Thesis

Understanding the nature and experiences of work and employment within the context of public sector reforms in professional work

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2023
Thesis identifier
  • T16710
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201453325
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • The thesis provides a broad examination of the dynamics of public sector reform under austerity and working conditions in the context of professional values. A multilevel framework for understanding influences on, and dynamics in, professional experiences of work and employment in public service subject to neoliberal reform is proposed. Social influences, namely professional values and identities, are seen as central to understanding evaluations of job characteristics within this context. The framework accounts for the particular nature of employment relations in public service which are characterised by tensions in the competing interests of the neoliberal state as employer/reformer and the professions working within them as well as their representation by trade unions. Across two empirical case studies in the Scottish context, namely Further Education colleges and Fire and Rescue Services, drawing on qualitative methods, the following are explored: (1) macro-level reform and the connected fiscal policy context in which public sector work and employment are embedded; (2) profession-level influences (professional values as encapsulated in shared identities); (3) two sets of working conditions relating to characteristics of work and employment; and (4) individual experiences of this interdynamic of influences. This has supported a reconceptualisation of the social dimensions of work, and in particular of additional sources of intensity in work, which in this research were revealed through the lens of professional values. The multidimensional nature of social characteristics of professional jobs in public service, including the importance of prosocial job characteristics within this context, is emphasised.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Cunningham, Ian, 1964-
  • Scholarios, Dora
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2021

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