and pro grammes.
The main reason why preferential treatment did not work was that unwritten norms in the workplace were decisive with respect to the choices made by all the participants in the proc ess. These unwritten norms and mechanisms were left largely unhindered because the devel opment of preferential treatment was inade quate and because it was not (consistently) exe cuted.
