TY - GEN A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Bolton, Sharon C. T1 - Ethics of care and co-worker relationships in UK banks T2 - New Technology, Work and Employment N2 - Utilising an analytical framework based on an ethics of care approach, this article examines the changing nature of co-worker relationships in UK banks under the rise of performance management practices. It illustrates that with the implementation of performance management practices in general, and electronic performance management monitoring in bank branches in particular, co-worker relationships have become increasingly objectified, resulting in disconnected and conflict-ridden forms of engagement. The analysis reveals the multi-layered and necessarily complex nature of co-worker relationships in a changing technologically driven work environment and highlights the possibilities for people to defend the capacity to care for others from the erosive tendencies of individualised processes. KW - co-worker relationships KW - ethic of care KW - electronic performance monitoring Y1 - 2017 UR - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ntwe.12099/full U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12099 SN - 1468-005X VL - 32 IS - 3 SP - 213 EP - 227 ER - TY - GEN A1 - McGuire, Darren A1 - Laaser, Knut T1 - ‘You have to pick’: Cotton and state-organized forced labour in Uzbekistan T2 - Economic and Industrial Democracy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X18789786 SN - 1461-7099 SN - 0143-831X VL - 42(2021) IS - 3 SP - 552 EP - 572 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Bolton, Sharon C. A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - McGuire, Darren A1 - Duncan, Ashley T1 - A neglected pool of labour? Frontline service work and hotel recruitment in Glasgow T2 - European Management Review Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12172 SN - 1740-4762 SN - 1740-4754 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laaser, Knut T1 - ‘Customers were not objects to suck bloodfrom’: Social relations in UK retail banks under changing performance managementsystems T2 - Industrial Relations Journal Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12267 SN - 0019-8692 VL - 50 IS - 5/6 SP - 532 EP - 547 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Bolton, Sharon C. ED - Gall, Gregor T1 - Moral economy – flexible employment and layers of disconnection T2 - Handbook of the politics of labour, work and employment Y1 - 2019 SN - 978-1-78471-568-7 SN - 978-1-78471-569-4 SP - 201 EP - 212 PB - Edward Elgar Publishing CY - Cheltenham, UK ER - TY - GEN A1 - Makhmadshoev, Dilshod A1 - Laaser, Knut T1 - Breaking away or holding on to the past? Exploring HRM systems of export-oriented SMEs in a highly uncertain context: insights from a transition economy in the periphery T2 - International Journal of Human Resource Management N2 - This article advances understanding of the interplay between high levels of environmental uncertainty and HRM challenges and practices of exporting SMEs in the garment industry of Kyrgyzstan. Uncertainty in this post-Socialist country emanates from the complex, conflict-ridden and ongoing process of transition from planned to market-based economy, resulting in a volatile institutional environment with under-developed formal institutions at its core. Drawing on qualitative data and framed by a novel theoretical framework consisting of HRM systems theory, North’s institutional approach and the concept of path-dependency, the article advances knowledge of the distinctive set of HRM challenges faced by SMEs and the contrasting HRM systems adopted by them. The article draws particular attention to how the embeddedness of socialist-era norms and the diffusion of new market-oriented institutional features influence the utilisation of HRM systems in SMEs, whilst also revealing their evolutionary nature in a transition economy context. The article contributes by extending the scope of HRM research to the little-explored transitional periphery of Central Asia and adds to the nascent body of knowledge on HRM in SMEs by offering a more nuanced understanding of HRM systems in exporting SMEs in a highly uncertain context. KW - HRM KW - SME KW - KMU KW - Central Asia Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1841816 SN - 1466-4399 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Thompson, Paul A1 - Laaser, Knut T1 - Beyond technological determinism: revitalising labour process analyses of technology, capital and labour T2 - Work in the Global Economy Y1 - 2021 UR - https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bup/wge/2021/00000001/f0020001/art00008 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1332/273241721X16276384832119 SN - 2732-4176 VL - 1 IS - 1-2 SP - 139 EP - 159 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Karlsson, Jan Ch. T1 - Towards a Sociology of Meaningful Work T2 - Work, Employment and Society KW - Meaningful work Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170211055998 SN - 1469-8722 VL - 36 IS - 5 SP - 798 EP - 815 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Bolton, Sharon T1 - Absolute autonomy, respectful recognition and