Project leaders: Michael White (Policy Studies Institute), Stephen Hill (London School Economics)
Period: April 1999-March 2002.
Collaborators: London School of Economics
Background
The study will contribute to the identification and description of changes in the employment relationship and in the contractual basis of employment, over the 1980s and 1990s, and assess the implications of these changes for workers and employers.
Study Design
The research tests concepts and theories concerning both change and continuity in the employment relationship and the contractual basis; seeks to distinguish cyclical and temporary changes from persistent trends; and, where necessary, will develops new interpretations which can be tested in future research. Within this framework, the research considers traditional social divisions in the labour force, notably those between manual and non-manual workers and between women and men, with an additional focus on higher occupations (professionals; managers), which are thought to constitute areas of particularly intensive change.
The research methods are of two types: a large-scale national survey of employed people and a smaller-scale intensive study of employers, which feed into and complement one another.
The national survey will consist of personal interviews supplemented by a questionnaire which respondents complete on their own. It will be designed in such a way as to provide many comparisons with surveys conducted in 1992, 1989, 1986, 1984 and 1980: the most detailed comparisons will be with the 1992 and 1986 surveys. The survey will also provide a means of focusing the inquiry on each main occupational group.
The intensive study focuses upon the contractual conditions being offered and developed by employers, and how these vary across different kinds of organisation and different groups of employees. It is based on in-depth interviews with personnel and line managers in a selection of firms and public sector organisations, and documentary analysis.