Search

This study aims to analyze the effect of work ability and work operational time on cadet productivity and analyze the role of the on-the-job training (OJT) variable in mediating the independent variable on the dependent variable in the Airport Electrical Engineering Occupation at Politeknik Matra Udara. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to respondents. This research uses a quantitative approach, analyzes using Structural equation modeling (SEM), and uses the Smart-PLS statistical program. The research sample refers to the Isaac and Michael table using a 10% significance level. The sample of this study consisted of 115 cadets from various occupations in airport electrical engineering at the Air Matra Polytechnic who had participated in the on-the-job training (OJT) program. The results of the analysis show that work ability has a significant positive effect on cadet productivity. This shows that the higher a person's work ability, the higher his productivity. In addition, work-related operational time also has a positive effect on productivity. That is, the longer the working time owned by cadets, the higher the level of productivity. Furthermore, on-the-job training (OJT) proved to be a significant mediator in the relationship between work ability and work operational time and cadet productivity. This suggests that on-the-job training has an important role in improving productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experienced passage of time, the extent to which employees perceive the passage of work time as being fast or slow, is a fundamental aspect of work experience. We identify two novel temporal work design characteristics that can speed up employees' experienced passage of time: temporal predictability and task segmentation. Jobs with high temporal predictability do not make employees go through uncertain wait times before embarking on their next task. High task segmentation occurs when a large chunk of work time is segmented by categorically different temporal markers. We tested a model in which temporal predictability and task segmentation affect experienced passage of time, which in turn influences job performance, with five studies: two experiments that established the internal validity of temporal predictability and task segmentation (Studies 1a and 1b), a naturalistic field study in a factory that investigated the natural consequences of distinct temporal work design (Study 2), an organizational field study that constructively replicated the model using a sample of knowledge workers and their supervisors (Study 3), and an online survey in which we connected our model with the broader work design literature (Study 4). Altogether, the studies support a new temporal approach to work design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing industries struggle to devise precise planning and scheduling solutions due to unpredictable business situations. Additionally, uncertainties in production such as machine breakdowns, labour absenteeism, cycle time deviations, etc., would further deteriorate production plans and lead to uncertainty in decision-making processes. Flow shops with bottlenecks are particularly susceptible to these disturbances. Moreover, the random variations in cycle time variations can cause the bottleneck to shift between different stages. Literature indicates that conventional job release methods are ineffective in addressing these difficulties. In contrast, workload control methods would provide better solutions. Hence, a flow shop model has been developed and simulated using the variables like process time variations and bottleneck shifting on the discrete-event simulation software. The flow shop model incorporates realistic shop characteristics which are subjected to random process time variations, so as to assess the performance. The outcomes of the experimentation demonstrate that order release methods play a pivotal role in improving the performance of flow shops in more volatile situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iberian Journal of the History of Economic Thought is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article deals with the issue of serving written documents during the employee's temporary incapacity for work in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. The author points to the issues occurring when the place of the employee's stay during their temporary incapacity for work differs from their address hitherto known to their employer. The given issue has been analysed by the author from the perspective of the term "address for service", in connection with which the Slovak legislation explicitly imposes the notification obligation on the employee. Following the given difference between the Slovak and Czech legislation, the author investigates the possibilities of application of Czech Decision R 25/2016 in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a mix of new and existing data to develop the Aggregate Hours Gap (AHG), a novel measure of labor market underutilization. Our measure differentiates individuals by detailed categories of labor market participation and uses data on their desired work hours as a measure of their potential labor supply. We show that desired hours vary widely by demographics and detailed labor force status, and that the gap between desired and actual work hours is strongly positively correlated with reported search effort. The AHG suggests a more sluggish labor market recovery since the Great Recession than either the official unemployment rate or alternative measures of labor market underutilization. Modest amounts of underutilization among the part‐time employed and a substantial degree of underutilization among those out of the labor force account for the disparity. The AHG also does well in accounting for wage movements over our sample period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased interest in reduced-load (part-time) work among professionals who want to have a life beyond work has led to new challenges for managers who must sustain productivity while also supporting employees. However, to date, little attention has been focused on exactly how managers facilitate effective implementation of these alternative work arrangements. This study presents findings from an interview study of 83 cases of reduced-load professionals in 43 organizations in the United States and Canada. Analysis of the interviews with both professionals and their managers surfaced