Jobs,gender, and self‐efficacy in multiple contexts

This paper focuses on the social psychological correlates of being in an occupation that is sex‐typed against one's own gender‐i.e., cross‐sex incumbency in sex‐typed occupations. Male and female high school teachers and university professors are compared in terms of global self‐esteem as well as in three context‐specific dimensions of self‐efficacy. While no differences in global self‐esteem were revealed, a number of significant differences did emerge in comparisons of self‐efficacy in specific contexts. Our data reveal no uniform effects of cross‐sex incumbency. Male high school teachers, however, did exhibit signs of decreased occupational self‐efficacy, perhaps as a result of the previous female domination of that occupation. Female professors, on the other hand, reported high levels of self‐efficacy on all dimensions. The paper concludes with two hypotheses for further empirical examination, and suggests tht self‐esteem be conceptualized as a multidimensional construct.     

Access to occupations through social ties

Previous studies which examine the theory linking social resources to instrumental action have focused on a particular activated set of social ties in order to assess the effects of social resources on a specific action (finding a job or finding a stranger). However, the theory also implies that an individual's access to such social resources is contingent upon his/her social position as well as the nature of the social ties used. Assuming positions in the occupational structure represent resources, this paper reports a study designed to examine access to occupations through social ties.Data tend to support two major propositions in the theory. The strength of positions (as indicated by father's occupation) as well as the strength of ties (as indicated by the nature of the tie being a relative, friend or acquaintance) affect one's access to high-prestige occupations and affect the range of occupations accessed. Higher original positions and weaker ties (friends and acquaintances rather than relatives) provide better access to white-collar or more prestigious occupations, and, as a consequence, provide access to a wider range of occupations. Weaker ties provide better access to social resources than stronger ties, especially for those whose original positions are relatively low. There is also some evidence that friends, as opposed to relatives and acquaintances, may provide the widest access to different positions in the occupational structure. However, this finding is tentative since access through acquaintances may have been underestimated due to the particular measure used and to the possibility of a recall problem.     

Purchases,Penalties, and Power: The Relationship Between Earnings and Housework

Studies examining the association of housework with earnings have not tested for causal directionality despite competing theories about causal ordering. Autonomy theory and the relative resources, gender display, and gender deviance neutralization hypotheses suggest personal and relative earnings affect time in housework, whereas human capital theory implies the opposite. Using data from N = 3,719 continuously married couples in Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and structural equation modeling, the authors found that wives' personal earnings and housework are reciprocally related; her earnings have a stronger effect on housework than vice versa. For husbands, time in routine housework affects earnings only. The authors observed little evidence that relative earnings affect husbands' or wives' housework time; rather, they identified a significant effect of housework on one's share of couples' earnings. These results support autonomy theory for wives and a human capital perspective for both spouses.     

Workplace occupation and the possibilities of popular power in Chile and Argentina, 1972–6

ABSTRACT

The recent wave of occupations has had a transformative effect on radical politics, but, to date, many have been restricted in their social and spatial expansion. Reflecting on these challenges, this article examines workplace occupation in the coordinadoras interfabriles in Argentina (1975–6) and the cordones industriales in Chile (1972–3) to understand how they overcame barriers to such expansion. Starting from debates in critical geography and social movement studies on space and occupations, I unpack the possibilities for popular power that emerged in this period by using approaches from critical labour studies and autonomist Marxism. First, I outline the generative role of the workplace in producing these possibilities in a context of wider social change. Second, I demonstrate how the capacity for expansion lay in the simultaneous capacity to disrupt and reconstruct social relations derived from solidarities that exceeded the existing physical space of occupation.     

Status differences in cross-functional teams: effects on individual member participation, job satisfaction, and intent to quit

Cross-functional teams (CFTs) play an increasingly important role in health care. However, despite their potential, CFTs often fail to function effectively. This paper contributes to the literature in medical sociology by examining how the steep and well-defined hierarchy characteristic of the health occupations proves to be dysfunctional in the CFT setting. Previous research has shown that status differences among members of work teams negatively affect their functioning. Yet the specific mechanisms that connect variations in status to poor team functioning remain unclear. We hypothesize that it is the suppression of participation among low status team members that leads to poor CFT functioning. Our theoretical model integrates status characteristics theory and the value attainment theory of job satisfaction to link team members' statuses to participation in team decision-making and, ultimately, to their attitudes about the job. We use causal modeling to test our hypotheses. Our results indicate that relationships between health professionals defined in broader social contexts affect status, roles, and functions within CFTs, and these, in turn, affect the team's interpersonal processes. We suggest changes in organizational structure and in team leadership styles that might make CFTs more effective.     

