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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges the author had encountered and the counter-strategies she had adopted to overcome them while conducting ethnography for the first time during her doctoral research. In this paper, the author hopes to provide guidance for future researchers by discussing the role she played in her research, the experiences she gained as a result of it, the difficulties she faced and the strategies she employed to overcome these difficulties. Design/methodology/approach: Following the social constructionist perspective, this paper analyses the experience that the author had gained during her field study. As a novice researcher, the author entered the field to study the relationship between caste and occupational mobility. The caste that she had selected was the Kansari caste to which the author belongs. Therefore, her position as a researcher while conducting ethnography became a crucial part of the methodological challenges the author faced. While insider ethnography has its advantages and disadvantages, this paper does not discuss these aspects of the methodology. Instead, it discusses how, as a novice researcher, the author had to negotiate her position as an insider and outsider. Findings: While analysing her experience as a novice researcher, the author found that her journey of conducting insider ethnography was of rediscovering herself as a Kansari as well as a researcher. Through this research, the author found that as an insider ethnographer, certain strategies had to be adopted in the field by the researcher to be objective and unbiased throughout the research process. For example, whenever the author conducted an interview, she tried to try to say less, listen more and be as objective as possible, without allowing her preconceptions to influence the information she gathered from the field. Originality/value: This is an original paper based on the primary data collected by the author.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of workplace spirituality on employee well-being and intention to stay with the organization among teachers in technical higher education institutions. Furthermore, the study endeavors to test the difference in model estimates across two groups of teachers who differ in their intentional career choice. Design/methodology/approach: This descriptive study was conducted amongst a sample of 523 teachers working in technical educational institutions in India. Self-reporting questionnaires were administered among the respondents, who were selected through purposive sampling method. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were done to test the hypotheses. Findings: Analysis revealed that workplace spirituality enhanced employee well-being and intention to stay. Differences were observed on the effects of different dimensions of workplace spirituality on job outcomes. Also, teachers' intentional career choice was found to moderate these relationships. Originality/value: This study is pioneering in conceptualizing and testing a theoretical model linking workplace spirituality, employee well-being and intention to stay, particularly in the context of teachers who differ in their intentional career choice. Implications with regard to the experience of workplace spirituality and job outcomes in the specific context of teaching are elaborated, thus striving to fill a gap in existing literature.

This paper summarizes the phenomenon of offshore outsourcing and relates it to the history and current state of engineering education and the engineering profession in Europe and the USA. In order to assess the climate affecting employment decisions by and about engineers we have used as sources mostly the serious press, with an emphasis on material dating from 2004 forward. The authors conclude that despite anxiety about the out-migration of engineering and technical jobs to places such as India and China, there is reason to see offshoring as the result of Western investment in capacity building in developing countries and to believe that the creation of new jobs will outpace the rate of job loss in Europe and the USA. The paper should serve as a prod to policy-makers and educators to set about creating an environment in which highly educated engineers and technical employees can continue a pattern of economic revitalization.