recurrent themes that led to identification of five clusters of behaviors and five clusters of dispositions that capture the nature of managerial support in implementing reduced-load work. The ten categories of behaviors and dispositions expand on existing notions of supervisory support and provide new insight into the role of managers in fostering inclusiveness. Additional quantitative analyses found significant relationships between the success of the reduced-load arrangements and specific managerial behaviors and dispositions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing technologies, appropriately implemented, provide competitive advantage to manufacturers. The use of manufacturing technologies across countries is difficult to compare. One such comparison has been provided in the literature with a study of US and Japanese practices in advanced manufacturing technology use using a common questionnaire. The present study compares the use of 17 different technologies in similar industries in the USA (n = 1025) and UK (n = 166) using a common questionnaire. Largely, there are remarkable similarities between the two countries. This may partly correlate with the heavy traffic in foreign direct investment between the two nations. Notable differences are (1) across-the-board, US manufacturers are ahead of the UK firms in computerized integration with units inside and outside manufacturing organizations; (2) US manufacturers show higher labour productivity, which is consistent with macro-economic data, and (3) more UK manufacturers report the use of soft technologies such as just-in-time, total quality manufacturing and manufacturing cells. Hypotheses for future investigation are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article illustrates the sensitivity of estimates of the effects and costs of a wage subsidy on assumptions regarding labor market demand and supply conditions. An hourly wage subsidy will cause market wage rates to be bid down and manhours demanded or number of workers employed to be increased if labor supply functions are positively sloped. Meanwhile, these conclusions are reversed if supply is backward-bending. The wage subsidy can be an inefficient transfer device depending on elasticity conditions. Transfer efficiency is lowest in markets in which a wage subsidy is most likely to be effected.

The results from recent studies on the compressed work week have been compiled and categorized in order to provide some basis for generalizing the effects of the work schedule on employee attitudes and behavior. It appears that attitudes toward the compressed week are favorable, with some generalization to job attitudes. Performance outcomes are ambiguous, although there are no reported decreases; fatigue seems to be the only negative aspect of the longer day. An examination of mediating variables suggests more complex relationships between the implementation of the compressed work week and potential outcomes. These relationships are described and directions are indicated for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buttressed by a resolution of the AFL-CIO, at its recent annual convention in December 1961, an increasing number of unions are likely in the near future to press hard for a reduction in hours. Indeed, this issue has already appeared in negotiations—for example, in the New York City local transit and building trades industries—and is likely to be among the major demands of the union in the forthcoming bargaining in basic steel. In principle at least, bargaining over this issue is complicated by the absence of a common standard for measuring the effects of changes in the length of the workweek. As the discussion in this article brings out, there are at least three conceptually different measures of the 'optimal' workweek, depending on whether the frame of reference is the employer, the individual worker, or the economy as a whole. The author also discusses a rule by which a choice might be made among the different hours optima. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general agreement on the desirability of "full employment" often obscures the very real disagreement over the meaning to be attached to that term. Critics of the Census measure of unemployment have long charged that this measure seriously understates the extent of unemployment, particularly during periods of recession and depression. The authors of this article propose a new measure of "labor slack," or the underutilization of the potential labor force, which they believe would effectively complement the present Census measure in providing policy makers with the information needed to implement the Full Employment Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two mainstream viewpoints think that a unit commodity value is inversely proportional to the productivity of labour, which is named "inversely-proportionaltheory." The first one defines the value as the labour time, and defines the magnitude of the value of a unit commodity as the labour time embodied in a unit commodity, then defines the productivity of labour as the production of use value in unit labour time, thus the magnitude of the value of a unit commodity is inversely proportional to the productivity of labour; the second one defines the unit value as the quantity of human labour in the abstract embodied in a unit commodity, then defines the productivity of labour as the production of use value by unit human labour in the abstract, therefore the magnitude of the value of a unit commodity and the productivity of labour are inversely proportional to each other. In the first one, the unit value and the productivity of labour are both put into the concrete labour space; while in the second one, the production in the concrete labour space and that in the abstract labour space are confused. Thus, both of them cannot form a transition between the abstract labour space and the concrete labour space. If the two kinds of space are distinguished, we will find the magnitude of the value of a unit commodity is directly proportional to the productivity of labour, which is called "directly-proportional-theory". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on capitalism process in contemporary labor society. Topics discussed include social aspects of modes of employ labor; concepts of labor performances and working hours; and impact of social and political values on labor. It also mentions economic values for labor and concept of division of labors.

