{"title":"How White Workers Navigate Racial Difference in the Workplace: Social-Emotional Processes and the Role of Workplace Racial Composition","authors":"J. Nelson, Tiffany D. Johnson","doi":"10.1177/07308884231176833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231176833","url":null,"abstract":"Research on racialized emotions and racialized organizations has begun to inform how we understand social interactions in the workplace and their implications for racial inequality. However, most research to date focuses on the experiences and coping strategies of racial minority workers, especially when confronted with instances of racial prejudice and discrimination. We extend research on racialized emotions in the workplace by mapping the stages of belonging/unbelonging white workers go through when they encounter instances of racial discomfort or perceived prejudice in the workplace. This is an important contribution to the study of race and work because existing research suggests the deleterious effects for people of color when white people experience negative emotions such as threat, fear, and anxiety in interracial encounters. Drawing on interview data with 56 white teachers in a metropolitan area in the U.S. Southeast, we document a process of racialized belonging. This is a process whereby white workers experienced varying degrees of surprise, confusion, frustration, and fear resulting from interracial—and some intraracial—experiences with coworkers as well as students. We note how the process is informed by racialized imprinting prior to workplace entry and followed by racialized emotions and racialized coping. Racial composition of the workplace also played a role, though the process looked similar across contexts. We argue that by accounting for white workers’ prior life experiences as well as organizations’ involvement in accommodating their emotional expectations, the way white workers behave when race becomes salient to them can be better understood and addressed.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43786682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Women Managers and the Gender Wage Gap: Workgroup Gender Composition Matters","authors":"Sylvia Fuller, Young-Mi Kim","doi":"10.1177/07308884231178314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231178314","url":null,"abstract":"Women's representation in managerial positions is a common metric for gender equity in organizations. Whether women managers improve gender equity among their subordinates is, however, less clear. Drawing on rich longitudinal personnel data from a large Korean food company, we provide new insight into this question by focusing attention on key micro-contexts for interaction and relational politics within organizations: workgroups. Building on social-psychological theories about in-group preference and value threats, we theorize that workgroup gender composition conditions the relationship between supervisor gender and gender earnings differentials. Results from regression models with workgroup fixed effects confirm this insight. Women supervisors are associated with smaller gender earnings gaps in workgroups when they are male-dominated. This relationship is stronger for less-advantaged workers, with supervisor gender and workgroup gender composition mattering more for “sticky floors” than “glass ceilings.”","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47659871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Life Course of Unemployment: The Timing and Relative Degree of Risk","authors":"Sarah Damaske, A. Frech, Hilary Wething","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162949","url":null,"abstract":"We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 to identify group-based trajectories of unemployment risk as workers age in the United States. Our novel methodological approach reveals 73% of full-time workers spend much of their 20, 30, and 40 s with a relatively low risk of unemployment. The remaining sizable minority varies in the timing and relative degree of their unemployment risk. Eighteen percent experience early career unemployment risk into their early thirties, well after the transition to adulthood. Chronic unemployment characterizes the labor market experiences of the remaining 9%. When expanding the sample to all workers, we find two key differences: the overall prevalence of unemployment is greater each year for all groups and the distribution of respondents across groups differs, with fewer workers experiencing Lower unemployment and more workers experiencing Early Career or Higher unemployment. Unemployment risk is shaped by experiences of long-term unemployment in young adulthood and early labor market constraints. Moreover, while men and women appear equally at risk of Early career unemployment, men are particularly at risk of Higher unemployment. Black workers were significantly more likely to be at risk of Higher unemployment, but only slightly more likely to be at risk of Early career unemployment. Since Early career unemployment risk gives way to steadier work for most, this suggests that some men and some Black workers face disproportionately high levels of employment precarity. Our findings point to the importance of a life course approach for understanding the relationship between unemployment and labor market precarity.