Professor Barley Publishes New Paper

Professor Barley Publishes New Paper in Work and Occupations

Professor Stephen R. Barley recently published, “Be Careful What You Wish for: The Learning Imperative in Postindustrial Work," in Work and Occupations.  The paper is a collaborative effort with doctoral candidate Gonzalo Valdes of Stanford University.

Work and Occupations is published by Sage Publications. The quarterly features peer-reviewed articles by scholars who offer interdisciplinary perspectives on the dynamics of the workplace and international approaches to work-related issues.

In the article, Valdes and Barley examine the benefits and burdens of learning at work for professionals whose occupations require more intensive learning on the job and are tightly associated with the postindustrial economy. Barley’s paper finds that learning at work has a complicated impact on work-family conflict. Learning at work increases job satisfaction which reduces work-family conflict, but it also leads to longer work hours and other work-related stressors. In the end, the latter two are the stronger effects, thus learning’s net effect increases conflict at home.

Professor Stephen R. Barley is the Christian A. Felipe Chair of Technology Management at the College of Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Barley’s research interests include the impact of new technologies on work and organizations and the effects of corporate power on the Federal Government. Read more about the faculty.