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2006 Seminars

3 March

Speaker:

Professor Paul Thompson

Title:

Control and creativity in the cultural industries
24 March

Speaker:

Professor Peter Berg, Michigan State University

Title:

Work-life balance tension in the United States: Comparing the U.S. with Australia

31 March

Speaker:

Brent MacNab, International Business

Title:

Workforce motivation in Japan: An examination of gender differences and management perceptions
5 May

Speaker:

Anja Kirsch, Work & Organisational Studies

Title:

Changing union structures: a comparison of multi-industry unions in Australia and Germany
19 May

Speaker:

Michel Ford, Indonesian Studies

Title:

Recent developments in Indonesian unionism
2 June

Speaker:

John Murray, Work & Organisational Studies

Title:

Challenging the androgynous worker: Ideas and directions
16 June

Speaker:

Jaco Lok, University of Cambridge

Title:

Steps towards a social constructionist theory of institutional stability and change
9 August

Speaker:

Angie Knox, Department of Business, Macquarie University

Title:

Unravelling gender-based employment segregation in Australian luxury hotels:
An analysis of workplace programs.
6 September

Speaker:

Lisa Dancaster, Work & Organisational Studies

Title:

The relevance of work-family integration in South Africa.
20 September

Speaker:

Andrew Pendleton, Department of Management Studies, University of York

Title:

The impact of ownership and governance on workplace employment relations: Evidence from the UK workplace employment relations survey 2004.
5 October

Speaker:

Friedrich Fuerstenberg, Sociology, Bonn University
18 October

Speaker:

Shaun Ryan, Curtin Business School, Curtin University

Title:

Coping on the 'mopfloor': An ethnographic study of commercial cleaning work.
8 November

Speaker:

Andrew Sturdy, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Title:

Boundary structures and dynamism in management consultancy projects: Implications for knowledge flow.
22 November

Speaker:

Elly Meredith, Work & Organisational Studies

Title:

Organisational coaching - A professionalisation project.
6 December
Speaker:

Zac Dixon

Title:

Flexible working practices as new forms of "risky practice" The case of the UK's "Right to request and the duty to consider" legislation.

About the Speaker:

Zac is completing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Birmingham, UK, and is currently based in WOS for a six month 'Institutional Visit' under the guidance of Dr Diane van den Broek.

Abstract:

Much has been written about flexible working practices, seen by many as the most common means towards the achievement of a 'work-life balance'. In this paper I pay particular attention to the policy context of the much heralded UK 'Right to Request' legislation, first implemented in April 2003. I aim to provide an original and sociological slant on this issue, through conceptualizing flexible working practices in this context as new forms of 'risky practice' and as individualized solutions to structural contradictions. Drawing upon Ulrich Beck's risk thesis, I consider flexible working practices to both embody and accentuate what Beck suggests are the twin motors of the risk society: individualization and risk redistribution. That is, the whole process of initially considering, requesting, taking-up and then suspending a flexible working practice is infused with what we ought to understand as risk and uncertainty, and is far from the straightforward, 'win-win' work-life balance-enabling-option that it is commonly claimed to be. Viewing this issue through the optic of risk sheds light on the relatively low take-up levels of flexible working that has occurred since 2003 - a trend contrary to what many had initially predicted.

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