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The place of work in organization studies and management has waxed and waned. Yet, today, social and technological developments have raised again interest in the study of work and this curated discussion brings together experts in key approaches to this topic. Seven contributions have been selected to provide a panorama of what we know about work while pointing to some uncharted territories worthy of future exploration. The contributions outline the principles behind and value of systemic, contextualized, or holistic view of work and report insights on how changes in some work components reverberate in its broader ecology. We hope this curated discussion will make us more aware of the collective journey scholars have charted so far while posing new questions and opening or re-directing new avenues of inquiry.

The place of work in organization studies and management has waxed and waned. Yet, today, social and technological developments have raised again interest in the study of work and this curated discussion brings together experts in key approaches to this topic. Seven contributions have been selected to provide a panorama of what we know about work while pointing to some uncharted territories worthy of future exploration. The contributions outline the principles behind and value of systemic, contextualized, or holistic view of work and report insights on how changes in some work components reverberate in its broader ecology. We hope this curated discussion will make us more aware of the collective journey scholars have charted so far while posing new questions and opening or re-directing new avenues of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This study examines the relationship between racial composition and individual, voluntary turnover for minorities (i.e., Asians, blacks, and Hispanics) in a large organization. We present a critical test for [...]

In this paper, we introduce the concept of Glossy Work, work that has a glamorous patina but that is actually mundane and unfulfilling. We studied magazine fact checkers, who exemplify Glossy Work, specifically examining how they balance these discrepant aspects of the job in presenting their work to others. We found that fact checkers use conditional presentation to modulate their portrayal of the work according to audience members' knowledge of their job's secret taint and the nature of presenter's relationship to that audience. Presentations ranged from full disclosure to deliberate attempts to reframe the presentation to unfettered job enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we call for renewed attention to the structure and structuring of work within and between organizations. We argue that a multilevel approach, with jobs as a core analytic construct, is a way to draw connections among economic sociology, organizational sociology, the sociology of work and occupations, labor studies and stratification and address the important problems of both increasing inequality and declining economic productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between racial composition and individual, voluntary turnover for minorities (i.e., Asians, blacks, and Hispanics) in a large organization. We present a critical test for two sets of contrasting predictions. The first draws on similarity attraction, social contact, and social identity theories to suggest that working with racially similar others enhances the work environment in terms of perceived career opportunities, mentoring relationships, and network ties, all of which would increase the likelihood of remaining in an organization. The contrasting predictions draw on group competition and group threat theories and propose that working with racially similar others might increase competition for resources and generate a backlash effect against minorities that would induce their turnover. We suggest the paradox that these two approaches might be compatible if the effect of demographic composition is nonlinear. Our data analyses show that individuals' likelihood of turnover decreases as the proportion of employees in a job from one's own race increases. Furthermore, this relationship is nonlinear: Members of minority groups with very small representation benefited more from the increased presence of their own race than minorities who already had a substantial presence. This finding suggests a potential backlash effect at higher minority proportions. Results also show that turnover decreases as the proportion of employees from one's own race increases in the level above an employee's job. Overall, these findings suggest that working with others of the same race reduces the likelihood of minority exits. Interestingly, the proportion of other minorities in a job has a marginally significant, negative effect on employees' voluntary turnover. Thus, increasing racial diversity from one's own race and other minorities appears to strengthen minority workforce retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]