The article offers information on capitalism process in contemporary labor society. Topics discussed include social aspects of modes of employ labor; concepts of labor performances and working hours; and impact of social and political values on labor. It also mentions economic values for labor and concept of division of labors.

Purpose: To analyze productivity of pediatric dental residents (PDRs) in the operating room (OR) and to determine predictors of case length. Methods: Service-mix for OR cases completed between 2010 and 2013 were converted to relative value units (RVUs). Additional information, including patients’ age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status, number of teeth, and operation time was retrieved. Analysis entailed descriptive, correlational, and multivariable techniques. Results: Eight PDRs completed 893 OR cases. First-year residents (FYRs) completed more complex cases than second-year residents (SYRs), as determined by total RVUs and number of teeth. However, SYRs were more productive , as determined by RVUs per minute. Productivity for all PDRs increased on average by 33 percent during the program , with an average of 039 versus 0.59 RVUs per minute during the first versus the last quarters. Case complexity - measured in total RVUs per case - was associated with number of teeth and operation time, while patients’ age and ASA status were not significantly associated with case complexity in the final regression model. Conclusions: Clinical productivity of PDRs increased over the two-year period, with a wide variation demonstrating a differential learning curve on different individuals. A significant association between case complexity, number of teeth, and operation time was found . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Training programs have implemented the 2011 ACGME duty hour regulations (DHR) using "workload compression" (WLC) strategies, attempting to fit similar clinical responsibilities into fewer working hours, or workload reduction (WLR) approaches, reducing the number of patient encounters per trainee. Many have expressed concern that these strategies could negatively impact patient care and learner outcomes.Objective: This study evaluates the medical knowledge and clinical impact of a WLR intervention in a single institution.Design& Participants: Nonrandomized intervention study with comparison to a historical control study among 58 PGY-1 internal medicine trainees in the 2 years after duty hour implementation [exposure cohort (EC), 7/1/2011-6/30/2013], compared to 2 years before implementation [comparison cohort (CC), 7/1/2009-6/30/2011].Main Measures: Process outcomes were average inpatient encounters, average new inpatient admissions, and average scheduled outpatient encounters per PGY-1 year. Performance outcomes included trainee inpatient and outpatient days on service, In-Training Examination (ITE) scores as an objective surrogate of medical knowledge, Case-Mix Index (CMI), and quality of care measures (30-day readmission rate, 30-day mortality rate, and average length of stay).Key Results: Baseline characteristics and average numbers of inpatient encounters per PGY-1 class were similar between the EC and CC. However, the EC experienced fewer new inpatient admissions (157.47 ± 40.47 vs. 181.72 ± 25.45; p < 0.01), more outpatient encounters (64.80 ± 10.85 vs. 56.98 ± 6.59; p < 0.01), and had similar ITE percentiles (p = 0.58). Patients of similar complexity cared for by the EC also had a greater reduction in readmissions (21.21 % to 19.08 %; p < 0.01) than the hospital baseline (12.07 to 11.14 %; p < 0.01).Conclusions: Our WLR resulted in a small decrease in the average number of new inpatient admissions and an increase in outpatient encounters. ITE and care quality outcomes were maintained or improved. While there is theoretical concern that reducing PGY-1 inpatient admissions volumes may negatively impact education and clinical care measures, this study found no evidence of such a trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlighting the limitations of R&D, this paper champions design activity as the phenomenon that captures knowledge mobilisation at the firm level, especially amongst small firms in developing countries. Still, knowledge becomes a capital (factor input) proper when employed in production. Volumes of new products sold could suggest the market value of utilised knowledge capital the same way the resale value of plant and equipment often approximates the stock of physical capital. Conversely, shares of sales of new products arguably capture an altogether different phenomenon: product-related firm transmutation. Findings suggest that the deeper utilisation of knowledge has significant productivity effects and supersedes mere mobilisation of knowledge. Further, undergoing transmutation towards the production of more of new products relative to incumbent products has no significant relationship with labour productivity. Firms should therefore prioritise the deeper exploitation of given new knowledge rather than potentially prodigal shifts in production towards new products as such. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the author's response to comment on his article on hours of labor. The overtime pay arrangement is interpreted as an expression of the inelasticity of the individual's supply curve with respect to income for a significant range of straight-time rates in the zone above some going wage. In referring to the consumption content of leisure, it is stressed that to enjoy the leisure one has to work more to fill the leisure time with goods and services. The paucity of empirical evidence regarding the individual and market labor supply schedule in the very short run is not satisfactory.

