Why has the quality of work life in industrialized countries diminished at a time when their economies have expanded and the level of affluence has grown?
That’s the big question Francis Green, a professor of economics at the University of Kent, asks and endeavors to answer in Demanding Work. While the density of academic language may make his book hard going for most managers, it is an important contribution to the field of labor economics because it is based on quantitative reporting entirely from the worker’s perspective.
Green defines job quality in terms of skills, effort, wages, personal discretion over job tasks, and other factors, and adeptly makes connections between wider socioeconomic movements and their effects on job quality. He also uses formal methods to evaluate comprehensively how technology and organizational restructuring have influenced declining job quality, and he analyzes the effects of a decrease in the power of unions.
The issue that Green explores is an important one with no simple answers. He presents well-hewn insights that policymakers, economists, and social analysts—and many managers—will find compelling.