In the last few decades, we witnessed major changes in the world of work following the shift to post-Fordist production. In Western European labor markets, work flexibilization saw the rise of job insecurity, low-pay jobs and heightened work pressure. Historically, trade unions served as a key instrument for regulating conditions at work. Although trade unions continue to play an important role in collective bargaining, the dramatic decline in trade union membership in much of Western Europe however, indicates that fewer workers are turning to unions as a tool for redress. Instead, there is growing evidence that new patterns of workers’ agency have emerged. Besides leaving (exit) to find better jobs, workers also engage in other individual strategies to improve their situation. These strategies include individual bargaining, exit to self-employment, multiple job holding, or neglect and quiescence. Collective strategies on the other hand are no longer confined to trade union participation and industrial action. Instead, citizen-rights-based repertoires of action and new forms of solidarities among atypical/ precarious workers have emerged. Although there are numerous studies on workers’ responses to unsatisfactory working conditions, these studies have largely focused on either individual or collective strategies, often neglecting the fact they constitute a set of options that workers can choose from and deploy. Studying individual and collective strategies is important but often overlooked in past studies because the notion of agency, especially in the work context, is usually associated with groups and collectives (i.e. trade unions or movements). However, individual workers exercise their agency whether independent of others (i.e. individual strategies) and/or together with others (i.e. collective strategies). By studying both, this project will contribute to our scientific knowledge of new patterns of workers’ agency, particularly in the context of flexible labor markets. The changing patterns of individual and collective strategies also have consequences for the labor market and collective bargaining institutions. For instance, when a worker shifts to self-employment in order to obtain autonomy or favorable working hours, the result might be an improvement of her working conditions but it also has potentially adverse consequences for other workers who have to bear with unfavorable working hours. How these individual strategies impact the labor market at an aggregate level remains largely unknown. Likewise, the new forms of collective strategies outside the traditional trade unions have consequences for collective bargaining institutions. This study further contributes to our knowledge on the externalities of individual strategies and new forms of collective strategies of workers. The general research questions to be answered in this project are as follows: Under which conditions and for what reasons do workers take individual or collective strategies? What are the unintended consequences of individual strategies and new forms of collective strategies of workers for the labor market and collective bargaining institutions, respectively?

PhD

Jane Siwa

—

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Supervisor

Dr. Wike Been

—

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Supervisor

Prof. Rafael Wittek

0000-0002-8473-6984

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

• Employees
• Precarious employment
• Sociology
• Temporary employment
• Vignettes

• Employers’ organizations
• Governmental policymakers
• HR managers
• Sociology
• Trade unions

• Work

• External Shocks
• Feedback Cycles
• Spillovers

• Facilitating work life balance
• Reconfiguring-roles-and-relationships
• Reshaping organizational forms

There are several theories that sought to explain workers' responses to unsatisfactory working conditions. Primarily, Hirschman's theory on exit, voice and loyalty had lasting impact on subsequent studies on workers' responses to unsatisfactory working conditions. However, these studies have largely diverged to two distinct sets of literature, one focusing on exits as a individual strategy and another focusing on voice, particularly union participation as a collective strategy. As the project studies both individual and collective strategies, various theories that explain either or both will inform this project. In particular, to understand the conditions under which and the reasons behind workers' strategies to improve their working life, one study is informed by Archer's theory of reflexivity to unpack the interplay between material contexts and subjective concerns that might explain workers' choses strategy.

The entire research project uses a mixed method approach, using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Existing survey data will be analyzed to contribute to this project. The qualitative part is comprised of work histories, qualitative vignettes, and case studies.