Work and Occupations

This article analyzes factors that influence the attainment of organizational rank in Swedish manufacturing industry. It is argued that competition for promotions is highly localized and largely restricted to the insiders of organizations. As a consequence, the attainment process is likely to be idiosyncratic and strongly influenced by the particularities of each place of employment. In the empirical analysis, particular attention is given to how an individual's likelihood of attaining a sought-after job is influenced by the educational levels of fellow employees. These analyses reveal substantial contextual effects, thus supporting the idea that the attainment process is deeply embedded in the local employment context.

According to Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1986), each individual simultaneously participates in several “microsystems” that influence development, for example, the family, school, peer group, and workplace. Of central concern here is how the increasing prevalence of “youth work” may affect parent-adolescent relationships. The findings of a 3-year study of adolescents (n = 1,000) and their parents (925 mothers, 650 fathers) indicate that youth work has some significant effects on familial relationships. The findings also suggest gender differences in the linkage of youth work and family life.

Whereas the issue of vertical sex segregation of women within organizations has received a great deal of attention in recent years, much less attention has been given to horizontal sex segregation. This study is an attempt to specify factors that influence the horizontal distribution of female managers within organizations. Hypotheses concerning the influence of departmental characteristics of power, growth, founding period, and worker demographics on placement of female managers are tested on a sample of 99 university departments.

Commemorating its twentieth anniversary, this paper examines the legacy of Harry Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. Braverman's book provoked three areas of inquiry that continue to thrive and to orient sociological research: the topic of worker's interests, participation, and resistances; gendered outcomes and causes of labor process transformation; and the interrelated topic of changes in skill levels and control strategies. The paper describes the conceptual transformation these topics have undergone and identifies lingering dilemmas facing those who study the labor process in the late twentieth century.