The Role of Other Family Members in Intergenerational Occupational Mobility*

The concept of “occupational origin” has traditionally been measured by father's occupation only, especially in studies of occupational mobility. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the occupations of other family members are additional components of men's occupational origins Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Mature Men, the traditional father-son mobility table was expanded to include paternal grandfathers' occupations and mothers' occupations. Log-linear analyses of these expanded mobility tables showed that paternal grandfathers' and mothers' occupations have significant associations with sons' occupations, controlling for level of fathers' occupations. The association between grandfathers' and sons' occupations is stronger than that between mothers' and sons' occupations. It was concluded that, while father's occupation is the main component, it does not fully capture the impact of occupational origin. Consequently, intergenerational mobility may be less frequent than is indicated in traditional father-son mobility analyses.     

Evaluation Research System,Functions, Future

Abstract

The authors focus on evaluation research as a social phenomenon. After identifying the system of actors for whom this phenomenon has meaning, they trace the changing functions and dysfunctions of evaluation research for these actors over time. They find that: (1) there was initially a consensus among actors on the scientific utility of evaluation research; (2) this consensus has broken down as actors realize the various economic, political and value implications of evaluation research for their own interests, and as they struggle to control the process. Because of this interaction of interests and perceptions of function, the authors predict that evaluation research will be, increasingly, the activity of the “for profit” research organizations, rather than of university based social scientists.'     

Reform,Rupture or Re-Imagination: Understanding the Purpose of an Occupation

Despite a resurgence in the use of occupations as a political tactic in the UK, there is little agreement on how they contribute to the realisation of a movement's goals. Drawing on the author's experience of occupations at University College London (UCL), this profile argues for an understanding of occupation according to a threefold model of transformational social change: symbiotic, ruptural and interstitial. As the occupations progressed, UCL activists' understanding of the collective action they had undertaken was expanded and transformed, with increasing emphasis placed on the ruptural and interstitial visions. These both reflected and reinforced a broader process of politicisation and radicalisation amongst the student body. The profile concludes by suggesting that no conception of the purpose of an occupation should be regarded as universally valid since an accommodation between competing strategic visions is both required and necessary.     

Targeting occupations with varying reputations to increase tax revenue

If the government's goal is to raise tax revenue in a cost-effective manner, which (if any) occupation categories could be targeted with a higher probability of an audit to yield increased revenue? Looking beyond mere opportunity to evade (e.g., self-employment) and starting from the premise that taxpayers in certain occupations evade more than others, the issue is whether these taxpayers respond to a change in the audit rate. Theory suggests that compliance increases in response to higher audit rates; the occupations with the higher evaders could therefore be targeted. This theory is tested by drawing a connection between occupation, reputation, and tax compliance. We assume that taxpayers in occupations with high need for reputation respond to a lower extent to increased tax audits than taxpayers whose achievement does not depend on reputation. The results support the effectiveness of raising tax revenue by targeting specific occupations, non-managers, with a higher probability of an audit.     

Men doing women's dirty work: Desegregation,immigrants and employer preferences in the cleaning industry in Norway

The literature on gender desegregation has documented the gendered nature of employment hierarchies and opportunities, but less work has examined how the influx of immigrants in the labour market might affect employment hierarchies and gender segregation. This study examines employers' perceptions of ‘the suitable cleaner' — a traditionally female‐dominated occupation that has received a substantial number of male immigrant workers. Departing from the notion that men in female‐dominated occupations are advantaged by a ‘glass escalator' effect, we analyse how employer preferences position different categories of workers as hireable. Building on interviews with employers in the Norwegian cleaning industry, the study demonstrates how three different but intertwined logics define employer preferences: effectivity demands, professionalization and devaluation. While the first logic favours men as workers and the second devalues ‘female' competence, opening the occupation for men, the third logic favours immigrants, combined positioning immigrant men on top of the hierarchy of suitability.     

