Tackling precarious work has been described by the United Nations (UN)’s International Labour Organization (ILO) as the main challenge facing the world of work. In this ground-breaking book, leading applied research scholars, advocates, and activists from across the globe respond to this challenge by showing how Industrial and Organizational (I/O) psychology has a significant contribution to make in humanity moving away from precarious work situations towards sustainable livelihoods.
Broken down into four key parts on Sustainable Livelihoods, Fair Incomes, Work Security and Social Protection, the book covers a multitude of topics including the role of poor pay, lack of work-related security, social protection for human health and wellbeing, and interventions and policies to implement for the future of work. The volume offers a detailed look into useful and effective ways to tackle precarious work to create and maintain sustainable livelihoods. This curated collection of 22 chapters considers the broader relationships between previous research work and issues of human security and sustainability that affect workers, families, communities, and societies. Each chapter expands the present understandings of the world of precarious work and how it fits within broader issues of economic, ecological, and social sustainability.
In addition to I/O psychologists in research, practice, service and study, this book will also be useful for organizational researchers, labor unions, HR practitioners, fair trade, cooperative, and civil society organizations, social scientists, human security analysts, public health professionals, economists, and supporters of the UN SDGs, including at the UN.
Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Table of Contents:
Series Foreword
Kevin Murphy and Angelo Denisi
1. From Precarious Work to Sustainable Livelihoods: Introduction to the Volume
Stuart C. Carr, Darrin J. Hodgetts, Veronica Hopner, and Megan Young
Part I. Sustainable Livelihoods
2. From Precarious Work to Decent Work: Lessons from the United Nations and Humanitarian Work Psychology
Jeffrey M. Saltzman, Walter Reichman, and Mary O’Neill Berry
3. Psychology of Working Theory: Decent Work for Decent Lives
Annamaria Di Fabio, Mary Beth Medvide, and Maureen E. Kenny
4. Humanitarian Work Policy and Praxis
Rosalind H. Searle and Ishbel McWha-Hermann
5. NGO Diplomacy to Monitor and Influence Business and Government to Tackle Work Precariousness
Raymond Saner and Lichia Yiu
6. “Let’s just talk about it!”: Combating Precarious Work in Global Supply Chains
Divya Jyoti and Bimal Arora
Part II. Fair Incomes
7. The Living Wage in South Africa: A Psychological approach from Cape Town and Tshwane
Ines Meyer and Molefe Maleka
8. Closing the Capability Gap in Tackling Precarious Work
Mendiola Teng-Calleja, Donald Jay Bertulfo, and Jose Antonio R. Clemente
9. Sufficiency Living Wage in Thailand: Exploring Buddhist: Influences on Sustainable Livelihoods and Happiness
Dusadee Yoelao Intraprasert, Kanu Priya Mohan, and Piyada Sombatwattana
10. Tackling Wage Inequality: The Maximum wage
Stuart C. Carr, Veronica Hopner, Darrin Hodgetts, and Megan Young
Part III. Work Security
11. Informal Work as Sustainable Work: Pathways to Sustainable Livelihoods
Mahima Saxena and Charles Tchagneno
12. Making a go of it in the gig economy: Understanding risk in platform-based work
Kristine M. Kuhn
13. Sustainable Psychological Contracts: A pathway for addressing precarious employment
Yannick Griep, Sarah Bankins, Johannes M. Kraak, Ultan Sherman, and Samantha D. Hansen
14. Defining work-related precariousness and how to measure it to secure health and wellbeing
Christian Seubert and Lisa Seubert (née Hopfgartner)
15. Redressing Underemployment as a Type of Precarious Work
Deirdre O’Shea, José Maria Peiró, and Donald M. Truxillo
16. Challenges associated with regulating zero hours work
J. Lavelle, J. McMahon, C. Murphy, L. Ryan, M. O’Sullivan, M. O’Brien, P. Gunnigle, and T. Turner
Part IV. Social Protection
17. Is Work-Life Balance Only for Some? A Case for More Low Income and Precariat Samples
Jarrod Haar
18. Multilevel Factors Counteracting the Adverse Effects of Job Insecurity
Lixin Jiang, Katharina Naswall, and Xiaohong (Violet) Xu
19. Reversing job loss and enhancing job search
Edwin A. J. van Hooft and Greet Van Hoye
20. ‘Permanent Temporariness’: The Current Landscape of Migration and Work?
Shemana Cassim
21. The Elephant in the Room? Implications of Economic Vulnerability for a Healthy (Working) Life
Katharina Klug, Jean-Yves Gerlitz, and Eva Selenko
22. The Jobless Future and a World Without Paid Work?
Steven Toaddy & Anna Crawford, J. Crentsil, J. Hernandez, S. Hohmann, S., A. F. Miles, J.R. Roman, and J. Tuason
About the Author :
Stuart C. Carr is UNESCO Professor on Sustainable Livelihoods and a Professor of Psychology in the School of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand. Stu’s research, service, and teaching focus on transformation from insecure, precarious work to sustainable livelihoods, under the aegis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr Veronica Hopner is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Massey University in New Zealand. Her research interests include modern slavery, occupational health psychology and violent extremism.
Darrin J. Hodgetts is a Professor of Societal Psychology at Massey University where he researches issues of human [in]security, including urban poverty. Darrin has held various academic positions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, and his work is increasingly focused on the Asia Pacific region.
Megan Young is an Assistant Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand. With an undergraduate degree in English Literature, she is particularly interested in the different ways that research can be communicated to a broader audience where it may benefit professionals and lay people alike.
Review :
"Meaningful work, work that encourages a sense of belonging and builds capabilities for the future builds people’s wellbeing, as well as providing the means to getting by. Precarious work puts these human needs at risk. Carr and colleagues provide real-life suggestions for supporting people to make sustainable livelihoods through good work".
Stewart Forsyth, Director: FX Consultants; I/O Net Australasia; and I/O Special Interest Group NZ
"Not so very long ago the term precarious work referred to a relatively small proportion of specific, scattered, particularly onerous jobs. Stuart Carr and his colleagues Veronica Hopner, Darrin Hodgetts and Megan Young, along with their many contributors, show us the unsettling variety of ways in which very many jobs in the 21st century are precarious. However, the aim of the book “is not solely to document work-related misery and hardship, but to shift discussion toward reforming precarious work.” The book will be an important source and inspiration for those industrial-organizational psychologists (and others) who believe that their mission includes helping to assure that the world of work is as safe, just, healthy, challenging and fulfilling for workers as we can make it."
Joel Lefkowitz, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Bernard M. Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, USA
"With so many challenges facing humanity every day, it is refreshing to see a volume that expresses hope and optimism for a brighter future for humanity. The editors of this volume and authors of the chapters in it lay out a roadmap for achieving such a future, based in principles of humanitarian work psychology. Of course, the way forward to a hopeful future and decent work is not going to be easy to achieve, I/O scholars and practitioners are in a unique position to begin this dialogue. This volume represents a well thought-through start to this conversation."
Neal M. Ashkanasy, Emeritus Professor of Management, Business School, University of Queensland, Australia
"Industrial and Organizational Psychology has a long tradition of responding to challenges of the day. The 22 contributions in this book, from leading researchers, practitioners and advocates for Decent Work under the UN Sustainable Development Goals, continue that tradition - and extend it to opportunities for the future through sustainable livelihoods."
Secretary of State Professor Gary Latham, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Canada
