Occupational status, employment status and job precariousness: Which employees are more vulnerable?

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Job Insecurity and Precarious Employment I

Abstract

Recent research on inequality demonstrates how job quality varies not only with a job’s socioeconomic rewards but also with the precariousness of one’s employment. In light of recent economic fluctuations that expose workers to greater precariousness, we revisit the classic organizational distinction between employees who make decisions and those affected by those decisions. We specifically consider how precariousness varies with one’s occupational status (i.e., professional and non-professional) and employment status (i.e., regular versus temporary) in constrained and munificent resource environments. Using personnel data from a single large employer from 1997 to 2013, we model aggregate headcount as well as headcounts disaggregated by occupational status, employment status, and their intersections. We demonstrate that professional and regular employment status provide greater protection from environmental variation and more generally, the findings justify revisiting the classic organizational distinction between those who make decisions and those who are affected by those decisions.

Authors

• Anne Kathrin Kronberg, Emory University

• Christopher Ian Rider, Georgetown University

• Anand Swaminathan, Emory University