Dreams meeting reality? A gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences in early adolescence and actual occupation in adulthood

On the basis of longitudinal data from Sweden (n = 15,211), the article offers a gendered perspective on the relationship between occupational preferences during early adolescence and actual occupations in adulthood. Theoretically the study is based on socialisation theory and devaluation theory. The analyses show that preferences for one’s future occupation were stronger among those who came to make gender-typical choices, than among those who chose a gender-atypical occupation. However, a gender difference was also found in that girls who came to choose a male dominated occupation showed a stronger preference for their future occupation in adolescence, than boys who came to choose a female dominated occupation. Results also showed that at a general level, the occupations in adulthood were even more gender segregated than the preferences in adolescence. This was particularly true for girls, who in adolescence expressed a stronger preference to work in a male dominated occupations, than they would later actually do.     

Measuring the Effect of System Size on the Administrative Occupations of Macro Systems: A Reappraisal

Abstract

Organizational theory and empirical research suggests that the size of a system is an important determinant of its administrative sector. In this perspective, the key occupations that provide coordination and integration are as follows: (a) managers and administrators since they provide decision-making, (2) professional and technical experts because they evaluate information flows critical for decision-making, and (3) clerical workers since they contribute written messages resulting in communication. Recent research demonstrates that this approach may be successfully extended to more macro systems such as counties, cities, states and nations. In applying this theory, we argue that the size/administrative occupation relationships can be more completely understood than in previous studies by focusing on the detailed suboccupations found in each of the three broad occupation categories. Data from the fifty American states in 1970 indicate that the relationship between size and suboccupations may be positive, negative, or statistically non-significant depending on which suboccupation is examined. The paper concludes that administrative occupations are affected by size in a much more complex way than previously reported.     

Gender,Work, and Intimate Violence: Men's Occupational Violence Spillover and Compensatory Violence

Researchers have rarely studied the effects of occupations on intimate violence, only occasionally distinguishing between blue‐collar and white‐collar work, and generally finding higher rates of reported abuse in the former group. This research incorporates ideas from feminist, work‐family, and power or resource theories to examine the potential effects of occupations on men's violence toward wives and cohabiting female partners. Data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) were analyzed using logistic regression techniques. Hypotheses related to occupational spillover and compensation were tested with results suggesting that men in physically violent, female‐dominated, professional specialty, and dangerous occupations are more likely to use violence against female partners, net of other commonly hypothesized predictors. The findings suggest that more detailed occupational data should be collected in future intimate violence research.     

Votes,Favors, Toys,and Ideas: The Effect of Resource Characteristics on Power in Exchange Networks

Abstract

The goal of this research is to understand how resource characteristics influence the development of power in exchange networks. Transferability and duplicability are identified as fundamental resource characteristics that have not been examined systematically in prior social exchange research. Varying resource transferability and duplicability alters the mechanisms that produce power and determine which positions in a network have a power advantage. To predict where power will develop, I rely on existing measures for previously studied resources and introduce relevant principles of network structure for resources that have not been studied before. This theoretical logic is supported by a series of simulated exchange networks that apply behavioral principles observed in prior experimental research to the exchange of a broader variety of resources than previously considered. Results indicate how the pattern of power use in a network is contingent upon the type of resource being exchanged.     

Role-Taking Accuracy in Medical Encounters: A Test of two Theories

Abstract

This paper tests five hypotheses derived from two contrasting theoretical perspectives on role-taking accuracy: a social contact theory and an institutional resource theory. We investigate how well doctors and patients perceive one another's perspectives in a medical encounter. The cumulative weight of the data supports the proposed social contact theory. Increased contact between residents and patients, as reflected in physician's year in residency, contributes to more accurate role-taking on the part of physicians. Conditions of social compatibility between doctors and patients vis a vis gender or race lead to more accurate role-taking. Finally, personal characteristics are better predictors of role-taking accuracy than institutional status variables such as type of residency training program or doctor's year in residency status.     