Observations on munition workers, most of them women, are organised to examine the relationship between their output and their working hours. The relationship is non-linear: below an hour's threshold, output is proportional to hours; above a threshold, output rises at a decreasing rate as hours increase. Implications of this finding for the estimation of labour supply functions are considered. The findings also link up with the current research on the effects of long working hours on accidents and injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the relation between output and labour productivity measures for individual production units and for aggregates such as industries, sectors, or economies. In the framework of discrete time periods several useful, symmetric expressions are derived and confronted with results from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education of Economists & Managers / Edukacja Ekonomistow i Menedzerow is the property of Warsaw School of Economics, Department of Human Capital Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is a problem solving technique imitating the basic working principles of the human brain. The formwork labour cost constitutes an important part within the costs of the reinforced concrete frame buildings. This study suggests a method based on artificial neural networks developed for estimating the required manhours for the formwork activity of such buildings. The introduced method has been verified in the study with reference to the test conducted involving two case studies. In all cases, the model produced results reasonably close to actual field measurements. The model is a simple and quick tool for the estimators and planners to aid them in their work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Ensaios FEE is the property of Fundacao de Economia e Estatistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Two case studies suggest the restructuring of labour time in South African mining is indissolubly linked with work reorganisation. This results in organisational complexity by virtue of a plethora of production and social issues requiring attention, and alluded to in this article. Two primary forms of temporal restructuring are identified: the first option, continuous operations, is preferred by the industry and marks the lengthening and absolute extension of aggregate social labour time. It extends labour time to its maximum temporal limit, disrupting established patterns of social life. This option represents a retrogressive social development and is resisted by organised labour. The second option, a five-day working week, is preferred by labour organisations and marks the shortening and relative intensification of labour time expenditure. It results in the rhythms of working-time remaining more regular, maintaining established patterns of social life. This option represents a progressive social development, yet is resisted by mining capital. When changing working-time arrangements, the adoption of mining capital's preference results in the social impact of continuous working-time schedules coming to the fore. The adoption of organised labour's preference results in issues of control over the labour process coming to the fore when reducing working hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a field experiment to assess the effect of own and peer wage variations on actual work effort of employees with hourly wages. Work effort neither reacts to an increase of the own wage, nor to a positive or negative peer comparison. This result seems at odds with numerous laboratory experiments that show a clear own wage sensitivity on effort. In an additional real-effort laboratory experiment we show that explicit cost and surplus information that enables an exact calculation of an employer's surplus from the work contract is a crucial prerequisite for a positive wage--effort relation. This demonstrates that an employee's reciprocity requires a clear assessment of the surplus at stake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotating shift and permanent night work arrangements are known to compromise sleep. This study examined the effects of work schedule on sleep duration, excessive sleepiness, sleep attacks, driving, and domestic/professional accidents. A representative sample of the general population of the state of New York—3,345 individuals ≥18 yrs of age—was interviewed by telephone regarding their sleep and psychiatric and organic disorders. Multivariate models were applied to derive odds ratios (OR) after adjustment for age, sex, physical illness, mental disorders, obstructive sleep apnea, and sleep duration. On average (±SE), workers slept 6.7 ± 1.5 h, but 40% slept <6.5 h/main sleep episode. Short-sleep duration (<6 h) was strongly associated with fixed night (OR: 1.7) and day-evening-night shiftwork arrangement (OR: 1.9). Some 20% of the workers manifested excessive sleepiness in situations requiring high attention, and it was associated with the fixed night (OR: 3.3) and day-evening-night work arrangements (OR: 1.5). Overall, 5% of the workers reported sleep attacks; however, they occurred three-times more frequently in the fixed night (15.3%) than other work arrangements (OR: 3.2). Driving accidents during the previous 12 months were reported by 3.6% of the workers and were associated with fixed night (OR: 3.9) and day-evening-night (OR: 2.1) work schedules. The findings of this study indicate that working outside the regular daytime hours was strongly associated with shorter sleep duration, sleepiness, and driving accident risk. Night work is the most disrupting, as it is associated with insufficient sleep during the designated rest span and excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks during the span of activity, with an associated consequence being increased driving accident risk. (Author correspondence: mohayon@stanford.edu) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of sectoral labor productivity