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The article reviews the book, "Travailler moins ne suffit pas," by Julia Posca.

Over the last few decades, collegial forms of organization guided by norms of professionalism and shared decision-making have given way in public organizations to more corporate organizational forms that prioritize efficiency and economy. A growing body of research has explored these conflicting institutional logics, and identified the challenges of professional workers as they attempt to reconcile them on the job. At times, however, conflicting logics may create ethical dilemmas for professionals faced with competing imperatives, such as efficiency and public safety, if choosing the ethical imperative threatens their job security or professional standing. Their responses to such dilemmas have been under-explored in the literature. In this paper, we examine such dilemmas, and the responses to them, using qualitative data from public-sector engineers in two Canadian provinces. Public-sector engineers are ideal for such analysis because they work in changing environments where the tension between professional and managerial logics may be keenly felt. We find that these professionals have a range of responses, sometimes resisting and sometimes marginally acceding to workplace pressures. Light is thus shed on the circumstances under which ethical tensions might escalate.

We examine the pivotal role of academic staff associations (ASAs) in advocating and influencing the adoption of vaccination mandates at Canadian universities in the run-up to the fall 2021 term. Through document analysis and semi-structured interviews with ASA leaders and staff, we delve into the factors behind ASA positions on such mandates. We demonstrate that the vast majority of ASAs advocated robust COVID-19 mitigation measures, including vaccination mandates, but their approaches varied because of regional differences and institutional and sectoral dynamics. Many ASAs actively promoted mandatory vaccination, unlike the case with the vast majority of other unions.

This article explores union responses to workplace-based covid-19 vaccine mandates in Canada. Specifically, the authors examine the complex interplay of factors that drove unions to adopt their respective positions on vaccine mandates and to frame those positions in particular ways for the benefit of their members and the wider public. Interviews with key informants, along with analysis of documents and arbitration decisions, reveal a disjuncture between the discursive quality of certain unions’ positions and their actual positions. In particular, media framing of unions as either “for” or “against” vaccine mandates oversimplified or misrepresented the actual positions adopted. In response, the article introduces a typology of union positions that distinguishes between support for mandatory-vaccination policies and support for voluntary-vaccination policies and reveals that the vast majority of unions favoured the latter. The authors further reveal that workplace vaccine mandates were both internally divisive and disorienting for unions, given the central role labour organizations play in managing workplace disputes and representing the interests of workers, both individually and collectively.

This paper utilizes the job demands–resources (JD-R) model to examine how the neoliberal governance of Employment Ontario (EO) contributes to worker burnout. The work of Employment Ontario specialists is governed by neoliberal policies, which are an apparatus of austerity politics mechanized through New Public Management (NPM). NPM places a strong emphasis on performance management, quantitative targets and the marketization of public services. This paper demonstrates how these neoliberal policies contribute to worker burnout in public employment services (PES). EO specialists who deliver PES, are tasked with helping vulnerable jobseekers quickly re-enter the paid labour force regardless of systemic barriers, which this study has revealed as a largely unachievable pursuit within a neoliberal market environment. Utilizing data from thirty-two interviews, our analysis indicates that EO workers/specialists experience burnout due to unreasonable job demands and a lack of sufficient resources, which inhibit their ability to meaningfully support vulnerable jobseekers. Having identified time pressures, work overload, lack of training and development opportunities and job insecurity as some of the stressors experienced by EO specialists, we conclude that prolonged exposure to these stressors leads to burnout.

The article reviews the book, "Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture and Control in Cold War America," by Andrew C. McKevitt.

The article reviews the cyberexposition, "Déjouer la fatalité : pauvreté, familles, institutions," by the Centre d’histoire des régulations sociales (Montréal, 2022).

