Changes in Employment Style

Atypical Employment and Individualism among Young Workers

Abstract

In this paper, I first analyze the difference in the degree of individualism in employment style among young Japanese university graduates. In doing so, I use “collectivism and individualism scales” devised by researchers in the Netherlands.
Next, I examine the acquisition of skills in certain kinds of atypical employment. This analysis serves to understand why certain skills should be acquired in atypical employment so that the worker could achieve individualism in his or her workplace. I argue that atypical employment, which has some culture under individualism, occurs only among certain categories of workers.
Much of part-time work undertaken by young workers requires a low level of skills and does not represent the culture of individualism because such type of work does not allow workers to act autonomously nor include them in the decision-making process.
Although the young worker who chooses atypical work may have individualistic intentions, this paper shows that actual work environment in atypical employment excludes the culture of individualism.