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Papers by Agnieszka Piasna

Cambridge Journal of Economics

Algorithmic management has a clear potential to reduce time spent at work by increasing efficienc... more Algorithmic management has a clear potential to reduce time spent at work by increasing efficiency in task allocation and performance, and by replacing some forms of human labour. As a result it should, in theory, advance the implementation of working time reduction policies. Automation of organisational functions indeed increases time-efficiency through the scheduling of work in more finely grained time units, closely matched with demand and the minimising of unproductive periods. This results in atomised and punctuated working time. However, instead of an increase in leisure time, workers who are managed algorithmically experience pressures towards incessant availability. This results in an apparent paradox whereby the time needed to complete paid work shrinks, but the time that must be made available for work expands. This article addresses this puzzle by developing an analytical approach to understanding changes to the temporalities of work ushered by the introduction and expans...

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU)... more This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU) employment policy. Using a set of complementary public policy theories, it examines how both political and conceptual factors contributed to the failure to achieve any significant progress in articulating job quality in the EU’s policy objectives and guidelines. Conceptual clarity in defining what job quality is (and what it is not), from whose perspective it should be considered, and which direction of change indicates improvement, are vital prerequisites for an effective integration of job quality into the EU’s employment strategy and into the elaboration of any successful social indicator. A constant political struggle between different stakeholders at EU level, and a need to reconcile the often-contradictory views of the social partners, has precluded the completion of this first step. Instead, attempts to include job quality into the policy formulation process were made without sim...

Intereconomics

If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Comm... more If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.

Human Resource Management Journal

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

Digitalisation, automation and technological change have brought about shifts in the occupational... more Digitalisation, automation and technological change have brought about shifts in the occupational structure, the place and the timing of work, and career patterns, putting a further strain on the standard employment relationship. In the recent research on digitalisation, scant attention has however been paid to the gender impact of these changes. This article addresses this gap by developing a gender perspective on digitalisation, considering how these developments interact with existing social inequalities and gender segregation patterns in the labour market. We identify two broad areas in which digitalisation has thus far had a pronounced effect on employment: the structure of employment (including occupational change and the task content of jobs) and forms of work (including employment relationships and work organisation). We find that, despite the profound changes in the labour market, traditional gender inequalities continue to reassert themselves on many dimensions. With stand...

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

Social Indicators Research

There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women's employment and fertil... more There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women's employment and fertility choices, despite a number of studies on the impact of individual-level and institutional factors. The article addresses this gap by examining how family life stages are related to particular aspects of job quality among employed women in 27 European countries. The central argument of the analysis is that high-quality jobs are conducive to both transitions to motherhood and employment after childbirth as women select into these roles. Accordingly, mothers of young children, if employed, are expected to have relatively better quality jobs. Four dimensions of job quality are considered: job security, career progression, working time and intrinsic job quality. The results indicate that mothers with young children are more likely to hold high-quality jobs than women at other life stages with respect to working time quality and job security, but with some variation across countries for job security. The findings highlight the importance of high-quality jobs for women's fertility decisions and labour market attachment after childbirth, with implications for European employment policy.

ABSTRACT Unemployment has risen across the European Union since the crisis of 2008. Reducing that... more ABSTRACT Unemployment has risen across the European Union since the crisis of 2008. Reducing that level is a prominent stated aim of policy makers across the political spectrum. However, the means advocated for achieving this vary widely with some focusing on restoring demand for labour by higher spending and investment and others putting faith in flexibility in labour markets to achieve greater employment creation. Various mechanisms have been postulated as to what the latter would mean, but the clearest in terms of economic theory equates flexibility with falling pay levels where demand for labour appears inadequate. Lower pay should then lead to higher employment as employers can profitably take on more employees and, in line with the thinking behind the approach of ‘internal devaluation’, as export costs are reduced and international competitiveness improved. Although rarely presented so starkly, this was the clear message behind warnings of excessive unit labour costs in a number of EU member states put by ECB President Mario Draghi (2013). The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for policy choices by investigating the causes of recent increases in unemployment. It uses data across EU member states to investigate links between employment changes and both sectoral developments and changes in earnings levels. The significance of the results is further elucidated by comparison of developments in six EU member states which have had different unemployment and employment experiences.

