Today's shop floor, the area of a factory where operatives assemble products, is a complex and demanding work environment. The employed and produced technology becomes ever more complex, and employees are responsible for an increasing amount of tasks. As a consequence, the employee is under constant pressure to solve problems occurring on the shop…

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…

This paper examines the free speech fights, one of the more revolutionary tactics of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), founded in 1905 by a small group of socialists, anarchists, industrial unionists, and dissident trade unionists. Two considerations guide this examination. The first is the rhetorical nature of the free speech fight…

An Entitlement Scale (ES) was developed to assess people's beliefs regarding their societal rights. The 35-item scale was administered to 174 subjects ranging in age from 19 to 83 and representing diverse occupational clusters. Four clear factors emerged reflecting distinct domains of entitlement beliefs: work life and education, individuality,…

A study was conducted to explore the relationship between anomia (a feeling of alienation, of being cut off from society), attitude toward adult education, and nonparticipation in formal adult education activities. The subjects of the study were adults who lived in a specific area in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which had the following characteristics:…

The needs relevant to employment of university nonfaculty employees and the extent to which the university has met those needs were investigated. In addition, training and development programs designed to meet individual and institutional needs were proposed. Attention was directed to the reasons people join an organization, satisfaction with…

A study examined why employers use temporary agency and contract company workers and implications of these practices for wages, benefits, and working conditions of workers in low-skilled labor markets. Case studies in manufacturing (automotive supply), services (hospitals), and public sector (primary and secondary schools) industries defined the…

Researchers examined the learning motivation of middle-aged, semiskilled, male Danish workers and barriers preventing them from participating in training. Data were collected through a literature review, a survey of 2,400 individuals from 3 unions, interviews with 11 of the respondents, and visits to adult education institutions. Nearly…

The Maritime Trades Program is a cooperative training program that was established through the joint efforts of 14 shipyards in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Established in 1980, the program originally operated under the guidelines imposed by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Now, however, the program operates in accordance…