This case study focuses on the United Nurses of Alberta, the union representing registered nurses in the province of Alberta, Canada; this explores United Nurses of Alberta's communication strategies. Drawing on the collective action frames previously identified in United Nurses of Alberta's social media and newsletters from 2010 to 2015, which frames nurses as unique healthcare providers and advocates, this study leverages insights from 23 interviews conducted with the United Nurses of Alberta staff, highly involved members, and general members from 2016 to 2017. The article explores the motivations and tensions around the framing of nurses and the union. The findings indicate that the United Nurses of Alberta could enhance its communications by better aligning with members’ current struggles through various collective action frame bridging and extensions. The research also suggests the potential benefits of United Nurses of Alberta shifting away from collective action frames rooted in self-sacrifice. Furthermore, this case study provides recommendations for communication strategies that could strengthen member engagement and involvement within their unions.

The article reviews the book, "Enduring Work: Experiences with Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program," by Catherine E. Connelly.

The construction industry accounts for 18 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. There is extensive evidence that this can be reduced significantly by implementing aggressive net zero building practices. However, the way the industry is organized impedes this achievement because it fails to promote the development of a broadly based, highly qualified, climate-literate workforce. Successful low carbon construction requires enhancement of workers’ knowledge, skills, and competencies because it requires much higher energy performance standards than traditional construction practice. Yet the industry remains wedded to the current system of low-bid, low-quality construction to cut costs. The organization of much construction work reflects a Taylorist approach, with extensive piecework and subcontracting that relies heavily on precarious, unskilled, and semi-skilled workers. Most employers avoid investing in trades training, leaving it to governments, unions, and individual workers to fund workforce development. Committed to a deregulated market with minimal government interference in their profit-making activities, many contractors oppose tougher building and energy regulations while lobbying against higher labour standards, occupational certification requirements, and union organizing. To meet their net zero targets, governments must recognize that market forces are inadequate to create the well-trained, highly skilled workforce needed. Major policy interventions are required to force industry to make the necessary changes in vocational education and training (vet) and employment practices – changes designed to upskill the construction workforce and give workers and unions a greater voice in shaping climate-informed building practice.

The article reviews the book, "Nii Ndahlohke: Boys' and Girls' Work at Mount Elgin Industrial School, 1890–1915," by Mary Jane Logan McCallum.

Les espaces de coworking sont propices aux interactions sociales, influencées en partie par la configuration de l’environnement. Impliquant le partage des locaux et du mobilier, l’aire ouverte crée une coprésence entre les personnes. Néanmoins, cette coprésence ne suffit pas à stimuler les interactions professionnelles, moins nombreuses que les interactions informelles. De plus, le bruit de parole est la principale contrainte du travail en aire ouverte. Dans ce contexte, cette étude en ergonomie vise à relever les conditions et les caractéristiques des interactions se produisant en aire ouverte. La méthodologie a été déployée auprès de 87 personnes, pendant 44 demi-journées et dans cinq espaces de coworking. Les personnes ont été observées dans l’aire ouverte pendant deux heures : toutes leurs interactions ont été relevées avec une grille d’observation papier et un plan d’observation informatisé. Ensuite, elles ont été interrogées individuellement dans une entrevue basée sur la technique de l’autoconfrontation. D’après les résultats, les interactions sont de courte durée (3 ± 6,55 ; 0,5-52) et se produisent surtout entre des personnes installées à la même table. Les trois quarts des interactions avec un-e collègue ont concerné des travailleur-ses salarié-es alors que les trois quarts des interactions avec un-e autre coworkeur-e ont concerné des travailleur-ses autonomes. Les interactions portant sur le contenu du travail ont été les plus nombreuses, suivies de près par les interactions informelles. L’étude propose plusieurs pistes d’amélioration de la dynamique sociale pour les responsables de la gestion, de l’animation, de l’architecture et de l’aménagement des espaces de coworking : repérer celles et ceux qui souhaitent s’installer en groupe, sélectionner les profils selon les caractéristiques de l’espace, ou organiser le mobilier selon ces profils.

The article reviews the book, "Scoundrels and Shirkers: Capitalism and Poverty in Britain," by Jim Silver.

