I can do this, but do I want to? Strategic skill deployment to adjust the wage-effort bargain | WIP Seminar with Shawn Meikle

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Abstract | Research on workplace skills has focused on the barriers to obtaining skills and the benefits of acquiring them. However, research on skill development has rarely acknowledged that workers have choices regarding the use of their skills and that there may be downsides to skill deployment. Therefore, this paper, co-authored with Jenna E. Myers, directly investigates when and how workers decide to deploy their skills in the workplace. Through a semi-structured interview study of millwrights in Ontario (industrial mechanics), we develop a dynamic theory of skill deployment that explains how workers choose to use the skills they develop. We find that workers can use two strategies to deploy their skills: strategic advertising involves publicizing one’s skills through visual display or verbal discussion, while strategic concealing involves hiding one’s skills through downplaying or deceit. We further find that concerns about task segregation and job security influence when workers deploy their skills. Workers use strategic advertising when they anticipate job insecurity or have little fear of task segregation. They use strategic concealing when they have no concern about job insecurity but do fear task segregation. We argue that strategic skill deployment promotes task control, allowing workers to adjust the wage-effort bargain in real-time. These findings foreground control and discretion as essential motivators of skill behavior and challenge assumptions about why workers develop and deploy their skills.

Bio | Shawn Meikle is a third-year PhD student at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources (CIRHR) at the University of Toronto. His research explores the relationship between skill development, technological change, and labour power. Concurrently, he is also a practicing union millwright, working on construction projects throughout the Greater Toronto Area in the industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors. Shawn is an active trade unionist and member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

Our CIRHR Work-In-Progress Seminar series allows members of our community to discuss early-stage research. Future guest speakers include:

• November 20, Xiner Xu, UofT Economics PhD Student
   
• December 4, Dikla Yogev, CIRHR Post-Doc