This article examines the under-explored relationship between humour, power and management. Critically analysing the functionalist influence on workplace humour studies, it addresses the reproduction of humour through power relations and of management control through joking relations. In...

This paper describes the procedures used to recruit temporary and part-time warehouse workers in the mail order industry. It seeks to explain how and why temporary `picking' and `packing' jobs continue to remain `women's work' even within a region of severe male unemployment. Theoretically, the...

The persistence of occupational segregation by sex, as a primary characteristic of the UK labour market, has exposed the failure of anti‐discrimination legislation to achieve its purpose. The absence of significant organisational change in the past decade has fuelled the growth of “positive...

This article reports on research designed to explore recruitment, training and promotion practices in the banking and finance industry. In recent years, the initiatives of the major banks in the area of equal opportunities have received substantial publicity. Recruitment patterns are now...