Social order,cultural capital and citizenship*

The question of whether education should be seen as an instrument of social order is an old topic in the social sciences. There exist several theories concerning this question. Two of these rival theories are dealt with in this paper. On the basis of each, historical data have been looked at anew and empirical research has been carried out into the prevailing conditions in the Netherlands. On the basis of the first theory, which was inspired by Bourdieu and which concerns economic, cultural (including educational) and social capital, data on the Dutch history between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries have been reanalysed with respect to the attitude of the diverse sections of the dominant class towards culture in general and the university in particular. Dutch history can be regarded as a national variant of the universal tensions between ‘culture’and ‘knowledge’and between ‘culture’and ‘economics’in human societies. On the basis of Bourdieu's theory it is assumed that under the prevailing social conditions elementary schools will differ in ‘educational status’in the schools market. Empirical investigation confirms this hypothesis. The ‘educational status’of elementary schools mediates (reproduces) almost all of the influence of the childrens’social background on their school career, and reinforces this influence. On the basis of the second theory, which is based on the work of Meyer, Boli and Ramirez, data on the Dutch history in the Enlightenment period have been reanalysed with respect to the rise of mass education. These historical data give substantial evidence to the theory that the construction of the nation-state is of decisive importance for the rise of mass education. Our empirical investigation, however, does not confirm the hypothesis that in the actual situation elementary schools differ in ‘comprehensiveness’. Neither schools nor parents are oriented towards integration. Rather, the contrasts seem to be getting sharper in the 1980s and the schools as well as the social classes seem to be distancing themselves further from each other. Various sections of the dominant class are busy strengthening their position of power in education. In short, the use of schools to constitute citizens does not lessen the pressure towards differentiation. Thus, the theory of Boli and Ramirez explains the rise of mass education, but cannot explain its social class bound form, a fact that can be explained very well by Bourdieu's theory. Therefore the theories of both Bourdieu and Boli and Ramirez should be regarded not as rivalizing, but as complementary.     

World system status,techno-economic heritage,and fertility

The relevance of world system/dependency theory, and ecological-evolutionary theory for the population processes of currently developing nations is explored and evaluated by testing hypotheses drawn from models of fertility and fertility decline implied by them. Despite the preliminary and necessarily limited nature of the tests and measures, some support is found for hypotheses drawn from boh perspectives. Techno-economic heritage is found to affect fertility change directly, and world system status and techno-economic heritage are each found to affect fertility level and fertility change through independent effects on intervening variables. In addition, a significant interaction effect of techno-economic heritage and world system status on fertility level is found.     

Nursing a Grievance? The Role of Healthcare Assistants in a Modernized National Health Service

The complex division of labour in health care has encouraged the analysis of occupational boundary disputes between separate professions. Less attention has been directed at the divisions in individual occupational groups but in a context of intensive health sector workforce reform there has been a growth in lower status occupations. This article extends debate about lower status occupations by exploring the manner in which nurses and healthcare assistants engage in boundary work to advance their occupational interests. The UK government's modernization agenda has encouraged a more prominent role for healthcare assistants and the findings confirm that this agenda has reinforced occupational boundary disputes between nurses and healthcare assistants. Tensions between nurses and healthcare assistants took particular forms influenced by gendered notions of caring work. The consequences of these boundary management strategies in terms of work undertaken, pay and status are also explored.     

Seeking Legitimacy: The Professionalization of Life Coaching

This article uses life coaching as a case study for understanding the attempts of one occupational group to define their work as a profession and themselves as professional people. Life coaches' efforts to legitimate their work are examined within the context of the economic downturn and exemplify an emerging employment trend in the American labor market: college‐educated workers pursuing non‐standard work as independent contractors in personalized service occupations. Using in‐depth interviews with life coaches, I focus on the collective and individual strategies workers use in their attempts to carve out new occupational jurisdictions for their services and bolster their professional status. I explore how gender shapes life coaches' experiences and professionalization tactics; further, I predict that these gendered processes will ultimately influence the trajectory of the life coaching industry more generally. My findings highlight the complexity of current employment relations and offer empirical insights into the study of work, occupations, and gender.