Changes in Occupations: Knowledge Economy Perspectives

1. ETUI monthly forum Brussels, 24 June 2010 Changes in occupations in the knowledge-based economySelected results from the European project WORKS Dr Gérard ValenducFTU - Fondation Travail-Université (Namur)Invited professor at FUNDP Namur and UCL Louvain-la-Neuve Work Organisation and Restructuring in the Knowledge SocietyFP6 integrated project, funded by the European Commission

2. Contents • Methodology • Selected occupational groups: knowledge-based creative occupations and customer service occupations • Evolution of job contents and skills mix • Diversification of career patterns • Changes in identities at work • Challenges for (long-term) work life balance • Conclusions

3. Objectives and methodology • Methodology for occupational case studies • In-depth interviews concerning the individual experience of organisational and occupational changes, including a biographical dimension • Focus on: career construction and choices; occupational identities; quality of work; learning and skills development; work life balance • Reporting process (15 countries): 246 interviews  30 case study reports  6 monographs of occupational groups (dress designers, ICT researchers, software professionals, manufacturing workers, logistics commercial workers, front-office employees in public or former public services)  comparative analysis

4. Occupational groups concerned by this paper • Knowledge-based creative occupations • 3 occupational groups: dress designers + ICT researchers + software professionals • 113 interviews, 14 case study reports, 11 countries • Main forms of restructuring: global markets, mergers, commoditisation of knowledge, new division of labour, speeding-up processes along the value chain • Customer service occupations • 1 occupational group: front office employees in public services (administration, post or railway) • 57 interviews, 7 case study reports, 7 countries • Main forms of restructuring: outsourcing, market dependency, priority to customer orientation, privatisation or "subsidiarisation" or externalisation of former internal resources

5. Evolution of job contents and skills mix • Trends in KB occupations • Job contents transformed by speeding-up processes and increasing tensions between creativity and market pressure • Broadening of the skills portfolio beyond the core professional skills • Internal dynamics of the profession is perceived as more determinant than "external" restructuring processes • "Competence-based" labour market (dress designers and software professionals) versus "professional" labour market (researchers) • Trends in CS occupations • Wide variety in educational and training background, often not directly linked to the occupation. • Service relationship as main common component of the skills mix • Job contents linked to a role in an organisation

6. Diversification of career patterns • Trends in KB occupations: organisational vs boundaryless • Diversification of organisational careers: hierarchical patterns, technical patterns (expertise), multi-organisational patterns. Persistence of glass ceiling for women. • Boundaryless (or nomadic) careers: trapped in a core / periphery model ? • Fragmented careers, due to chronic flexibility (constrained choices) • Trends in CS occupations • Increasing segmentation between organisational careers and fragmented careers (mainly in outsourced CS) • Rigid career models (back-office model) challenged by fewer-levels career paths (front-office model) and "sideways" mobility • Gendered representation of "service work"(entailing feminisation of some male occupations)

7. Changes in identities at work • Trends in KB occupations • Involvement in work and learning = keys of occupational identities. • Changing role of technology in identity and growing importance of the quality of human relationships at work (in small groups) • Predominance of the "professional" and "entrepreneurial" models of identity formation • Trends in CS occupations • Organisational identities > occupational identities • Service work itself does not yet define an occupational identity, although this trend is now emerging (model of service professional vs statutory model) • No occupational group presents a single model of identity at work

8. Challenges for (long-term) work life balance • Trends in KB occupations • Work plays a central part in life (sometimes a structuring part). Expressive relation to work. High level of satisfaction, despite regrets and critiques regarding recent trends. • Work "too demanding" => unequal share of family commitments and/or renunciations • Doubts about the long-term sustainability of this occupational model • Trends in CS occupations • Instrumental > expressive relation to work • Feeling of insecurity regarding the long term ("not anymore a job for life") perceived as more important than increasing workload • Regulatory provisions favourable for WL balance (mainly for women) are weakening through restructuring

9. Conclusions • Comparison between KB and CS occupations • Several "parallel" changes (different paths in the same direction) • Similar driving forces have different effects on KB and CS jobs • Strong occupational identities (KB) versus weak occupational identities (CS) • Strong occupational identities help to cope with restructuring • "Knowledge" and "service" are relevant key words

10. References to WORKS research reports • Valenduc G., Vendramin P., Krings B.-J., Nierling L., Occupational case studies - Synthesis report and comparative analysis,WORKS Report D11 (2007) • Valenduc G., Vendramin P., Pedaci M., Piersanti M., Changing careers and trajectories - How individuals cope with organisational change and restructuringWORKS Report D12.4 (2009) • All WORKS reports are downloadable fromwww.worksproject.be