Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources

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Book Review: Fragmented futures: New challenges in working life

Ashly Pinnington
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2006; 44; 381
DOI: 10.1177/1038411106072194
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Book reviews

Ian Watson, John Buchanan, Iain Campbell and Chris Briggs. 2003.
Fragmented futures: New challenges in working life.
ISBN 1 86287 471 9; A$49.50; Annandale, NSW: The Federation Press
DOI: 10.1177/1038411106072194

Fragmented futures is valuable reading for anyone interested in understanding

recent changes to working life in Australia. It provides a detailed analysis of
contemporary developments in employment, workplace skills, rewards and the
balance between paid work and peoples lives. The book is clearly written and
technical data are presented in a manner that is accessible to an interested general
audience as well as to readers directly concerned with matters of employment,
training and education. If you live in Australia, you can be confident that in just
over 200 pages of reading you will find out about how policy, political and
economic developments have affected or sought to influence your own and others
work.
Its thirteen chapters address changes in working life over the last two
decades, examining in depth how it has become more fragmented, unequal and
diverse. In exploring these issues the authors adopt Schmids life-cycle perspective
on labour-market transitions. This attends to ways that policy manages the costs
and benefits of paid work, in particular its links with education and training,
unemployment, private households and retirement.
The introduction in chapter 1 contests the viability of market regulation
noting that its recent increased implementation has deepened inequality in labour
markets and accorded greater power to employers often with negative consequences for their employees.
Chapter 2 commences with the historical context of the Harvester man idea
of work which is deeply associated with a now outmoded institutionalisation of
the single male breadwinner. The chapter concludes that there is no sense in
democratic society returning to this model of paid work. Harvester man fails to
facilitate gender equality and employee diversity even though in its time it was
more progressive and supportive of universal labour-market policies than were a
number of the alternatives expressed by opponents. The authors suggest that a
major challenge therefore facing the twenty-first century is to create new
standards for flexibility, observing that nowadays there are many ways forward
which can more effectively accommodate peoples working preferences. Chapter
3 examines what people want from work arguing that most want income, sociability and purpose, but these advantages have been denied to a large number of
workers.
From chapter 4 to the penultimate chapter 12, the evidence for and against
the fragmentation thesis is presented. The picture of fragmentation is developed
with pace and interest, sustaining a persuasive line of argument. In summary, it
proposes Australia is undergoing a variety of changes which serve to increase
employers prerogative and exploit different segments of the labour market. The
result has been the creation of an elite group of winners bolstered by shifting
groups of comparatively disadvantaged labour. The evidence marshalled in favour

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of this interpretation is substantial, although I would have liked slightly more

exposition on common alternative positions. These are mentioned quite frequently
throughout but the assumption is that the reader is already familiar with them.
Here, in these next three paragraphs at the risk of oversimplification is an
overview of some of the findings that are discussed in depth in fragmented futures.
Unemployment and underemployment mean that some people get systematically more opportunity to work than others. However, the recent decline in fulltime permanent waged jobs has been accompanied by growth in part-time
employment and an overall increase in the skills of the labour force. Typically,
during this same period those workers who are less skilled have faced deterioration in the quality, earnings and skill content of their jobs. The increases in nonstandard work arrangements (e.g. fixed-term, casual, dependent contractor,
labour-hire) have benefited specific groups of workers such as the new apprentices engaged in group training schemes involving varied on-the-job placements.
Notwithstanding such advantages, non-standard work has in the main tended to
hold negative connotations of insecurity for the majority of employees.
In regard to the question whether people are now working harder and longer
hours but for less rewards and opportunity, it is apparent that competition and
excess capacity in the private sector combined with cash constraints in the public
sector have each contributed to the intensification of work. Intensification has
indeed meant increased pressure, stress and excessive hours of work for many
workers. Moreover, the authors say, the current system of working unfairly
rewards market power through excessively paying those occupying the top decile
of median earnings while at the same time discriminating against low wage
workers who have a poorer quality of working life. Paid work, they suggest, has
become undermanaged to such an extent that the majority of people in Australia
are failing to balance paid work and other aspects of their lives. Part-time employment has expanded rapidly from 10 per cent of the workforce in 1996 to 29 per
cent in 2002, which has contributed to significant improvements, for example, in
the gender division of labour. Unfortunately, working part-time has too often been
accompanied by a number of negative attributes such as fewer hours of work than
what employees seek, an inappropriate degree of irregularity in work time
schedules, job insecurity and poor career prospects.
After two decades of increasing educational participation and training
reforms, the evidence suggests Australias labour markets now contain large
pockets of underutilised skills. The authors argue that this is partly explained by
employers pursuit of low skills related business strategies. In short, their interest
has been in concentrating on the full deployment of labour leading to a neglect of
long-term skills development. Long-term provision for retirement incomes has by
contrast improved due to the superannuation guarantee contribution (SG) and
personal superannuation contributions. By the year 2000, 95 per cent of the
workforce (8.5 million people) had some superannuation whereas in the mid-1980s
less than 40 per cent had superannuation coverage. The age pension still remains
the fundamental component of retirement income, with 68 per cent of people aged
over 65 drawing their pension in 2002. Superannuation has extended wealth to
low income groups but not so far as to prevent life-time savings and housing from
becoming major problems. Here, the unemployed, underemployed, casual

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Book reviews

workers and people with intermittent job histories (particularly women) are most
often the hardest hit.
Chapter 12 considers some of the theoretical explanations for the fragmentation and greater diversity in working life. Excess capacity and the ascendancy of
finance are seen as central to the overall long downturn (1970 to the present day)
in Australia and other countries such as the US, Japan and Germany. These developments have been characterised by growing wage inequality and low wage
sectors contributing to brief periods of unsustainable economic growth followed by
recession. The final chapter advances a reasoned plea for more pluralist and
searching debate on ways of intervening in the macro dimensions of economics
and working life. Overall, Fragmented futures provides a worthwhile collection
and insightful interpretation of recent empirical data on work in Australia and
thus is an important contribution to our understanding of trends within the
OECD countries.
Ashly Pinnington, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland

Thomas A. Kochan. 2005.

Restoring the American dream: A working families agenda for America
ISBN 0 262 11292 2, 272 pages; US$27.95. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press
DOI: 10.1177/1038411106072195

Professor Thomas Kochan is a renowned academic and researcher from MIT,

holding directorships at the Institute of Work and Employment Research and the
MIT Workplace Centre.
Kochans basic premise in the book is that in order to return to the dream
of good jobs, fair pay and opportunities for all based on the foundation of
traditional American values of justice, fairness, family and work, the onus is on
individuals within the workplace to stand up and be counted.
He describes the multitude of factors impacting on workplaces including
demographic changes in workers and their families, the diminishing power of the
union movement, the impact of globalization and the trend to offshore/outsource
jobs, the business case for flexibility, the growing importance of the knowledge
economy, and the significance of education and life-long learning as a concept that
he argues must be embraced. Ultimately he claims all of these factors have lead to
the emergence of the working poor who earn lower real wages than they did
20 years ago. He argues that the gap is widening between those who have and
those who have not to the point where he calls for individual workers and their
families to take action.
He outlines the perspectives of various stakeholders workers, their families,
business, government, unions and academics. His writing style is easy to read and
he includes personal recollections and actual business cases to exemplify his message.

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