IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/indrel/v50y2019i2p150-167.html

The construction of career aspirations amongst healthcare support workers: beyond the rational and the mundane?

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Kessler
  • Stephen Bach
  • Vandana Nath

Abstract

This article engages with a literature that views the limited career aspirations of low‐paid, low‐status workers as a reasonable response to material and structural constraints. Based on four hospital trust cases studies, the article contests this view, revealing how healthcare support workers in NHS England have retained the cognitive capacity to override such constraints to develop a strong and authentic career goal to become a nurse. This goal is acknowledged by the healthcare support workers themselves as unlikely to be achieved and is therefore presented as a flight from rationality. Its emergence is explained by workplace interactions that allow such an ambition to become taken‐for‐granted. The article deepens understanding of career ambitions amongst low‐paid, low‐status workers, while adding weight to a literature suggesting that career aspirations can be driven by values and norms, not only by a means‐end rationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Kessler & Stephen Bach & Vandana Nath, 2019. "The construction of career aspirations amongst healthcare support workers: beyond the rational and the mundane?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 150-167, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indrel:v:50:y:2019:i:2:p:150-167
    DOI: 10.1111/irj.12245
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12245
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irj.12245?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Clark, 2014. "Health-care assistants, aspiration, frustration and job satisfaction in the workplace," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 300-312, July.
    2. Jérôme Gautié & Schmitt John, 2010. "Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00464352, HAL.
    3. Gail Hebson & Jill Rubery & Damian Grimshaw, 2015. "Rethinking job satisfaction in care work: looking beyond the care debates," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(2), pages 314-330, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xy Za Marie De Gulan & Hector Aguiling, 2021. "Career adaptability and career intention on government employees’ years of service and job level," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(7), pages 170-174, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Warr & Ilke Inceoglu, 2018. "Work Orientations, Well-Being and Job Content of Self-Employed and Employed Professionals," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(2), pages 292-311, April.
    2. Julia R. Henly & Susan J. Lambert, 2014. "Unpredictable Work Timing in Retail Jobs," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(3), pages 986-1016, July.
    3. Joschka Gellmers & Nanxi Yan, 2023. "Digital Leisure Engagement and Positive Outcomes in the Workplace: A Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-16, January.
    4. David R. Howell & Bert M. Azizoglu & Anna Okatenko, 2012. "Confronting Low Pay: Minimum Wage Policy and Employment in the U.S. and France," SCEPA working paper series. 2012-5, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    5. Orestis Papadopoulos & Gregoris Ioannou, 2023. "Working in hospitality and catering in Greece and the UK: Do trade union membership and collective bargaining still matter?," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 29(2), pages 105-122, June.
    6. Annette Bernhardt & Rosemary L. Batt & Susan Houseman & Eileen Appelbaum, 2016. "Domestic Outsourcing in the United States: A Research Agenda to Assess Trends and Effects on Job Quality," Upjohn Working Papers 16-253, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    7. Janine Berg, 2015. "Labour market institutions: the building blocks of just societies," Chapters, in: Janine Berg (ed.), Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality, chapter 1, pages 1-36, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Theocharis Kromydas, 2020. "Educational Attainment and Gender Differences in Work–Life Balance for Couples across Europe: A Contextual Perspective," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 8-22.
    9. Arthur Corazza, 2020. "Power, interest and insecurity: A comparative analysis of workplace dualization and inclusion in Europe," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 153, European Institute, LSE.
    10. Hana Urbancová & Lucie Vnoučková, 2018. "Impact of Employee Development in Agricultural Companies on Commitment, Loyalty and Performance," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 66(3), pages 803-811.
    11. Christina Purcell & Paul Brook & Rosemary Lucas, 2011. "Between Keeping Your Head Down and Trying to Get Noticed: Agency Workers in French Car Assembly Plants," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 22(2), pages 169-187.
    12. Ève CAROLI & Jérôme GAUTIÉ & Annie LAMANTHE, 2009. "The French food-processing model: High relative wages and high work intensity," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 148(4), pages 375-394, December.
    13. Shawn Fremstad, 2011. "Maintaining and Improving Social Security for Poorly Compensated Workers," CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs 2011-23, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
    14. Armanda Cetrulo & Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2024. "Two neglected origins of inequality: hierarchical power and care work," LEM Papers Series 2024/04, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    15. Maria Hameed Khan & Jannine Williams & Penny Williams & Robyn Mayes, 2024. "Caring in the Gig Economy: A Relational Perspective of Decent Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1107-1127, August.
    16. Maarten Keune, 2021. "Inequality between capital and labour and among wage-earners: the role of collective bargaining and trade unions," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(1), pages 29-46, February.
    17. Chris F Wright, 2013. "The response of unions to the rise of precarious work in Britain," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 24(3), pages 279-296, September.
    18. Schäfer, Andrea & Tucci, Ingrid & Gottschall, Karin, 2011. "Top down or bottom up? A cross-national study of vertical occupational sex segregation in twelve European Countries," Working papers of the ZeS 04/2011, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    19. Ted Mouw & Arne L. Kalleberg & Michael A. Schultz, 2024. "“Stepping-Stone†versus “Dead-End†Jobs: Occupational Structure, Work Experience, and Mobility Out of Low-Wage Jobs," American Sociological Review, , vol. 89(2), pages 298-345, April.
    20. Katherine A. Moos, 2019. "Neoliberal Redistributive Policy: The US Net Social Wage in the Early Twenty-First Century," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 581-605, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:indrel:v:50:y:2019:i:2:p:150-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-8692 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.