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43940444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: The Opportunity Trap: High-Skilled Workers, Indian Families, and the Failures of the Dependent Visa Program by Banerjee, P.","authors":"Debaleena Ghosh","doi":"10.1177/07308884231176079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231176079","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48114097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Strategizing Against Sweatshops: The Global Economy, Student Activism, and Worker Empowerment by M. S. Williams","authors":"Jonathan S. Coley","doi":"10.1177/07308884231176081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231176081","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46298039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The New Labor Activism, a New Labor Sociology","authors":"D. Cornfield","doi":"10.1177/07308884231168042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231168042","url":null,"abstract":"This symposium issue of Work and Occupations on “The New Labor Activism” develops a new generation of labor sociology research for comprehending and sustaining the contemporary labor mobilization in the U.S., the largest labor mobilization since the 1930s. The symposium responds to the question raised in the June, 2022 report of the Worker Empowerment Research Network about the sustainability of the new labor activism. The symposium essays focus on the themes of “history,” “intersectionality,” “worker agency,” and “hierarchy” and continue the post-World War II transition of the field from a union-centered toward a worker-centered labor sociology.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43912504","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thomas A. Kochan, Janice R. Fine, K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Naidu, Jacob Barnes, Yaminette Diaz-Linhart, John Kallas, Jeonghun Kim, Arrow Minster, Di Tong, Phela Townsend, Danielle Twiss
{"title":"An Overview of US Workers’ Current Organizing Efforts and Collective Actions","authors":"Thomas A. Kochan, Janice R. Fine, K. Bronfenbrenner, S. Naidu, Jacob Barnes, Yaminette Diaz-Linhart, John Kallas, Jeonghun Kim, Arrow Minster, Di Tong, Phela Townsend, Danielle Twiss","doi":"10.1177/07308884231168793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231168793","url":null,"abstract":"American workers are currently engaged in an upsurge in collective actions aimed at achieving a stronger voice and representation at work; this desire for increased voice at work is also evident in survey data. However, union organizing drives in the United States typically meet with strong employer resistance, and such resistance reduces the likelihood that the organizing effort will be successful. In addition to unions, a broad array of other efforts has been initiated to strengthen worker voice and representation. The authors discuss these efforts, including worker centers, and observe that there is no “one size fits all” approach to contemporary worker organizing.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46064657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"She Still Works Hard for the Money: Composers, Precarious Work, and the Gender Pay Gap","authors":"T. Dowd, Ju Hyun Park","doi":"10.1177/07308884231165079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231165079","url":null,"abstract":"Music composers exemplify precarious work: they historically have been freelancers and have relied on multiple jobs to subsidize their creative work. We focus here on the gender pay gap amidst such precariousness—heeding their income earned solely from composition and from the totality of jobs recently held. There is no gender pay gap when it comes to income earned from composition but there is a significant gap for income earned from all jobs, showing that women composers face relative disadvantage in subsidizing their creative work. We also find that men and women composers experience different and racialized returns to their capitals and career positioning when navigating precarious work. These findings have lessons for multiple literatures—including those on the new sociology of work and on creative careers.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42508873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Critical Industrial Relations Approach to Understanding Contemporary Worker Uprising","authors":"Tamara L. Lee, M. Tapia","doi":"10.1177/07308884231162942","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231162942","url":null,"abstract":"Consistent with our calls for critical approaches to traditional Industrial Relations questions, we argue that it is important to consider whether the “major upsurge in union organizing” is more accurately framed as a continuation of long-running democracy fights against systemic inequity and injustice. Thus, we bring focus to “whole worker” organizing, as well as the structural limitations of our labor laws and institutions, to illuminate counter-narratives to the way we tell stories about contemporary worker organizing.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48255849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resurfacing Dignity as a Tool for the Unionization of African American Lower-Tier Workers","authors":"Alford A. Young","doi":"10.1177/07308884231167082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231167082","url":null,"abstract":"Selected lower-tier occupational sectors were defined as essential during the early phase of the Covid crisis. Accordingly, that period provided an opportunity to explore whether certain African American lower-tier workers might have acquired a greater sense of dignity and value for their work. By drawing from the author's earlier research on low-income African Americans and a recent study of such workers, this essay explores how considerations of value and dignity in the workplace during early Covid inform about the prospects for organizing such lower-tier workers for union participation.","PeriodicalId":47716,"journal":{"name":"Work and Occupations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2023-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42794816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}