This document traces the U.S. labor movement's history, documents its achievements, and describes its goals. The labor movement played a central role in the elevation of the U.S. standard of living through benefits negotiated by unions, such as vacations with pay, pensions, health and welfare protection, and grievance and arbitration procedures.…

Examines the impact of underutilizing workers' educational skills (or "overeducation") on a firm's productivity. Using both production and individual employee data, the study estimated a production function for 22 U.S. Bell companies during 1981-1982. Overeducation was negatively and significantly related to firm output. Discusses…

Two challenges to "Equal pay for equal work" are subminimum wages and workfare. There is no evidence that either two-tiered wage system would permanently increase employment. Instead the results may be (1) less union strength; (2) lower wages in general; (3) layoff of workers in the higher tiers; and (4) more discrimination against Black youth.…

Ethnographic and survey research provide a comprehensive picture of experiences in racially mixed schools. Findings are presented and analyzed from desegregated schools, colleges, and places of employment. Major implications are that desegregation is best when started in early grades and, for blacks, school desegregation is significantly related…

Reports on an assessment of a sample of environmental health practitioners in Illinois which dealt with overall job satisfaction and the characteristics that contribute to job satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Results indicated that 36 percent of the respondents were satisfied with their jobs, with 64 percent somewhat dissatisfied. (TW)

Chaos theory provides a useful mental model for guiding change as leaders garner the energy from unpredictable events for realizing transformation goals. The paper considers chaos theory as a framework for managing school change toward Total Quality Management work cultures. Change is possible to manage when plans are made and then followed by a…

Underlying barriers to adjunct faculty forming effective communities are time and distance; they spend little time on campus, and there is distance, physically and psychologically, from their peers. There can be no hope of challenging and changing the system without the organizing and focusing of energies. Lessons can be learned from big business.…

In many of the stories foretelling the future of work, technology is assumed to be the irresistible driver of change. Both ends of the spectrum are foreseen: either technology will create new jobs and transform existing work to higher skill levels, or technology, especially information technology, will destroy jobs or degrade them into less…

Despite the administrative leadership that most principals receive in university courses, their most useful learning occurs once they are on the job. The new knowledge--much of it the result of trial and error--is gained in relative isolation. This second edition provides ideas, approaches, strategies, resources, tools, techniques, and reflective…

This book is divided into five major sections that focus on the various perspectives, needs, and concerns of employees in the workplace. Chapters include: (1) Work: Meaning, Mattering, and Job Satisfaction (K. M. Connolly); (2) Spirituality in the Workplace: An Overview (E. J. Looby and D. S. Sandhu); (3) Developing the Whole Employee: Some…

A survey concerning teacher mobility, completed by 94 past and current teachers in a rural British Columbia school district, found that teachers left because of geographic isolation, weather conditions, distance from larger communities and family, and inadequate shopping facilities. Teachers stayed because of their principal, spouse employment in…

Observes a number of illustrations from a wide variety of whaling narratives and discusses the purposes and assumptions behind them. Considers the individual artists and their contributions. Francis Allyn Olmstead romanticized the profession while J. Ross Brown emphasized the sordid aspects of whaling life. (MJP)

A survey of 55 full-time faculty at Southeast Missouri State University examined the relationship between perceived work environment, particularly factors most frequently identified as variables influencing job satisfaction, and overall job satisfaction. Results showed a healthy faculty attitude toward the institution and its mission and positive…

A feeling of community may be at the heart of child care workers' satisfaction with their job. The director plays a vital role in creating an emotional climate in which staff can feel safe, nurtured, and challenged to grow. Creating a sense of community among staff can be done in much the same way as in the classroom. (EV)

The survey of University of Bergen (Norway) teaching staff (N=601) found the leading reason for intending to leave the institution was collegial relations. Other reasons predicting intention to leave were in the area of general job satisfaction with staff who found their work less intrinsically satisfying more likely to plan on leaving.…