derived dignity: Towards a typology of meaningful work T2 - International journal of management reviews : IJMR N2 - Theoretical and empirical contributions to meaningful work (MW) have flourished in the last two decades; investigating how the interplay of organizational factors with employee attitudes and experiences enables or denies MW. This paper reviews MW literature in the fields of management and organizational behaviour, political philosophy, the humanities and sociology with the aim of identifying and comparing conceptualizations of MW and how they relate to low-skilled work. The review illustrates that a wide range of MW concepts either interpret low-skilled work as bereft of essential sources for MW, or focus exclusively on workers’ innate drive to make meaningful experiences and thereby neglect the politics of working life. Making the point that low-skilled work can also be meaningful, the paper develops a framework for low-skilled work that has at its heart the interplay between the unique characteristics and dynamics of the labour process and workers’ agential responses. The framework rests on a combination of labour process analysis and industrial relations approaches, along with sociological concepts of agency. It develops three interdependent conceptual dimensions of core autonomy, respectful recognition and derived dignity that aim to capture MW in low-skilled work settings. The framework contributes to vibrant debates in the MW literature by showcasing how meaningfulness emerges through bottom-up collective and individual practices, relations and strategies that are reflective of the formal structures, demands and relations of low-skilled work. KW - Meaningful work Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12282 SN - 1468-2370 SN - 1460-8545 VL - 24 IS - 3 SP - 373 EP - 393 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Bolton, Sharon T1 - The relational work of compassion and toxicity at a pupil referral unit T2 - Organization N2 - This article contributes to the literature on compassion in organisations by exploring, through the sociology of relational work, how compassion emerges against the backdrop of what is described as structural toxicity; that is, structures, policies and practices that create the material stage upon which compassion may, or may not, materialise. Underfunding, social deprivation and draconian performance measures are all examples of structural toxicities that may trigger relational toxicity, that is conflict, suffering and disconnection at work but also where compassion may emerge in various forms. It is against this backdrop that we seek to address the conceptual and empirical gap in current understandings of compassion in organisations. Theorising from the empirical field, a case is presented in which compassion emerges as a product of the ongoing relational work of teachers in response to structural toxicities that trigger repeated instances of emotional pain and suffering but also joy and engagement with their work and each other. KW - Toxicity KW - Compassion KW - Critical Management Studie Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084211015376 SN - 1461-7323 SN - 1350-5084 VL - 28 IS - 6 SP - 976 EP - 992 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jacobsen, Heike A1 - Laaser, Knut ED - Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo T1 - (Re-)Politisierung der subjektorientierten Arbeitssoziologie: Suchbewegungen aus der aktuellen Forschung JF - Soziologische Revue KW - Arbeitssoziologie Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/srsr-2023-2072/html U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/srsr-2023-2072 SN - 0343-4109 IS - 4 SP - 365 EP - 380 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin/ Boston ER - TY - BOOK A1 - Laaser, Knut A1 - Karlsson, Jan Ch T1 - The politics of working life and meaningful waged work N2 - Can waged work under capitalism be meaningful? How does this meaningfulness express itself in the politics of working life? More fundamentally, how should work be socially and economically valued, rewarded, organised and regulated to become more meaningful? Knut Laaser and Jan Ch. Karlsson address these questions and provide a novel theory of meaningful work that is deeply ingrained in Critical Social Science approaches. The authors conceptualise meaningful work as a continuum between meaningful–meaningless work that rests on objective and subjective dimensions of autonomy, dignity and recognition, all pushed and pulled by the multi-layered control and power dynamics of waged work. They challenge the tendency to promote unpolitical concepts in the scholarship of meaningful work. The explanatory power of the meaningful work framework is illustrated by the analysis of empirical case studies on Norwegian industry operators, British bank employees, Indian security guards, German university academics and Swedish cabin crew members. KW - Critical Management Studies KW - Meaningful Work KW - Sociology of Work KW - Meaningless Work KW - Social Theory Y1 - 2023 SN - 9781009089692 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009089692 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - Cambridge ET - 1st ER -