Vulnerable workers can be expected to be more subject to direct managerial control over the work ... more Vulnerable workers can be expected to be more subject to direct managerial control over the work process and have little opportunity for participation in shaping their work environment. Opportunities for participation not only are in themselves desirable, but also may have beneficial effects on job quality. However, there has been little exploration of either the extent to which vulnerable workers have access to employee participation or whether such access is equally associated with improved job quality for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable groups. These issues are explored using the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. We define vulnerable workers by the labour supply characteristics of low education and being female. Consistent with our predictions, regression analyses reveal that, although vulnerable workers have considerably less access to participatory human resource management practices, for those that do have access, similar improvements are found when compared to non-vulnerable groups on all four dimensions of job quality included in the analysis. Some variations were found depending on gender and level of education, but overall, our analysis suggests that increasing access to employee participation practices could provide an important means of improving job quality for vulnerable workers.

Cambridge Journal of Economics 38(2), 459-477., 2014

Development and Change, Mar 16, 2015

This article examines the impact of the International Labour Organization’s concept of Decent Wor... more This article examines the impact of the International Labour Organization’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and the academic literature. We attempt to answer the question of what makes a development initiative successful by comparing the decent work approach to the United Nation
Development Programme’s Human Development concept (in conjunction with the human development indicator). We consider that the latter has been one of the most successful development concepts ever to have been launched, while the impact of decent work by comparison has been limited.
Our hypothesis relating to the question of what makes a development initiative successful has three fundamental components: first, a solid theoretical foundation has to justify the launch of a development concept. A second vital factor is the availability of sufficient national and internationally comparable data that enables researchers and policy makers alike to apply the concept, preferably by means of a synthetic indicator. Third, the political will and institutional structure of the development institution that launches a concept is a key factor, particularly if data availability is limited as countries then
have to be persuaded to generate new data.

This article explores the development of concepts related to the ‘quality of employment’ in the ... more This article explores the development of concepts related to the ‘quality of employment’
in the academic literature in terms of their definition, methodological progress
and ongoing policy debates. Over time, these concepts have evolved from
simple studies of job satisfaction towards more comprehensive measures of job and
employment quality, including the International Labour Organization’s concept of
‘Decent Work’ launched in 1999. This article compares the parallel development
of quality of employment measures in the European Union with the ILO’s Decent
Work agenda and concludes that the former has advanced much further due to
more consistent efforts to generate internationally comparable data on labour markets,
which permit detailed measurements and international comparisons. In contrast,
Decent Work remains a very broadly defined concept, which is impossible to
measure across countries. We conclude by proposing three important differences
between these two scenarios that have lead to such diverging paths: the lack of availability
of internationally comparable data, the control over the research agenda by
partisan social actors, and a prematurely mandated definition of Decent Work that
is extremely vague and all-encompassing.

This paper examines the impact of the ILO’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and th... more This paper examines the impact of the ILO’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and the associated literature. We attempt to answer the question of what makes a development initiative successful by comparing the decent work approach to the UNDP's human development concept (in conjunction with the human development indicator). We consider that the latter has been one of the most successful development concepts ever to have been launched, while the impact of decent work by comparison has been limited.

Cambridge Journal of Economics

Algorithmic management has a clear potential to reduce time spent at work by increasing efficienc... more Algorithmic management has a clear potential to reduce time spent at work by increasing efficiency in task allocation and performance, and by replacing some forms of human labour. As a result it should, in theory, advance the implementation of working time reduction policies. Automation of organisational functions indeed increases time-efficiency through the scheduling of work in more finely grained time units, closely matched with demand and the minimising of unproductive periods. This results in atomised and punctuated working time. However, instead of an increase in leisure time, workers who are managed algorithmically experience pressures towards incessant availability. This results in an apparent paradox whereby the time needed to complete paid work shrinks, but the time that must be made available for work expands. This article addresses this puzzle by developing an analytical approach to understanding changes to the temporalities of work ushered by the introduction and expans...

