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Technological change has two first-order effects on the nature of work. First, new technologies can cause changes within workers' occupations, and second, it can push workers to move between occupations. To quantify these effects, we match detailed occupational data from the 2006 and 2016 Canadian censuses to detailed data that associates each occupation with sets of tasks, activities, and skills required for that occupation. Our results show that the importance of attributes related to social interactions and non-routine cognitive tasks has increased significantly. Moreover, most of the increase occurred within narrowly defined occupations. Men were more affected by the observed changes than women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that economic conditions affect job match quality by influencing the task shares of available jobs. Cognitive (reasoning/communication) and physical (sensory/coordination) task shares and education-based overqualification measures are generated from Canada's Labour Force Survey, the Career Handbook, and the Occupational Information Network database. In unfavourable labour markets, cognitive task intensity decreases and physical task intensity rises. The task content of newly formed jobs is then shown to be an important empirical determinant of overqualification. A calibrated search model that accounts for these findings quantifies the costs of increased overqualification. Each percentage point increase in unemployment raises overqualification by 5.8 percentage points, partly due to changes in task shares. Economic output subsequently decreases by about 0.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The aim of this article is to provide a case study example of the preopening phase of an interventional trauma operating room (ITOR) using systems-focused simulation and human factor evaluations for healthcare environment commissioning. Background: Systems-focused simulation, underpinned by human factors science, is increasingly being used as a quality improvement tool to test and evaluate healthcare spaces with the stakeholders that use them. Purposeful real-to-life simulated events are rehearsed to allow healthcare teams opportunity to identify what is working well and what needs improvement within the work system such as tasks, environments, and processes that support the delivery of healthcare services. This project highlights salient evaluation objectives and methods used within the clinical commissioning phase of one of the first ITORs in Canada. Methods: A multistaged evaluation project to support clinical commissioning was facilitated engaging 24 stakeholder groups. Key evaluation objectives highlighted include the evaluation of two transport routes, switching of operating room (OR) tabletops, the use of the C-arm, and timely access to lead in the OR. Multiple evaluation methods were used including observation, debriefing, time-based metrics, distance wheel metrics, equipment adjustment counts, and other transport route considerations. Results: The evaluation resulted in several types of data that allowed for informed decision making for the most effective, efficient, and safest transport route for an exsanguinating trauma patient and healthcare team; improved efficiencies in use of the C-arm, significantly reduced the time to access lead; and uncovered a new process for switching OR tabletop due to safety threats identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with growing pressures for accountability and increasing complexity of legal work, the international legal community has focused attention on support for the rule of law. Taking a workplace perspective, this study develops and tests an individual-level measure of support for the rule of law in the context of the Canadian public sector. Results from a national survey of government-employed lawyers reveal that increasing work demands have a detrimental effect on perceived ability to uphold the rule of law in the daily execution of work tasks. This negative pressure is moderated by social support in the workplace, with diminishing effect. Lawyers in criminal law practice appear more negatively affected by work demands than those in civil or common law practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study evaluated the effects of explicit instruction on advanced French second language (L2) learners' (n = 18) contextually appropriate use of two stylistic variables (/l/ deletion vs. retention and ne deletion vs. retention) using two different task types. A planned and unplanned oral task was used to assess students' productive stylistic knowledge before and after the instructional treatment. Performance on both tasks was then compared to a corpus of native French (L1) speakers (n = 12) recorded under the same conditions. As hypothesised, the findings revealed that explicit instruction triggered changes in students' productive use of the target features; however, their ability to align to L1 stylistic norms was mediated by two factors: task types and linguistic complexity of the stylistic variants. Additionally, although instruction prompted change in the use of these variables, some learners reported being unwilling to use informal features, suggesting that personal speech-style preferences may also moderate the use of specific stylistic variants and should, therefore, be further considered in research examining the development of L2 sociolinguistic competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports results of a survey concerning the differential assignment of tasks to social workers with bachelor of social work (BSW) and master of social work (MSW) degrees by social work directors in Canadian hospitals. In Canada, the BSW degree is generally considered a first professional social work degree and these programs are directed to the general practice of social work, whereas MSW programs are designed to prepare students for advanced-level professional practice in a specialized area of social work. The health care system in general and hospitals in particular are among the largest employers of both levels of social work graduates. The intent of the discussed study was to determine if hospital social work directors held different perceptions of BSW and MSW social workers and if hospital social work directors differentiated between these two levels in relation to tasks assigned. Responses to the open-ended questions clearly indicated that directors saw MSW and BSW workers differently in terms of levels of training and expertise. Perceptions of difference apparently led directors to assign these practitioners to different programs. However, they made relatively few distinctions between the two levels of workers in relation to actual task assignment.