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Welcome to the Community-University Research Alliances’ website on “Work-life Articulation Over the Lifecourse” (CURA- WAROL)


Working to improve professional and personal/family life balance and the management of the end of careers
In past years, researchers have focused on the problems involved in work-life articulation or balance, that is between personal and professional life, and the issues related to extending one’s career or attempting to change one’s working arrangements at the end of active working life. In the wake of the current demographic decline and possible shortages of skilled labour in some sectors, organisations seek to identify ways to attract employees and retain them. For their part, workers search for improved quality of life, working time arrangements, and support or means to accommodate their choice of activities. Most scientific research therefore indicates that public authorities and social actors should define new working arrangements, working schedules and new approaches to the management of working ages in an effort to re-design work organization not only for ageing workers but for employed working parents through measures that allow a better balance between work and personal/family life over the lifespan.

In this context, CURA-WAROL studies existing work-family systems as well as issues related to managing working ages and times (retirement, early retirement, working times and schedules, to name a few), and the position of social actors regarding these measures and any other programs or experiments likely to be explored or implemented.

The CURA- WAROL network offers:
 Relevant results based on research
 Reliable resources for pedagogical or other objectives;
 Access to university knowledge and experts and also to non- or para-governmental agencies concerned with working ages and social times issues (work-family articulation or balance, ageing and end of career, municipal family policies);
 Objective data and statistics on questions that bear on the management and regulation of working ages and social times.

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Cabin crew : a change-proof work collective

Article paru dans la revue Relations industrielles (2022)
Sarah Nogues, Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay et Sari Mansour

Abstract

Based on a research directed by Anne Gillet (CNAM) and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (Université Téluq), this article deals with intensities and fragilization of work collectives, and offers a synthesis of the literature regarding work and its intensities, particularly within the air travel sector. Analyzing commercial airline crews, the article uses the demands-resources and capacitating organization theories to analyze the perceptions of these workers as concerns physical, psychosocial and organizational demands of work, as well as the resources of same nature, in the context of a reduction of personnel authorized by the Transportation Department for many Canadian carriers in July 2015. We pay particular attention to the work demands which constitute a constraint, something which is rarely considered in research on intensification of work. With the resource-caravan and capacitating organization concepts we seek to determine whether airline crews (stewards and directors) have the means to ensure their collective mission of security and service to the public. We conducted 41 semi-directed interviews with stewards and pursers or flight directors from two Canadian airlines. We conducted an inductive research based on qualitative content analysis to obtain the main themes and analyze the physical, psychosocial and organizational demands and resources for work. Our results illustrate in an original way how an important increase in constraining work intensities disrupts the work collective, particularly the pivotal role of the flight director, thus contributing to emerging research on fragilization of work processes. Many aspects would need to be changed in order to qualify airlines as capacitating organizations.

REFERENCES

  • Gillet A., Tremblay D.-G., (2020). Se former et apprendre en situation pour prévenir les risques aériens, Education permanente, n°224. Sept. 2020. p. 139-146. http://www.education-permanente.fr/public/articles/articles.php?id_revue=1767&id_article=2920#resume2920
  • Gillet, Anne et Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (2021). Working in the Air: Time Management and Work Intensification Challenges for Workers in Commercial Aviation. Open Journal of Social Sciences Vol.9 No.1,January 25, 2021. https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=106727 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.91020
  • Gillet, A. et Tremblay, D.-G. (2022). Le travail émotionnel et le stress chez le Personnel Navigant Commercial (hôtesses de l’air, stewards, chefs de cabine dans les avions). Dans Nathalie Burnay (dir). Sociologie des émotions. Bruxelles : De Boeck éditeur. Pp.. 127-148.
  • Nogues, S., et D.-G. Tremblay (2019). Managing work-nonwork boundaries in atypical working patterns: evidence from flight attendants in Canada and Germany. Article In Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. (Springer). Disponible sur Springer Nature Online: https://rdcu.be/bMTcD et DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-019-09338-7.
  • Nogues, Sarah et Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (2019) Gérer les connaissances d’employés de service dans de grandes organisations hiérarchiques : le rôle fondamental des acteurs transversaux. Innovation- Revue d’économie et de management de l’innovation. No 58. 2019-1. DOI: 10.3917/inno.058.0019
  • Sari Mansour, Sarah Nogues & Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay (2021): Psychosocial
    safety climate as a mediator between high-performance work practices and service recovery performance: an international study in the airline industry, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2021.1949373 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1949373

Keywords : cabin crew, intensification of work, demands-resources, work, capacitating organization, fragilization, airline safety, human resource management

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