Changing the Individual as a Strategy for Ameliorating the Effects of Unemployment
| Published date | 01 March 1982 |
| Pages | 26-32 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055461 |
| Author | John Hayes |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Changing the Individual
as a
Strategy for Ameliorating
the
Effects
of
Unemployment*
by John Hayes
Department
of
Management Studies, University
of
Leeds
Introduction
The unemployed are
a
heterogeneous group comprising the
able
and
disabled, young
and
old, men
and
women, black
and white, unskilled
and
highly skilled.
It
includes those
who have only recently lost their jobs
and
those who have
been
out of
work
for
many years, those who have lost their
jobs
for
the first time
and
those who have
a
history
of
los-
ing their jobs.
It
also includes young people
who
have
never been employed since leaving full-time education.
These are just
a few of
the many dimensions along which
this heterogeneity
can be
described. Activities which
may
help some segments
of
the unemployed population may
be
irrelevant
to
others. This article cannot hope
to
present
an
exhaustive treatment
of all the
possible ways forward.
Given this caveat, however,
a
broad-brush attempt will
be
made
to
examine some
of the
ways
in
which
the
unemployed can be helped,
to
identify the contribution
the
personnel manager
can
make
to
helping
the
unemployed,
and
to
comment
on the
assumptions that underpin
the
various approaches discussed.
Society's response
to
the unemployed is influenced by its
attitudes
to
those
out of
work. Typically, they
are
seen
as
outsiders,
as
deviants
who
need
to
regain their normal
status
in
society. Most efforts
to
help
the
unemployed
are
directed towards helping them prepare
for, and
regain,
employment. Rarely
are
they offered help
to
accept
and
adjust
to the
status
of
being unemployed.
Helping strategies
can be
grouped into three categories;
strategies
to
change
the
individual
so as to
enhance
his or
her chances
of
employment; strategies
to
change
the
organisation
in
ways that make
it
easier
for the
unemployed
to
adjust
to
re-employment,
and
strategies
to
change society
in
ways that will increase demand
for
labour,
or in
ways that will lead
to the
unemployed being
accepted
as
full,
if
different, members
of
society.
This article looks
at
efforts
to
change the individual
as a
strategy
for
ameliorating
the
effects
of
unemployment.
A
second article will examine strategies
to
change
the
organisation
and
society.
Changing
the
Individual
The individual
is the
most frequently selected target
for
change.
The
state, private agencies, employing organisa-
tions,
the
church, charitable bodies,
the
family
and the
unemployed individual
in
person,
all
engage
in a
range
of
activities designed
to
change
the
individual
in
ways that
will assist him/her
to
cope with
the
predicament
of
unemployment. Such help includes assisting people
to
manage stress
and
enhance their self esteem, acquire
new
identities and goals
in
order
to
inject some new purpose in-
to their lives, acquire new occupational skills, develop
job
search skills
and
develop positive attitudes towards work
and acceptable work habits.
Self Esteem,
the
Management
of
Stress
and
Problem Solving
Loss
of
work
may
present
a
serious threat
to the in-
dividual's self esteem
and
promote attitudes towards self
that make
a
return
to
normal working life difficult.
Tif-
fany
et
al.[1]
argue that
the
self concept
is a
potent deter-
miner
of
behaviour insofar
as it
influences
the
way people
view
the
world. Schlien[2], they feel, puts
the
point well
when
he
states that
the
interpretation
of
self leads
to a
reactive interpretation
of the
external object.
For instance,
if
one feels strong,
a
boulder
is a
weapon
to push into
the
treads
of an
armoured tank,
if
weak,
the same boulder
is a
refuge
to
hide behind.
If
one feels
sick
and
helpless,
the
nurse
is a
creature
of
mercy,
ap-
pealed
to for
comfort. The same nurse may be seen
as a
temptress,
to be
sexually pursued,
if the
patient sees
himself
as
well and sturdy. All experience is evaluated
as
friendly
or
dangerous, interesting
or
boring, possible,
etc.,
depending
not
upon the nature
of
the experience so
much
as
upon the self
concept
of
experiencer. (Cited
in
Tiffany[3])
Tiffany
et
al.
found that when they administered
the
Ten-
nesse self concept scale
to 31
subjects with interrupted
work histories which included long periods
of
unemploy-
ment,
and
also
to a
socio-economically comparable group
who
had
been
in
steady employment
for
twelve months,
there were marked differences
in the
profiles
of the two
groups.
The
profile
of the
unemployed group reflected
their
low
level
of
self esteem compared
to the
employed
group. They
saw
themselves
as
undesirable, doubted their
worth, often felt anxious, depressed and unhappy, and had
little faith
or
confidence
in
themselves.
The threat
to
self esteem posed
by
unemployment
was
recognised
by
Hartmann[4]
who
noted that
a
central
assumption underlying
the
work
of the
industrial
rehabilitation units
in the UK was
that rehabilitation
positively influences attitudes towards
self. In an
experi-
ment designed
to
test this assumption,
he
found that
an
eight-week course
at an
industrial rehabilitation unit led
to
a reduction
in
feelings
of
inadequacy,
a
label
he
attached
to
a
scale designed
to
measure feelings such
as
inferiority,
insecurity
and
self esteem.
Fineman[5] argued that there
is a
link between stress,
self esteem
and the
ability
to
cope with problems.
He
hypothesised that problems perceived
as
threatening
to the
self
are
potential stressors, that very
low
levels
of
self
esteem increase the individual's susceptibility
for
experien-
*This paper
is
based upon material drawn from Hayes,
J. and
Nutman,
P.
Understanding
the
Unemployed,
Tavistock, London, Summer 1981.
2b
|
Personnel Review 11,3 1982
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