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU)... more This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU) employment policy. Using a set of complementary public policy theories, it examines how both political and conceptual factors contributed to the failure to achieve any significant progress in articulating job quality in the EU’s policy objectives and guidelines. Conceptual clarity in defining what job quality is (and what it is not), from whose perspective it should be considered, and which direction of change indicates improvement, are vital prerequisites for an effective integration of job quality into the EU’s employment strategy and into the elaboration of any successful social indicator. A constant political struggle between different stakeholders at EU level, and a need to reconcile the often-contradictory views of the social partners, has precluded the completion of this first step. Instead, attempts to include job quality into the policy formulation process were made without sim...

Intereconomics

If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Comm... more If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.

Human Resource Management Journal

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

Digitalisation, automation and technological change have brought about shifts in the occupational... more Digitalisation, automation and technological change have brought about shifts in the occupational structure, the place and the timing of work, and career patterns, putting a further strain on the standard employment relationship. In the recent research on digitalisation, scant attention has however been paid to the gender impact of these changes. This article addresses this gap by developing a gender perspective on digitalisation, considering how these developments interact with existing social inequalities and gender segregation patterns in the labour market. We identify two broad areas in which digitalisation has thus far had a pronounced effect on employment: the structure of employment (including occupational change and the task content of jobs) and forms of work (including employment relationships and work organisation). We find that, despite the profound changes in the labour market, traditional gender inequalities continue to reassert themselves on many dimensions. With stand...

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

Social Indicators Research

There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women's employment and fertil... more There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women's employment and fertility choices, despite a number of studies on the impact of individual-level and institutional factors. The article addresses this gap by examining how family life stages are related to particular aspects of job quality among employed women in 27 European countries. The central argument of the analysis is that high-quality jobs are conducive to both transitions to motherhood and employment after childbirth as women select into these roles. Accordingly, mothers of young children, if employed, are expected to have relatively better quality jobs. Four dimensions of job quality are considered: job security, career progression, working time and intrinsic job quality. The results indicate that mothers with young children are more likely to hold high-quality jobs than women at other life stages with respect to working time quality and job security, but with some variation across countries for job security. The findings highlight the importance of high-quality jobs for women's fertility decisions and labour market attachment after childbirth, with implications for European employment policy.

ABSTRACT Unemployment has risen across the European Union since the crisis of 2008. Reducing that... more ABSTRACT Unemployment has risen across the European Union since the crisis of 2008. Reducing that level is a prominent stated aim of policy makers across the political spectrum. However, the means advocated for achieving this vary widely with some focusing on restoring demand for labour by higher spending and investment and others putting faith in flexibility in labour markets to achieve greater employment creation. Various mechanisms have been postulated as to what the latter would mean, but the clearest in terms of economic theory equates flexibility with falling pay levels where demand for labour appears inadequate. Lower pay should then lead to higher employment as employers can profitably take on more employees and, in line with the thinking behind the approach of ‘internal devaluation’, as export costs are reduced and international competitiveness improved. Although rarely presented so starkly, this was the clear message behind warnings of excessive unit labour costs in a number of EU member states put by ECB President Mario Draghi (2013). The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for policy choices by investigating the causes of recent increases in unemployment. It uses data across EU member states to investigate links between employment changes and both sectoral developments and changes in earnings levels. The significance of the results is further elucidated by comparison of developments in six EU member states which have had different unemployment and employment experiences.

