Handbook of Research Methods on the Quality of Working Lives: (Handbooks of Research Methods in Management series)

The growing diversity of contemporary paid work has provoked increased interest in understanding and evaluating the quality of working lives. This Handbook provides critical reflections on recent research in the field, including examining the inextricable links between working life and well-being. The Handbook offers comprehensive support to researchers working in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods traditions. Drawing from an international evidence base, the contributors use examples of research into key contemporary issues such as the gendered nature of work, skills mismatch, job insecurity, work-life balance, flexibility, the gig economy and the physical work environment. Chapters explore how research methods have been used to investigate aspects of both paid and unpaid work, raising further questions and highlighting limitations. The Handbook of Research Methods on the Quality of Working Lives is an essential resource for all those involved in areas that study, or touch on, the quality of working lives which will benefit both new and experienced researchers inside and outside academia and across disciplines such as economics, human resource management, psychology and social policy.

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1 Introduction: Researching the Quality of Working Lives Daniel Wheatley PART I RESEARCHING THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIVES: PHILOSOPHICAL, CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 2. Generating and Measuring Impact: Insights from Research on the Quality of Working Lives Carol Atkinson 3. Using a Lifecourse Approach to Research Patterns of Paid and Unpaid Work Irene Hardill and Daniel Wheatley 4. Reviewing Measurement Instruments in Job Insecurity Research: Perceived Job Insecurity and the Gender Lens Perspective Pinar Bayhan Karapinar, Selin Metin Camgöz and Ozge Tayfur Ekmekci 5. Accessing and understanding autism spectrum conditions in the workplace Anne Cockayne 6. Research ethics and the “elephant in the room”: encountering violence in fieldwork concerning unpaid labour Irene Sotiropoulou PART II QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS ON THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIVES 7. Accessing ‘Hard to Reach Groups’ and Emotions in the Research Process: ‘Work an Honest Day and Get the Usual Raw Deal’ Andrew Smith and Jo McBride 8. Using Discursive Methods to Research the Quality of Working Lives Cath Sullivan 9. Observing Neo-Villeiny and other Forms of Non-Standard Work Geraint Harvey 10. Ethnographic Methods with Limited Access: Assessing Quality of Work in Hard to Reach Jobs Adam Badger and Jamie Woodcock 11. Using Case Study Research to Capture the Quality of Working Lives John Burgess and Julia Connell 12. Combining gendered strategies, a narrative approach and coaching: examining the effect of behavioural ambidexterity on individual well-being and high performance work Ani Raiden and Christine Räisänen PART III QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS ON THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIVES 210 13. Effective Use of Secondary Quantitative Data Sources Chris Lawton 14. Secondary data analysis of large survey data: researching the quality of paid and unpaid working lives Tracey Warren 15. Quantitative Methods of Examining the Impact of the Physical Work Environment Elizabeth J. Sander, Alannah E. Rafferty and Peter J. Jordan 16. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition to Quantitatively Assess the Gender Pay Gap Michaela Fuchs, Anja Rossen, Antje Weyh and Gabriele Wydra-Somaggio 17. Econometric Analysis of Educational Mismatch and Earnings using Survey Data from Ghana Christian K. Darko and Kennedy K. Abrokwa PART IV MIXED METHODS RESEARCH ON THE QUALITY OF WORKING LIVES 18. Use of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods to Research Migrant Workers in Low-Skilled Work Anne Green 19. Conducting Small Scale Primary Mixed Methods Research into the Impacts of Work-Related Travel Craig Bickerton 20. Evaluating New Techniques of Evidence-Based Management using Narrative Evidence Synthesis Adrian Madden, Catherine Bailey, Luke Fletcher and Kerstin Alfes 21. Using Occupational History Calendars in Semi-Structured Interviews to Capture Long Working Lives: a Small Sample Approach using Sequence Analysis Fiona Carmichael, Jo Duberley and Lorna Porcellato Index

About the Author :
Edited by Daniel Wheatley, Reader in Business and Labour Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK

Review :
'Rapid and profound transformations in work have made understanding the quality of working lives a pressing concern for social scientists and policymakers. This Handbook is an indispensable source of information on the methodological and multidisciplinary strategies needed to study the impacts of changes in both paid and unpaid work.' --Arne L. Kalleberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US