Through a case study of a girl student, this paper attempts to draw linkages between science classroom, gender and the larger discourse on the economy and job market. The ideal science student is constructed through classroom interactions, and a particular ideal is fostered which is highlighted in this paper. This paper sets itself to locate the micro-processes such as the classroom interactions, pedagogy and textbooks in the larger macro-context of economy, social mobility and jobs. It draws from the critiques of meritocracy and neoliberal ideology to present the arguments. Through an ethnographic approach, the study focuses on the experiences of students in science classrooms. The school chosen is located in an urban context in India. Examples from the classroom interactions and discussions with the students reveal how certain kind of conduct is promoted in the classroom. Through the description of dreams and aspirations and notions of science and scientists of a girl student, this paper argues that the learning of science is situated in the context of globalisation and neoliberal ideology. The classrooms, pedagogy and notion of aspirations and mobility seem to foster this economic discourse. This paper points to the fact that there is a need for alternative approaches in the teaching of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines masculinity, migration and the changing occupational status of nursing through the lens of therapeutic mobilities; health related mobilities of people (nurses) and products (credentials). Indian men have become increasingly interested in nursing as a career, and this interest is strongly associated with the profession's international motility-its mobility potential. The research reported in this paper traces the migration trajectory across time (2008-2016) and over space (India to Canada) and reveals an overrepresentation of male nurses in international migration contexts (Canada), compared to the Indian context. Male nurses also disproportionally benefit from these mobilities in terms of their occupational success post-migration. Mobilities can be therapeutic for the status of nursing in India, which rises in line with the degree of international motility the profession offers, but gendered distinctions in the outcomes of the migration process illustrate the importance of highlighting uneven mobilities. International mobilities are also deeply implicated in ongoing transformations occurring in the 'moorings' of nursing educational, employment and regulatory structures in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine income inequality and income mobility, which have been central to understanding India’s recent economic development.Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the first two waves of the India Human Development Survey data for the year 2004–2005 and 2011–2012 to analyze income inequality and income mobility using longitudinal data, and is the first to do so at a nationally representative level. In this research paper, we address three related research questions: How have been the patterns of income mobility in India? What are the trends, levels and sources of income inequality in India? and finally And What is the structure of household income mobility?Findings The paper examines the trends, levels, sources and factors of income inequality and income mobility in India between 2005 and 2012. The results further show the case for high persistence at the top of income distribution but lower persistence at the bottom.Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack spatial analysis. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.Practical implications The paper suggests that, in the end, the nature of longer-term well-being is crucial to designing policy interventions to effectively tackle inequality, and economic mobility can be seen as an avenue to long-term equality.Social implications This study can further be extended to look at polarization issues at the national and sub-national levels.Originality/value This paper shows the analytical framework of additive decomposition of income mobility out of two sources, namely mobility due to the transfer of income within given structure and mobility due to economic growth or contraction in rural and urban India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents occupational inheritance – that is, children's inheritance of their parents' occupations – in China, India, and other countries. Among the causes of the prevalence of occupational inheritance, we target two broad categories that impede growth: labor market frictions and barriers to human capital acquisition. Counterfactual experiments based on a tractable occupational choice model suggest that if the impediments mentioned above were reduced to the US levels, labor productivity would grow by 60–75% in China and 107–178% in India. China realized 74–89% of this growth potential from the 1980s to 2009. In addition, this productivity gain is accompanied by a decrease in the correlation of intergenerational incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precarious labor forms are not immune to change. The question, however, is how to actively mould them for the better. In this paper, we search for answers by tracking three generations of a family in waste picking in an Indian city. Their lived experiences of poverty, migration, and work inheritance have a story to tell about how precarious labor can be reformed from within. Through collectivization, waste pickers in the city could improve their work status and working conditions. Their efforts have reduced the severity of precariousness embedded in waste picking even as the work form has prevailed across generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines inter-caste differences in demographic characteristics, such as size, growth and distribution of scheduled caste (SC) population in Haryana, analyzing and interpreting secondary data available from the Census of India. In 2011, 5.1 million SCs living in Haryana made more than total population of Norway. Although there are 37 castes