This policy report is intended to be a vision, a design, for certain public systems that have significant involvement with an aging population. It focuses on the central question: What can be done to build community capacity for dealing with an aging society in Minnesota? The report focuses on these three topics: (1) life-cycle…

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.…

International Labour Organization (ILO) standards for decent work promote social justice and humane working conditions. These standards can contribute to sustainable development, macroeconomic security, and fairer distribution of benefits from growth. The ILO is working for policy integration and promotion of international labor standards as a…

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…

The effects of three types of work-life conflict in Canada were examined by using data from a set of work and family studies that were conducted in 1991 and 2001. The studies focused on the effects of the following types of conflict: (1) work overload; (2) work-to-family interference (where work gets in the way of family); and (3) family-to-work…

Until the 1970s, social norms dictated that women provided care for their families and men were employed for pay. The rapid increase in paid work for women has resulted in an untenable model of work and care in which all employees are assumed to be unencumbered with family responsibilities and women who care for their families are dismissed as…

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…

This book addresses the need for change in the ways businesses are conducted in order to respond to increased global competition and describes the forms change has taken in many businesses. The first part of the book introduces the need for change and describes some change strategies that businesses have adopted. Part II considers the alternative…

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…

This book presents many views of the concept of "career," reviewing its past and considering its future in an international context including viewpoints from sociology, psychology, and human resources management. Following an introduction, "Framing the Future of Career" (Richard Young and Audrey Collin), the book contains the following 17…

The issue of increasing productivity was examined from an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on the impact of workplace practices on various productivity-related outcomes. First, the following methodological issues were discussed: defining workplace practices that affect productivity; linking employer behavior and organizational performance;…

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…