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This article provides a mapping of quality of working life and measures its evolution between 1995 and 2005 with European Working Conditions Surveys. Using multilevel modelling, we assess the sensitivity of observed trends to “composition effects” and “country effects”. Results suggest a decreasing trend in the quality of working life: physical strain has increased, whereas work has become more intense and less complex. In Germany and Italy, all indicators have worsened, whereas other EU-15 countries have more mixed results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores why engineering students are committed to counterproductive practices. Student informants' work practices appeared to coincide with lay stereotypes about what "good engineers" do, and they sought to justify those practices as rational. This externalization encouraged them to perform these practices more frequently. We characterize the relationship between the enactment of norms and the externalization of work practices as a dialectical process that helps explain why the students could not conceive of changing their practices. We draw implications for theory on occupational socialization and for the management of engineering work from our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of how creativity is displayed among florists working in Switzerland, and how exactly gender plays out in this process. It investigates how the florists refer to creativity as a natural skill, according to which criteria these "creative identities" are allocated, and how gender intersects with this allocation process. Drawing on thirty-six months of ethnographic research in various occupational settings, I will examine the gendering of creativity and its unequal allocation among workers in a highly feminized occupation. This article brings to light that although the scope for creativity is first presented as equally distributed among women and men, it becomes gendered upon a closer look: male florists tend to be perceived as truly creative. The resulting inequality is important to understand in order to unveil certain underlying mechanisms at play: even in a highly feminized occupation, masculinity appears to be strongly associated with professional competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this experimental work, we propose for the first time a simple, effectual and green approach to produce pure Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 nanostructures employing a novel fuel, Phoenix dactylifera extract. The role of the utilized amount of Phoenix dactylifera extract on the morphological characteristics, electrochemical hydrogen storage and also Coulombic efficiency of Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 was examined, for the first time. The characteristics and performance of Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 was found to be influenced through alteration in the utilized amount of Phoenix dactylifera extract. Multiple investigations have been done to analyze and confirm the formation as well as characterization of Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 nanostructures. Further, we investigated the performance of different Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 structures (produced employing with varied dosages of Phoenix dactylifera extract) in electrochemical hydrogen storage through chronopotentiometry route in basic medium. The findings point out that very uniform Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 nanoparticles formed employing 3 ml of Phoenix dactylifera extract can display superior performance to store hydrogen. This sample illustrates the great discharge capacity (2715 mAh/g) also high Coulombic efficiency (63.24%). Also, application of novel and green fuel (Phoenix dactylifera extract) can lead to preparation of Dy 2 Ce 2 O 7 , which can be efficiently utilized to store hydrogen (clean energy carrier) as a potential material, and resulting into decrement in the environmental pollution. Graphical abstract Image 1043 Highlights • A simple and effectual approach was used to produce Dy2Ce2O7 nanostructures. • Phoenix dactylifera extract was applied as new and green fuel. • Different Dy2Ce2O7 structures were produced with varied dosages of Phoenix dactylifera extract. • Hydrogen storage performances of different Dy2Ce2O7 structures were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increased knowledge of the temporal patterns in the distribution of trauma admissions could be beneficial to staffing and resource allocation efforts. However, little work has been done to understand how this distribution varies based on patient acuity, trauma mechanism or need for intervention. We hypothesize that temporal patterns exist in the distribution of trauma admissions, and that deep patterns exist when traumas are analyzed by their type and severity. Study design: We conducted a cross-sectional observational study of adult patient flow at a level one trauma center over three years, 7/1/2013–6/30/2016. Primary thermal injuries were excluded. Frequency analysis was performed for patients grouped by ED disposition and mechanism against timing of admission; in subgroup analysis additional exclusion criteria were imposed. Results: 10,684 trauma contacts were analyzed. Trauma contacts were more frequent on Saturdays and Sundays than on weekdays (p<0.001). Peak arrival time was centered around evening shift change (6-7pm), but differed based on ED disposition: OR and ICU or Step-Down admissions (p = 0.0007), OR and floor admissions (p<0.0001), and ICU or Step-Down and floor admissions (p<0.0001). Step-Down and ICU arrival times (p = 0.42) were not different. Penetrating injuries peaked later than blunt (p<0.0001). Trauma varies throughout the year; we establish a high incidence trauma season (April to late October). Different mechanisms have varying dependence upon season; Motorcycle crashes (MCCs) have the greatest dependence. Conclusion: We identify new patterns in the temporal and seasonal variation of trauma and of specific mechanisms of injury, including the novel findings that 1) penetrating trauma tends to present at later times than blunt, and 2) critically ill patients requiring an OR tend to present later than those who are less acute and require an ICU or Step-Down unit. These patients present later than those who are admitted to the floor. Penetrating trauma patients arriving later than blunt may be the underlying reason why operative patients arrive later than other patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This work extends our previous work [4,22] with the iteration operator. This new operator allows for representing more general networks and thus enhancing the former propositional logic for Petri nets. We provide an axiomatization and a new semantics, prove soundness and completeness with respect to its semantics and the EXPTIME-Hardness of its satisfiability problem, present a linear model checking algorithm and show that its satisfiability problem is in 2EXPTIME. In order to illustrate its usage, we also provide some examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mail survey reports on ethical problems faced by 330 advertising agency executives. The most frequently cited difficult ethical problem is "treating clients fairly." Creating honest advertisements and representing clients whose products or services are unhealthy or not needed were also frequently mentioned. Many agency executives reported that such ethical problems affect both their performance and their relationships with co-workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationships between the sales managers social power bases and the salesperson's satisfaction with supervision, role clarity, and propensity to leave the organization are empirically analyzed. In addition, the influence of the salesperson's sex, age, and time on the job upon the sales manager-salesperson power relationship is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores work-family relations from the perspective of the emotion management performed by participants in both spheres. We extend previous discussions of emotion management by considering how work and family roles vary in the types and degrees of emotion management they require. We then explore the implications of this conception of work-family role variations in type and degree of emotion management for women's and men's work-family relations, paying particular attention to gender differences in work-family conflict and work-family role overload. The framework developed here highlights the need to examine variability in the emotion-management requirements of social roles, and it calls for attention to workers' multiple role involvements in studies of emotion management and their effects on individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a test of Lee and Mitchell's model of voluntary employee departure from an organization. Data gathered from interviews with nurses who had recently quit their jobs and a mailed survey were analyzed qualitatively via pattern matching and quantitatively through correlations, analysis of medians, log linear modeling, and contingency tables. Although the data generally supported the theory, several nonconfirming cases revealed ambiguities in the model and therefore opportunities for improvement. In general, the data indicated that people use different and distinct psychological processes when leaving an organization and that some of these processes may not be consistent with existing turnover theories. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined how decision-making procedures can facilitate the positive attitudes necessary for cooperative relations in decision-making teams. We hypothesized that consideration of member input and members' influence on a decision affect their perceptions of procedural fairness and consequently, their commitment to the decision, attachment to the group, and trust in its leader. An experiment involving intact management teams supported these hypothesis and indicated that perceived fairness partially mediated the impact of procedures on commitment, attachment, and trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of sex and gender role on self- and group perceptions of leader emergence were examined. Though women were slightly more likely to emerge as leaders than men, gender role had a stronger effect on emergent leadership than sex. Specifically, androgynous and masculine subjects were the most likely to emerge as leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops and empirically examines a social exchange model of organizational citizenship behavior. An employee's trust in a supervisor is proposed to mediate the relationship between procedural fairness in the supervisor's decision making and employee citizenship. Data from 475 hospital employees and their supervisors were consistent with our model. We discuss future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical investigations of differences between females and males in the industrial salesforce have not been published. This study is an attempt to begin to fill this void. Women and men are compared on six job satisfaction components, value importance of the job components, performance, role clarity, and propensity to leave the organization. The findings generally support the hypothesis of "no difference" between males and females. However, women did have lower role clarity scores and higher propensity to leave scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a study on work ethics and beliefs about work among white collar and blue collar workers in the United States. The study focused on the social value and personal meaning of work to individual workers. The article discusses the influence of humanistic principles and organizational behavior on individual beliefs about work. The roots of the work ethic in religious and social tradition are discussed. The author comments on changes in the work ethic over time, and the significance of humanistic ethics to current beliefs about work.

