Good work: implications for research and policy

Book synopsis: This monograph, the last in a series under the theme of “Advancing Opportunity”, explores the future of “good work”. There has been a lack of attention given to the quality of work, despite the fact that for most people work is where they spend most of their time, and for many others it is where they derive a fair proportion of their status, their dignity, their self-esteem, their identity and their sense of personal progress. The phrase “good work” is intended to offer a broad rubric to consider how the quality of working life can be improved and performance and productivity enhanced. This collection of essays sets out how good work chimes with the most pressing issues affecting our economy and our society – including the rise of the knowledge economy, globalisation and outsourcing, the difficulties of getting people off welfare and into work, and skills – and outlines how a new politics of “good work” can be constructed