The report confirms the importance of training for the European Union (EU) industrial policy. It demonstrates that sectors where training is firmly integrated in human resource practices have higher productivity gains. Such economic benefits are not only realised through developing workers' skills, but also thanks to higher job satisfaction and…

This paper reports on a survey of 221 small-scale farmers conducted in 5 western states. Despite the current productive dominance of large farms, an argument can be made that small-scale farming is desirable both for social and ecological reasons. Discussion focuses on the tradition-oriented goals and values of small-scale farmers, special…

Primarily the result of observations made during an eighteen-day tour of the People's Republic of China (conducted by Professor Eugene Gilliom at Ohio State University), this paper examines working conditions and attitudes toward work in China. Focus in the first half of the paper is on motivation to work in China and how it differs from U.S.…

The New Economic Equation Project opened in May 1995 with a 3-day working conference for 50 national leaders. The equation was defined as follows: economic well-being = integration of work, family, and community. Conference participants identified key economic, work, and family concerns facing the United States today. Outreach activities in…

A representative survey of over 30,000 people aged 16-64 years across the 15 member states of the European Union and Norway sought Europeans' preferences for increasing or reducing the number of hours worked per week. Key finding included the following: (1) 51% preferred to work fewer hours in exchange for lower earnings while 12% preferred to…

Effects of recent changes in Australian higher education on everyday academic work are examined, including changed emphases in teaching, research, administration, and public service and new demands associated with allocation of time, self-regulation, fragmentation of work into more discrete tasks, greater uniformity of effort, recruitment…

Surveys of 100 Australian college and university faculty in 1987 and again in 1992, after implementation of new higher education policies, found decreased levels of faculty satisfaction with their work (substance and conditions), their students, and their administrations. Unsatisfactory levels of stress and tension at work were also found. (MSE)

The lives of working-class women were explored through interviews with 63 middle-aged women, most of whom were employed in working-class jobs and living working-class lives in Baltimore, Maryland. The following were among the areas covered in the interviews: the women's lives on and off the job; their job satisfaction; the reasons they work and…

A survey of 205 people, 4 group interviews with approximately 30 people, and 6 design and analysis meetings involving approximately 40 people were conducted in a 1999 participatory study of contingent workers in Toronto. (Contingent work was defined to be lower-waged forms of non-permanent work arrangements that include contracting, employment…

The evolution of jobs and the job market in the United States was examined in a 3-year project during which a task force consisting of 25 representatives of the education, labor, business, and policy sectors organized 17 workshops and commissioned working papers from experts. The project began by examining how recent changes in the world of work…

The current status of British policy and practice related to work-life balance was examined through case studies of six organizations identified as having well-developed work-life balance and flexible working practices. Interviews were conducted with human resource (HR) managers at all six organizations, and interviews and focus group discussions…