of the SCs, but three of these, in combine, subsume more than three-fourths of total such population in the state. The Chamars, the largest caste with 47.5 per cent in total, was the most widely distributed, making the first ranking caste in all but one district of the state. The Balmikis, the second largest SC caste, made the second ranking SC caste in ten of 21 districts in Haryana. However, the Mazhabis, the fifth ranking SC caste, was highly concentrated in Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, making the first ranking SC caste only in Sirsa district. The SCs in Haryana were though predominantly rural by residence but quite literate, aware, awakened and majority of their workers engaged in non-farm activities. During 1971-2011, the SC population in the state grew faster than the entire state population. The high growth rate of the Meghs and the Ods, the two relatively large sized SC castes, was a cause of concern, needing priority attention of the policy makers; the Meghs, being predominantly rural, agricultural and poorly literate, restricting awareness and knowledge, needing immediate attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intergenerational occupational mobility for young women (vis-à-vis their mothers) in India and six of its states from its diverse geographic regions which contribute 39 percent of the Indian population.Design/methodology/approach The study uses transition/mobility matrices and multiple mobility measures for examination of intergenerational occupational mobility among young females in India by using the data from the “India Youth Survey: Situation and Needs” from the year 2006 to 2007.Findings The study finds that intergenerational occupational mobility among the young women in India is about 71 percent, but surprisingly it is predominantly downwards. The urban areas have higher occupational mobility than the rural areas. However, upward intergenerational occupational mobility is lower among the young SC/ST women compared to the young women belonging to the “Others” caste category. Moreover, upward mobility in the economically and demographically poorer states is much lower than that of other states.Originality/value The present study is the only study which examines how women perform vis-à-vis their mothers in terms of occupational attainment in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrimp trawling represents an important fishing métier in South India, generating high levels of employment and economic value. It is also a contested métier, ostensibly contributing to environmental degradation and social inequality. This paper investigates the job satisfaction of crew members (captains and workers) on board the shrimp trawlers of Chennai (former Madras). Research took place in 2007 and 2008 (N = 137). Results suggest a general satisfaction with being in the fishery. However, a little over three-fifths of fishers said they would be willing to change fishing métier and about one-half said they would leave the occupation. About one-half also said they would not advise a young person to enter the occupation. The tendency to move away from the fishery is argued to reflect a growing pessimism about the future of the shrimp trawl fisheries, but also an increasing awareness of other economic opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, India has woken up to the importance of English Language. In a country as culturally and linguistically diverse as India, English is often seen as a connecting thread. For Indians, English symbolizes better education and better culture. It opens the door to greater job mobility and economic success. To cater to the ever increasing demand for English, a number of "English Medium" schools have sprung up all over the country. However, on a closer look, we see that most of these schools fail to deliver what they promise. What are the reasons that prevent them from doing so? What are the challenges the teachers of English Language face today? What efforts should be made to help them overcome these challenges? These are some of the issues that will be discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online furniture rental platforms are expanding choice and convenience, allowing customers to rent from a wide array of providers with the click of a button or tap of a finger. The business of online furniture rental is undergoing rapid change as new online platforms race to capture markets and customers across most of the metropolitan cities in India. The paper aims to investigate attributes for online furniture rental platforms by proposing and empirically testing platform attributes-conversion model, examine how platform characteristics influence the renting decision of a consumer and how it subsequently lead to conversion. A mix method design was adopted for the study and a pilot study comprising of 341 respondents was carried out. The study focuses on six key attributes - occupational mobility, psychological ownership, complementary services, social gratification, perceived value, and customization, while identifying the most important attributes for renting furniture online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of international migration on the occupational mobility of workers over the three phases of labour migration—pre-emigration, emigration and post-return—by constructing mobility matrices using the sample of return emigrants from the Kerala Migration Survey 2011. The study finds that a large proportion of emigrants from Kerala take up occupations in the service sector while abroad irrespective of their pre-emigration occupation or training. Most emigrants return, while they are still in the labour force, and the major reason for returning is adverse labour market conditions at the destination. Though around half of the return emigrants report the inclination to take up entrepreneurial activities, only about 10% are engaged in self-employment, suggesting that there is no real evidence of a rapid boost to entrepreneurship. The study finds that there is moderate mobility between the pre-emigration occupation and the occupation abroad as well as between the occupation abroad and post-return, but not between occupations in the pre-emigration–post-return phases, indicating that workers move out of their traditional occupations while abroad, but most likely return to their original occupation post-return. Work experience abroad does not cause any significant upward mobility in any occupational groups except among professionals, who move to managerial positions post-return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research aims to explore the effect of change management on job satisfaction. A conceptual model involving knowledge management and resistance to change as moderators tested the relationships in the context of a developing country, India. