Changing management conceptions of the ideal worker in warehouse labour regimes
2025
19
2
140-145
automation ; labour market ; labour flexibility ; labour utilization
Labour economics
https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.19.2.0002
English
Bibliogr.
"Employer discourse is an under-researched element of scholarship on labour regimes, which has tended to dismiss employer views as self-serving or duplicitous. In response, this article argues that employer discourse should be taken more seriously as a response to real-world transformations in markets, supply chains, technologies and labour markets. Evidence is drawn from Australia's largest cities, where experimentation with automation has led to a combination of different labour processes alongside an emphasis on accuracy, as well as speed, in each. Drawing on interviews with managers, this article documents the emergence of a new image of the ideal worker as one who is more than simply flexible and agile, but also conscientious in observing the accuracy requirements of consumer fulfilment in contemporary warehousing."
This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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