Vulnerable workers can be expected to be more subject to direct managerial control over the work ... more Vulnerable workers can be expected to be more subject to direct managerial control over the work process and have little opportunity for participation in shaping their work environment. Opportunities for participation not only are in themselves desirable, but also may have beneficial effects on job quality. However, there has been little exploration of either the extent to which vulnerable workers have access to employee participation or whether such access is equally associated with improved job quality for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable groups. These issues are explored using the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. We define vulnerable workers by the labour supply characteristics of low education and being female. Consistent with our predictions, regression analyses reveal that, although vulnerable workers have considerably less access to participatory human resource management practices, for those that do have access, similar improvements are found when compared to non-vulnerable groups on all four dimensions of job quality included in the analysis. Some variations were found depending on gender and level of education, but overall, our analysis suggests that increasing access to employee participation practices could provide an important means of improving job quality for vulnerable workers.

Cambridge Journal of Economics 38(2), 459-477., 2014

Development and Change, Mar 16, 2015

This article examines the impact of the International Labour Organization’s concept of Decent Wor... more This article examines the impact of the International Labour Organization’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and the academic literature. We attempt to answer the question of what makes a development initiative successful by comparing the decent work approach to the United Nation
Development Programme’s Human Development concept (in conjunction with the human development indicator). We consider that the latter has been one of the most successful development concepts ever to have been launched, while the impact of decent work by comparison has been limited.
Our hypothesis relating to the question of what makes a development initiative successful has three fundamental components: first, a solid theoretical foundation has to justify the launch of a development concept. A second vital factor is the availability of sufficient national and internationally comparable data that enables researchers and policy makers alike to apply the concept, preferably by means of a synthetic indicator. Third, the political will and institutional structure of the development institution that launches a concept is a key factor, particularly if data availability is limited as countries then
have to be persuaded to generate new data.

This article explores the development of concepts related to the ‘quality of employment’ in the ... more This article explores the development of concepts related to the ‘quality of employment’
in the academic literature in terms of their definition, methodological progress
and ongoing policy debates. Over time, these concepts have evolved from
simple studies of job satisfaction towards more comprehensive measures of job and
employment quality, including the International Labour Organization’s concept of
‘Decent Work’ launched in 1999. This article compares the parallel development
of quality of employment measures in the European Union with the ILO’s Decent
Work agenda and concludes that the former has advanced much further due to
more consistent efforts to generate internationally comparable data on labour markets,
which permit detailed measurements and international comparisons. In contrast,
Decent Work remains a very broadly defined concept, which is impossible to
measure across countries. We conclude by proposing three important differences
between these two scenarios that have lead to such diverging paths: the lack of availability
of internationally comparable data, the control over the research agenda by
partisan social actors, and a prematurely mandated definition of Decent Work that
is extremely vague and all-encompassing.

This paper examines the impact of the ILO’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and th... more This paper examines the impact of the ILO’s concept of Decent Work on development thinking and the associated literature. We attempt to answer the question of what makes a development initiative successful by comparing the decent work approach to the UNDP's human development concept (in conjunction with the human development indicator). We consider that the latter has been one of the most successful development concepts ever to have been launched, while the impact of decent work by comparison has been limited.

MK corresponds to ISO code 3166. This is a provisional code that does not prejudge in any way the... more MK corresponds to ISO code 3166. This is a provisional code that does not prejudge in any way the definitive nomenclature for this country, which will be agreed following the conclusion of negotiations taking place under the auspices of the United Nations (http://www. iso.org/iso.country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists.htm). 3 This code is used for practical purposes and is not an official ISO code.

ETUI Policy Brief, 2021

Unpaid labour should be recognised as a systemic feature of platform work, inherent in its curren... more Unpaid labour should be recognised as a systemic feature of platform work, inherent in its current model of work organisation. Its prevalence and magnitude render it a pressing regulatory issue. Introducing minimum standards regarding working time and wages is a key step towards limiting unpaid labour and establishing fairer working conditions. Limiting unpaid labour requires recognition of the subordinate status of large segments of workers, improvements in employment stability and a floor of contractually guaranteed working hours. Platform work within the framework of hourly-paid employment is less frequently linked to unpaid work than piece-rate and self-employment models. But without predictability of hours, hourly-paid employment can also lead to unpaid labour.