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 413 respondents from four important sectors – healthcare, education, manufacturing and information technology – were collected from southern India. First, the psychometric properties of the survey instrument were checked, and then hypotheses were tested using Hayes's PROCESS macros. Findings: The results indicate that change management significantly predicts employee productivity and job satisfaction. Further, employee productivity mediated the relationship between change management and job satisfaction. This study also found that the resistance to change (first moderator) and knowledge management (second moderator) interacted with change management to enhance employee productivity. Research limitations/implications: This study has several contributions to the practitioners and academic scholars. The study has limitations, which are inherent in survey-based research, of common method bias and social desirability bias. However, the authors have taken adequate care to minimize these biases. Originality/value: The three-way interaction (moderated moderated-mediation) tested in this research uniquely contributes to the literature on change management. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this moderated moderated-mediation has been tested for the first time in the context of a developing country, India, and provides valuable insights into the practicing managers and change agents in bringing successful change in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary labour migration has rarely been studied at macro level despite its high prevalence in India. Drawing from the recently available Indian National Sample Survey (2007–08), this paper aims to study the basic differentials between temporary and permanent labour migration at the national level and examines the socioeconomic determinants of temporary labour migration at the state level. The study shows that temporary migration is seven times larger than permanent migration, and is largely a rural phenomenon dominated by rural to urban migration. A regional pattern in temporary labour migration is evident in the low-income Central and North Indian states. Low economic, educational and social status significantly induces temporary labour migration in contrast to permanent labour migration. As such, temporary labour migration appears to be a survival strategy of the rural poor in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the post-liberalization period the Indian tea industry has been facing a severe crisis. This study looks at the question of inter-generational occupational mobility among tea garden labour in Assam, against the backdrop of, on the one hand, a fall in tea auction prices, decline in exports, and closure and abandonment of tea gardens; and on the other hand, increasing labour unrest, at times leading to violent protests and confrontations, declining living standards and worsening human security in the tea gardens. On the basis of data collected through first-hand primary research in three tea gardens of upper Assam, the paper analyses limitations on the inter-generational occupational mobility of tea garden labourers. We also probe into the reasons behind the relative mobility or immobility of tea garden labourers within and outside the tea gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In urban informal economies, waste-pickers increasingly face threat to their livelihoods due to the rapid emergence of formal systems of waste collection and lack of adequate public policies for their welfare. In this context, the study explores livelihood conditions of domestic waste-pickers and their occupational and educational mobility in Chandigarh, which is often referred as one of most well-planned cities of India. Using a semi-structured schedule, a field-based survey of the waste-pickers brings out that waste-pickers are the migrant workers from adjoining states and work as waste-pickers mainly due to non-availability of alternative employment opportunities. Employment in waste-picking is characterized by informal service charge fixation purely through interaction between house-owners and waste-pickers, where their low bargaining power leads to a surprisingly low level of income with significant variations due to gender. Child labour, even though disguised, also tends to exist. The study reveals unsafe working conditions, awful health conditions and unpleasant living conditions of the waste-pickers along with trivial upward educational mobility and no upward occupational mobility. The analysis presents a classic case of failure of both market and state in delivering optimum economic welfare to waste-pickers even in case of well-planned and highly urbanized city such as Chandigarh of India and demands immediate public policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of intergenerational mobility focus on adjacent generations, and there is limited knowledge about multigenerational mobility—status transmission across three generations. We examine multigenerational educational and occupational mobility in India, using a nationally representative data set the India Human Development Survey that contains information about education and occupation for three generations. We find that mobility has increased over generations for education, but not for occupation. We