in explaining the process of structural transformation — the secular reallocation of labor across sectors — and the time path of aggregate productivity across countries. We measure sectoral labor productivity across countries using a model of the structural transformation. Productivity differences across countries are large in agriculture and services and smaller in manufacturing. Over time, productivity gaps have been substantially reduced in agriculture and industry but not nearly as much in services. These sectoral productivity patterns generate implications in the model that are broadly consistent with the cross-country data. We find that productivity catch-up in industry explains about 50% of the gains in aggregate productivity across countries, whereas low productivity in services and the lack of catch-up explain all the experiences of slowdown, stagnation, and decline observed across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic capacity allocation problem is considered in this paper. A fixed amount of daily processing capacity is allowed. Jobs of different priorities arrive randomly over time and a decision is required on which jobs should be scheduled on which days. The jobs that are waiting to be processed incur a holding cost depending on their priority levels. The objective is to minimize the total expected cost over a planning horizon. In this paper the focus is on a class of policies that are characterized by a set of protection levels. The role of the protection levels is to “protect” a portion of the capacity from the lower priority jobs so as to make it available for the future higher priority jobs. A stochastic approximation method to find a good set of protection levels is developed and its convergence is proved. Computational experiments indicate that protection level policies perform especially well when the coefficient of variation for the job arrivals is high. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of IIE Transactions for the following free supplemental resource: Technical appendix detailing the proofs of propositions.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A manufacturing firm that builds a product to stock to meet a random demand is studied. Production time is deterministic, so that if there is a backlog, customers are quoted a lead time that is proportional to the backlog. In order to represent the customers' response to waiting, a defection function—the fraction of customers who choose not to order as a function of the quoted lead time—is introduced. Unlike models with backorder costs, the defection function is related to customer behavior. Using a continuous flow control model with linear holding cost and Markov modulated demand, it is shown that the optimal production policy has a hedging point form. The performance of the system under this policy is evaluated, allowing the optimal hedging point to be found. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of IIE Transactions for the following free supplemental resource: Appendix] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of 13 countries reveals that measures of hours worked based on administrative sources are relatively low while measures based on establishment and labor force surveys are relatively high; thus, although ever improving, these measures cannot yet be taken at face value and are useful only for broad comparisons [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recessions appear to be times when the marginal rate of substitution between goods and workers' time falls below the marginal product of labor. If so, the allocation of workers' time is inefficient. I develop a model of households and production that reconciles cyclical movements in the marginal value of time and the marginal product. The model embodies the findings of research that the Frisch elasticity of labor supply is less than one. It treats unemployment in a search-and- matching setup. Recessions do not result in private inefficiency in the allocation of labor, but the unemployment rate may be socially inefficiently high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the theoretical justifications available for policies of flexible labour markets (FLMs) in reducing the level of unemployment in developed economies. It empirically assesses the OECD's rationalisation of policy linking profitability to investment and job creation in four country cases. New capital investment is found to be significant for unemployment in all cases but it is not found to be a consequence of the mechanistic achievement of 'normal' profits. Without an empirically supported mechanism for how FLMs reduce unemployment, the policy is open to the accusation of being no more than a political tool for altering distribution, without concern for the wider socio-economic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Task scheduling is a wide research area with several scheduling techniques, each of which being based on a specific algorithmic approach. Although these techniques are often adjusted to the specifics of the various scheduling problems, there are few that are optimal for real-time domain. The aim of this paper is to give an overview the main algorithmic approaches and optimality criteria that could be applied in real time scheduling. Different methods for solving selected problem classes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The association between working hours and work ability was examined in a cross-sectional study of male (N=156) and female (N=1092) nurses in three public hospitals. Working hours were considered in terms of their professional and domestic hours per week and their combined impact; total work load. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between total work load and inadequate work ability index (WAI) for females only. Females reported a higher proportion of inadequate WAI, fewer professional work hours but longer domestic work hours. There were no significant differences in total work load by gender. The combination of professional and domestic work hours in females seemed to best explain their lower work ability. The findings suggest that investigations into female well-being need to consider their total work load. Our male sample may have lacked sufficient power to detect a relationship between working hours and work ability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is often claimed that shift workers give priority to long series of days off and therefore prefer compressed work schedules at the expense of what is optimal for long-term health. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the attitude to six new shift systems among a randomly selected sample of police officers. The results showed that the most popular shift system was a rapidly, forward, rotating schedule with at least 16h of rest between shifts, despite that it had fewer days off compared with some of the compressed shift systems. However, the individual differences were large and many individuals (32%) disliked the rapidly rotating shift system. Young age was associated with a positive attitude to the rapidly rotating shift system. The attitude to the shift system was also influenced by the present schedule, and shift systems that were similar to the present work hours received more positive evaluation. Sleep and health complaints showed no association with the attitude to the shift systems. In conclusion, the shift workers attitude to the new schedules was partly in agreement with the ergonomic recommendations of the design of three-shift systems that will facilitate sufficient sleep and minimize negative health consequences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose - This paper seeks to investigate the extent of the implementation of annual hours working in Britain and its impact upon employers, organisations and employees. Design/methodology/approach - The paper deploys secondary data and sources to establish an overview of the salient issues. Findings - Although there has been a growth in the extent of annual hours worked in the last decade, the rate of growth has slowed. This is related to the reduction in extant organisations that may consider introducing annual hours in tandem with the problems associated with annual hours worked. Research limitations/implications - Issues of working time remain a key area of contestation between employers and employees, particularly as in recent years coercive competitive pressures on organisations have increased whilst a discourse about 'family-friendly' working time polices has also emerged. Practical implications - The plaudits of management consultants and policy groups concerning annual hours worked are revealed to be rather one-sided, with considerable problems emerging for employers and employees alike. Originality/value - Brings together an array of data to build up an analysis of annual hours worked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenteeism describes the situation when workers are on the job but, because of illness, injury, or other conditions, they are not functioning at peak levels. Although much of the research on presenteeism appears in the medical literature, we argue that presenteeism also occurs when employees go to work but spend a portion of the workday engaging in personal business while on the job, such as e-mailing friends, paying personal bills, or making personal appointments. Results of a Web-based survey of 115 individuals suggest that employees spend approximately one hour and twenty minutes in a typical workday engaged in personal activities, costing their employers an average $8,875 each year in lost productivity per employee. Results suggest that engagement in personal business on the job is not related to self-reported measures of performance, efficiency, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, or intentions to stay, only to procrastination. Implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexibility allows adapting production capacity to demand fluctuations in a very efficient way. However, it implies a difficulty in managing individual working times as well as the workers' rejection. In this work two different flexibility systems are introduced (annualised working hours and working time accounts) and it is shown how, threw the use of appropriate and powerful tools, it is possible to take all the advantage of the flexibility whereas workers' working conditions are respected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reviews how working hours are asked for in 26 large-scale surveys in six countries plus the European Union. Four dimensions of working time were investigated, notably number of working hours, timing of work, predictability and control over hours, and commuting time. Although almost all questionnaires ask for hours worked, the terminology varies greatly. In only half of the cases a reference period is taken into account and in half the reasons for working more/less in the survey week than usual are asked for. Contractual hours are hardly asked for and so are paid and unpaid overtime hours. The timing of work is asked for in a minority of the questionnaires, and predictability and control over working hours is also not a major issue. The incidence of an on-call contract is the most likely proxy for predictability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the modern economy, the role of labour acquires primary coordinates, so that the most general and synthetical marker which characterizes the company's efficiency should be measured by labour productivity. The most important role among the multitude of productivity expressions is hold by labour productivity, due to the priority role of labour resource within the range of production factors. The reflection of labour efficiency within rates of return characterizes clearly describes the expression of usage and combination of production factors and of modalities to obtain maximum efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]