Since the early 1980s, a vast number of jobs have been created in the affluent economies of the industrialized world. Many workers are doing more skilled and fulfilling jobs, and getting paid more for their trouble. Yet it is often alleged that the quality of work life has deteriorated, with a substantial and rising proportion of jobs providing low wages and little security, or requiring unusually hard and stressful effort. In this unique and authoritative formal account of changing job quality, economist Francis Green highlights contrasting trends, using quantitative indicators drawn from public opinion surveys and administrative data. In most affluent countries average pay levels have risen along with economic growth, a major exception being the United States. Skill requirements have increased, potentially meaning a more fulfilling time at work. Set against these beneficial trends, however, are increases in inequality, a strong intensification of work effort, diminished job satisfaction, and less employee influence over daily work tasks. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Demanding Work shows how aspects of job quality are related, and how changes in the quality of work life stem from technological change and transformations in the politico-economic environment. The book concludes by discussing what individuals, firms, unions, and governments can do to counter declining job quality.

General practitioners are moving into a more central and accountable role in managing NHS resources. To achieve this they need to monitor, understand and plan the everyday services they offer. This book shows the reader how. It provides insights and practical suggestions on how demand can be met effectively and efficiently. It shows how to improve service provision and guidance is given on how to reduce the stressful working conditions of GPs, nurses and other practice staff. Illustrated with charts and graphs and tips, it provides new and relevant data in an easy to understand and accessible format. All members of the practice team, especially GPs, GP registrars and NHS managers, and those undertaking research in or about primary care, will find it essential reading.

In the United Kingdom, retirement programs are being reconstructed to follow the American practice of abolishing mandatory retirement and increasing state pension ages. This timely book compares prospects for work and retirement at age sixty five-plus in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After exploring the shifting logic behind both nations' policies--policies that increase both the need and opportunities to work past age sixty five--David Lain presents an original comparative statistical analysis on the wide range of factors influencing employment at this age, from the ability to move between jobs in order to remain employed to changing employment trends. He then proposes a series of policies to address these factors across the life-course and promote security and autonomy for older people. Pathways to employment after sixty five are complex, and pressures to work at this age are likely to result in very unequal outcomes. This book will play a vital role in creating a more positive, more equitable future for late careers and retirement.

Provides insights into how health and safety can be more effectively integrated into the procurement, design, and management of construction projects This book aims to explore the ways in which technological, organizational, and cultural strategies can be combined and integrated into construction project management to produce sustained and significant health and safety (H&S) improvements. It looks at design and safety practices, work organization, workforce engagement and learning, and offers ideas for producing systemic change. Integrating Work Health and Safety into Construction Project Management addresses how best to achieve safety in design through the adoption of a stakeholder management approach. It instructs on how to drive H&S improvements through supply chain integration and responsible procurement and project management practices. It examines the components of a culture for health and safety and the development of a cultural maturity model. The book discusses the potential to improve H&S through the provision of conditions of work that afford workers a positive work-life balance. It also covers how advanced technologies and the application of techniques developed from health informatics can support real time analysis and improvement of H&S in construction. Lastly, it looks at the benefits associated with engaging workers and using their tacit H&S knowledge to inform work process improvements. This text also: Provides new and non-traditional ways of thinking about H&S Focuses on technological, organizational, and cultural integration Offers a multi-disciplinary perspective provided by an internationally recognized research team from the social sciences, engineering, construction/project management, and psychology Presents, in detail, the collective analysis from a broad-ranging ten year program of collaborative research Contains a rich range of industry case studies Integrating Work Health and Safety into Construction Project Management is an excellent resource for academics and researchers engaged in research in construction H&S, as well as for postgraduates taking construction project management and H&S courses. It will also be beneficial to consultants, policy advisors, construction project managers and H&S professionals.

Understanding Procrastination at Work focuses primarily on procrastination in the workplace, and offers a synthetic and comprehensive review of major theoretical concepts and empirical findings on general procrastination and its specific manifestations, causes, and consequences in the workplace. Building on theoretical insights and empirical research, the monograph proposes and empirically verifies an expanded conceptual framework that integrates individual and work-related factors that contribute to work procrastination and mechanisms explaining this phenomenon. It sits at the intersection of two disciplines, integrating psychological and management knowledge so that a wider audience may benefit from its content. It thus sheds more light on sources and explanatory mechanisms underlying procrastination as a universal behavior in the work setting, with meaningful implications for individuals and organizations alike. Overall, the monograph can serve as a contemporary compendium of knowledge that enables the scientific community and organizational practitioners to better understand procrastination behavior and its implications in professional settings. From the theoretical and empirical perspectives, the monograph provides practical cues to develop prevention and intervention strategies to effectively address and manage procrastination and enhance employee productivity in the organization.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY WORK PSYCHOLOGY "[This book] provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, featuring contributions from around the world. Not only is the book well-written, it is also very readable and entertaining and provides a thorough and scholarly introduction to all aspects of the field. I strongly and unreservedly endorse and recommend it." —Anthony Harold Winefield, PhD, Professor of Psychology, University of South Australia "Work behaviour is crucial to our health and well-being and to organizational performance. Work also impacts on our behaviour outside work and on family life. With contributions of many of the world's leading experts, this strong editorial team has produced the first standard book on work psychology: the scientific study of work behaviour and its antecedents and consequences. It is a must for anyone seriously interested in work, work behaviour and people at work." —Michiel Kompier, Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen An Introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology is the first textbook to provide a comprehensive overview of work psychology. Moving beyond the terrain of introductory industrial/organizational psychology textbooks, this book examines the classic models, current theories and contemporary issues affecting the twenty-first-century worker. This text covers all aspects of the psychology of working, including topics such as safety at work, working times, work–family interaction, recovery from work, technology, job demands and job resources, working in teams and sickness absence. While many books in the field focus on the adverse effects of work, this one is unique in emphasizing also the positive aspects and outcomes of work, including motivation, performance, creativity and engagement. The book also contains chapters on job-related prevention and intervention strategies with a special focus on positive interventions and proactive techniques, such as job crafting and promoting positive work behaviours. Edited by respected leaders in the field and with chapters written by a global team of experts, this is the textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses focusing on work psychology.

This book examines the importance of work in human well-being, addressing several related philosophical questions about work and arguing on the whole that meaningful work is central in human flourishing. Work impacts flourishing not only in developing and exercising human capabilities but also in instilling and reflecting virtues such as honor, pride, dignity, self-discipline and self-respect. Work also attaches to a sense of purposefulness and personal identity, and meaningful work can promote both personal autonomy and a sense of personal satisfaction that issues from making oneself useful. Further still, work bears a formative influence on character and intelligence and provides a primary avenue for exercising complex skills and garnering esteem and recognition from others. The author defends a pluralistic account of meaningful work, arguing that work can be meaningful in virtue of developing capabilities, supporting virtues, providing a purpose, or integrating elements of a worker's life. In light of the impact of meaningful work on living well, the author argues that well-ordered societies provide opportunities for meaningful work, that individuals would be well advised to pursue these opportunities, and that the philosophical view of value pluralism, which casts work as having no special significance in an individual's life, is false. The book also addresses oppressive work that undermines human flourishing, examining potential solutions to mitigate the impact of bad work on those who perform it. Finally, a guiding argument of the book is that promoting meaningful work is a matter of ethics, more so than a matter of politics. Prioritizing people over profit, treating workers with respect, respecting the intelligence of working people, and creating opportunities for people to contribute developed skills are basic ethical principles for employing organizations and for communities at large.