Quality circles, in which a small group of employees meet frequently and voluntarily to study on-the-job problems and suggest solutions and improvements to the administration, which agrees to consider them, are a growing phenomenon, particularly in community colleges. (MSE)

This paper reports on the use of focus groups at Oakton Community College (Illinois) to connect with classified staff and to get their feedback on key issues. A total of four single-session focus groups, three with classified staff (employees with varying levels of academic preparation and current responsibilities) and one with…

Highlights events of the 1997 conferences sponsored by the Wisconsin Library Association Support Staff Section. Discusses keynote presentations on attitudes of library personnel and the importance of working with change and presentations on the areas of diversity, communication, the Internet, and humor. (AEF)

Describes the development of a job evaluation plan by the University of Minnesota based on employee values of job worth. Items for the point-factor plan were selected by employee committees, grouped into factors, and weighted by means of a general employee survey. Discusses the plan's use in implementing comparable worth. (JS)

Describes a workplace literacy project in Canada that trains "literate" workers to tutor their "illiterate" co-workers. Employers were beginning to realize that literacy training could increase production and decrease industrial accidents. Attitudes of employees toward the program are correlated to the attitude and interest of…

At Indiana University, budget problems and the information explosion led to a project, financed by a computer company, integrating information technology (IT) into administrative functions. The administrative workstation project increased IT knowledge and use by key administrators, resulting in greater productivity and creativity, improved…

Focuses on effective technology training for library staff. Discusses helping staff overcome technophobia; suiting technology-based jobs with staff members' needs and capabilities; providing a policy/procedure manual to guide the training; the steps that should occur in training; aligning training with in-house library resources and services;…

Discusses six initiatives that organizations can support to ensure peak performance: individual knowledge portfolios; mentoring and apprenticeship relationships; electronic conferencing systems; organizational knowledge repository; community of practice; reward and recognition. Defines each initiative and describes how to make each one work in an…

This article examines and analyzes Semco, a company that changed the way it viewed and treated its workers for the better. It is the contention of Semco's CEO, that at most large corporations "everyone is part of a gigantic, impersonal machine, and it is impossible to feel motivated when you feel you are just another cog. Human nature demands…

This booklet provides information on job sharing that resulted from the research and experience of the Merrimack Valley Job Sharing Project. An overview of the topic considers the need for job sharing, employer benefits, types of jobs shared, job division, benefits, employer costs and savings, financial considerations for job sharers, perspectives…

This study was conducted to identify and eliminate organizational barriers to racial equality in a government department by developing a model of organizational diagnosis and change. Interviews with employees identified various problem areas: the disproportionate distribution of blacks within the department and their over-representation in…

Data from in-depth interviews with more than one hundred women over a three-year period suggest that the experience of women in skilled and semiskilled jobs contradicts the conventional wisdom about the values and motives of these women and challenge many sociological findings regarding the alienating character of much blue collar work. The women…

The major premise underlying this presentation is that every employee has a right to economic democracy, that is, participation in those affairs that impact on his or her life. It is first argued that there is a dialectical relation between the educational system and the world of work. In this dialectic the educational system both reinforces and…

The author explains how one company managed a shutdown while avoiding difficult problems. He describes a five-action plan that focused on all the following areas: severance and benefits, communication, training and development, job opportunities, and retirement planning. This plan is then evaluated and recommendations to improve the plan are…

Defining absenteeism as "unscheduled leave," this report describes an attempt to analyze the factors involved in absenteeism, which produced no significant improvement, and an absentee counseling program instituted at the University of Guelph Library in October 1980, which resulted in improved attendance within a few months. (EJS)