also find that there are stark differences across social groups, with individuals belonging to socially disadvantaged communities lagging behind in social progress. Multigenerational mobility for Muslims in education and occupation has decreased in comparison to Hindus over the three generations. While we find that there is an increase in educational mobility for other disadvantaged groups such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes compared to General Castes, we do not find evidence of increased occupational mobility over the three generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel corona virus ( COVID-19) has badly affected the life style and workplace of most of the countries of the world. This is an exploratory research attempting to discover how the dimensions of COVID-19 (lockdown, Work from home) are significantly related to the changing role of job satisfaction in IT sector in India. The study is based on the sample of 216 respondents. EFA and Cronbach’s alpha value were applied to test validity and reliability. For testing hypotheses correlation, regression and ANOVA were applied. Study reveals that the dimensions of COVID-19 significantly related to the changing face of job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, work stress and job insecurity have become pervasive issues in today's dynamic workplace. Extant literature suggests that individual psychological resources play a significant role in job insecurity and stress. A review of the literature on psychological capital (PsyCap) suggests that there is a dearth of experimental investigation on the effect of PsyCap interventions (PCI) on stress and job insecurity. The primary purpose of this study is to experimentally examine whether an increase in PsyCap through PCI results in a significant decrease in stress and job insecurity. This experimental investigation was conducted on a sample of 234 adults employed in the telecom sector. This study used a two-group (treatment group and placebo control group) pre-test and post-test design. Subjects were randomly assigned either to the treatment group (N = 124) or the placebo control group (N = 110). Findings suggest that those subjects who were given PCI (treatment group) developed their PsyCap and there was a significant reduction in stress and job insecurity. On the contrary, participants of the placebo control group did not report any significant change in stress and job insecurity. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The last two decades of high economic growth in India has been accompanied by increasing economic inequality. The rise in inequality raises concerns about fall in opportunities for social mobility. This paper examines changes in intergenerational occupational mobility for males in India over three decades (1983–2012). Once we control for changes in occupational structure across the years, we find a decline in intergenerational occupational mobility during 1983–2012 in India. However, the decline in intergenerational occupational mobility was sharper for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, historically deprived sections of the Indian population, than for non-Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the relationship between caste and class in India with an emphasis on their connection to social disadvantage. The author evaluates the results from the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)'s Indian National Election Study 2004, finding a connection between class and the extremes of caste system, defined as the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the higher castes. Topics include the caste-class association, class origin and destination, and preferential policies known as "reservations." The influence of professions on class are discussed, including the mobility of Routine Non-Manual (RNM) workers. Graphs are also included which illustrate a congruence between particular castes and classes.

We examine the intergenerational occupational mobility among men born during 1945–1985 in India. We distinguish between prevalence and association, and use the Altham Statistic as a measure of distance between son-father occupation associations across birth cohorts/social groups. We also attempt to isolate the specific odds ratios that account for the largest part of the distance. We find that the mobility in the 1975–1984 birth cohort is higher than the mobility in the 1945–1954 birth cohort. Scheduled Castes/Tribes born during 1965–1984 experienced a higher mobility compared with the entire 1965–1984 birth cohort or higher castes born during 1965–1984. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing upon research regarding the complexities of family reunification migration and the migration of highly skilled individuals, this article outlines the experiences in mobility of highly skilled female professionals in the information and communication technology ( ICT) sector. In turn, the focus lies on the impact of mobility on family life and how the family influences decision-making processes regarding transnational career trajectories. In migration studies, little attention has been given to family-linked migration among the highly skilled. This anthropological research contributes to filling this gap as the experiences and coping strategies of Indian ICT professionals and their accompanying spouses will be studied from their point of view. This article presents narrative biographical data on Indian ICT professionals, their dependants, and dual-career households, with or without children, who embarked on mobile career paths that led to Belgium. The data have been gathered through participant observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and were analysed in terms of exclusion and inclusion in a globalized knowledge economy. By looking at the intersection of female biographies and expatriation, this case study demonstrates the family dynamics in mobility decisions and the multidirectional characteristics of careers offered by the global ICT sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]