Menée au sein d’une collectivité territoriale, cette recherche-action visait à introduire une démarche Living lab dans un service de 42 agents. Reposant sur des principes de participation, de gouvernance partagée, d’apprenance et d’ateliers co-élaboratifs, la démarche a été impulsée adaptée dans l’objectif de traiter de la qualité de vie et des conditions de travail des agents. À partir de recueils de données effectués à intervalles réguliers au cours de la démarche, les analyses réalisées avec les acteurs témoignent d’une amélioration de la qualité de vie au travail et de leur appropriation de pratiques participatives et consultatives dans leur fonctionnement quotidien. Ces résultats s’expliquent a priori tant par les caractéristiques méthodologiques de la démarche (participation, co-élaboration, volontariat…) que par l’influence de déterminants organisationnels et managériaux propres à l’évolution du service (recrutement, investissements…). Cette étude illustre ainsi l’importance (i) des principes d’expression et de participation des travailleurs et (ii) de développer une recherche centrée sur les méthodes et processus de transformation et de changement organisationnel favorisant la qualité de vie et des conditions de travail. En outre, cette étude ouvre à de nombreux questionnements : à quelles conditions organisationnelles, méthodologiques ou psychosociales de tels processus peuvent-ils se pérenniser et s’inscrire dans la culture organisationnelle ? À quelles conditions une recherche-action en sciences sociales peut-elle être participative, et avec quelles limites ?

Few studies have examined the relationship between dark triad personality traits and behavioral outcomes in healthcare organizations. Recent literature has called for much more extensive research on this issue because the dark triad can negatively affect healthcare organizations. To this end, we examined how dark triad traits relate to counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), as reported by supervisors and nurses. We surveyed Arab nurses in Israel, specifically 267 nurses at Arab hospitals and retirement homes in the North of the country, and obtained a response rate of 57%. We found that CWB (nurse-reported) is positively associated with secondary psychopathy and negatively associated with narcissism. We also found that OCB (nurse-reported) is negatively associated with secondary psychopathy and positively associated with narcissism. Both primary psychopathy and Machiavellianism are weakly associated with CWB and OCB. We conclude that these destructive behaviours are detrimental to organizational effectiveness and might lead to low-quality patient care. They should be addressed by management.

The article reviews the book, "Constructing the Family: Marriage and Work in Nineteenth-Century English Law," by Luke Taylor.

La littérature existante s’est intéressée aux liens entre genre et conflit entre travail et famille, mais a peu exploré l’effet modérateur des stéréotypes de genre sur les effets différenciés du genre en fonction de la direction (conflit travail-famille et conflit famille-travail) et/ou de la dimension (temps, tension, comportements, cognition). La présente recherche utilise la dernière vague de l’enquête européenne sur les conditions de travail pour étudier l’effet modérateur des stéréotypes de genre à l’échelle nationale sur les effets du genre sur quatre combinaisons (direction x dimension) du conflit entre travail et famille. Cela permet de montrer que le conflit entre travail et famille est globalement moins élevé dans les pays caractérisés par une vision plus égalitaire du genre, et que, sur deux des quatre combinaisons, et sur le conflit global, cet effet est plus marqué pour les hommes que pour les femmes. Ces résultats nous permettent de discuter avec la littérature existante, à l’aune de la théorie des rôles de genre.

The article reviews the book, "Le capital algorithmique : accumulation, pouvoir et résistance à l’ère de l’intelligence artificielle," by Jonathan Durand Folco and Jonathan Martineau.

The article reviews the book, "Le droit du travail en sociologie," by Vincent-Arnaud Chappe and Jean-Philippe Tonneau.

This article is concerned with the historical evolution of the mining industry in Canada since 1859. The focus is directed on changes that occurred in the industry and allows for the identification of four distinct mining regimes. These regimes are defined using the Regulation Theory, which connects conditions of production, technical progress, financial structures, and social relations. The identification of regimes gives a portrait of continuity and change in the industry. Continuity is present in the active role of the state, the legal framework based on Free Mining Principle and persistent speculation in the industry. Change is illustrated in price cycle, labour share and technological innovation. Interestingly, through time, price cycles have very different outcomes in financial and real economic terms. The most recent upswing in the late 1990s resulted in a punctual increase of financial assets but no significant increase in employment. Through this discussion, it becomes evident that the mechanisms underlying continuity and change have implications on the nature of state intervention and on the distribution of power between the corporate and regional actors like the workers and indigenous communities.