This report presents selected interim results from a study designed to assess the quality of higher education through a survey of employer satisfaction with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the university graduates they employ. A 62-item survey questionnaire was developed and sent to employers in the West Midlands region of England. The…

This paper describes Michigan's strategy for defining and assessing employability skills. A statewide task force, appointed by the Governor, defined an initial list of academic, personal management, and teamwork skills. The skills from this list were more specifically defined for a questionnaire that was mailed to a random sample of over 7,500…

Focusing on perceived sex differences in organizational settings, a study examined mutual evaluations of communicative competence in superior-subordinate relationships. Subjects, 86 superior-subordinate pairs from 23 organizations, completed the Communication Competency Assessment Instrument measuring competencies in communication codes, oral…

The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) approach to leadership emphasizes the interactive nature of the superior-subordinate relationship, asserting that an individual's role in an organization is defined through a series of episodes with the supervisor. Because work-related values are potentially important subordinate characteristics in LMX development,…

Managers' claims that reducing employment discrimination will lead to higher costs and decreased personnel efficiency in organizations are not supported by theory or empirical evidence. Economic theories, in fact, indicate that discrimination does not have a rational economic basis and that reducing discrimination should lead to increased, rather…

This study was designed to determine the effect of informal "meet and discuss" procedures on the parties involved in public school district collective bargaining. The authors investigated the relationships between employee organization and employer attitudes, the effectiveness of informal bargaining procedures, and the level of…

The paper discusses work training and employability of the mildly retarded in Australia, and reports on a pilot survey of patterns of employment of the mildly retarded. Employment prospects for the mentally handicapped are reviewed. Factors seen as influencing the employment of the mildly retarded include psychological variables, employer…

The primary purpose was to determine the effectiveness of distributive and office education programs at the secondary level in North Carolina. The study ascertained how satisfied graduates of these two program areas were with their present jobs and how well they were performing in their jobs as perceived by their respective employers. This…

Considerable evidence indicates that a significant positive relationship exists between superior communication receptivity and subordinate satisfaction with supervision. This relationship may be affected by the subordinate's level of communication apprehension. This study hypothesized a main effect for participation permissiveness and an…

Contains history, case studies, and discussion of the use and benefits of flex-time employment, a pattern of working hours in which individual employees begin and end their work day at times of their choice, within certain limits, as long as they work a prescribed number of hours. The paper addresses the following topics: (1) What is flex-time,…

Although there is widespread publicity about the involvement of businesses with schools, and as President Reagan as well as authors of reform reports continue to call upon the private sector to help education, it is unclear to what extent such relationships exist and what they are accomplishing. A 10-page, 55-question survey was mailed to the…

A study was conducted to identify the nonverbal behaviors predicting hireability, as well as the nonverbal behaviors candidates employ that predict hireability. Subjects were 25 campus recruiters, each of whom was given a cover letter explaining the purpose of the study and three copies of a Likert-type questionnaire on a single communicator…

In the El Paso, Texas, area (a binational community with a growing Mexican American population), bilingual programs operate in almost every public school and the need for certified bilingual teachers is increasing. As of 1981-82, 424 teachers had received bilingual certification based on teaching experience rather than organized university…

Educators are increasingly turning to employers for advice about educating for future jobs. A recent project involved conducting a series of seven national conferences on high technology to learn about innovations in industry. Experts from industry told educators that industry itself does a great deal of high technology training, computers are the…

The presentation focused on findings of three studies, and implications for parent-teacher-employer involvement in development and implementation of career education programs for TMR (trainable mentally retarded) adolescents. Study I examined parent and teacher ratings of adaptive behavior and vocational interests. Study II investigated parent,…