This paper lays the groundwork for new models of work and relations of production that reflect changes in the division of labor and occupational structure of a postindustrial economy. It demonstrates how new ideal-typical occupations can be constructed, drawing on a set of ethnographies to propose an empirically grounded model of technicians' work. The paper focuses on two questions: What do technicians do and what do they know? The answers constitute a first cut at the ideal type, technician. The paper then turns to evidence of the difficulties that arise when organizations employ technicians but fail to appreciate the nature of their work. It closes by showing how a contextually derived model of technicians' work enables us to evaluate why some recent trends in organizing are congruent with an increasingly technical workforce, why others may be misguided, and why organizations are likely to face challenges that organizational theorists have but vaguely anticipated. The paper shows that the emergence of technicians' work may signify a shift to a more horizontal division of substantive expertise that undermines the logic of vertical organizing on which most organizational theory and practice still rests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores various factors that account for the power of secretaries, hospital attendants, prison inmates, and other lower participants within organizations. Power is seen as resulting from access to and control over persons, information, and instrumentalities. Among the variables discussed affecting power are normative definitions, perception of legitimacy, exchange, and coalitions. Personal attributes related to power include commitment, effort, interest, willingness to use power, skills, and attractiveneses. Finally, various attributes of social structure are discussed which also help to account for the power of lower participants: time spent in the organization, centrality of position, duality of power structures, and replaceability of persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison of job performance of Mexican-American and non-Mexican-American employees in various city departments and in a large department store measured absentee rates, accident rates, efficiency ratings, promotional test scores, and sales records. The conclusions revealed that Mexican-Americans meet the same qualifications as non-Mexican-Americans in employment areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a study of engineering technicians and draftsmen in the California aerospace industry and suggests that they are "marginal" workers whose status is placed between that of professional and manual workers. Statistics show that the majority of these industrial workers are young men with a high school diploma who see themselves as professionals. Technicians rank merit and additional training as the most important factors in job promotion. They also indicated that wage increases, interest in their work, and outlook for promotion are the top three motivating factors in their occupation. Job satisfaction and four work-related values, including information sharing and the prospect of a management position, are mentioned, as well as four categories of technical occupations.

The article suggests a personnel policy that focuses on executives' spouses and a wife's role in advancing her husband's career. Positive programs for managers' wives include them in and compensate them for business travel and community-relations activity. Recruitment and evaluation practices should assess the wife's social and business abilities and the effect of the couple's relationship on the organization. Training and development programs can support the concept of a family relationship that includes the corporation, make the wife more effective in public relations and social activities, coordinate the couple's charitable contributions and voluntarism to the company's interests, and recognize or reward their service to the company.

This article contributes to the main discussions about the dynamics of control and resistances in work spaces by approaching the central debates in the field of work studies. To do that, it is necessary to review the polemics, conceptual contributions, and clashing perspectives that configure both control and resistances. In this way, the author attempts to collaborate in the construction of a way of seeing that will facilitate the conceptual reconnection of the two concepts in light of recent changes in work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on surrogate motherhood have mostly explored paid arrangements through the lens of a contract model, as clinical work or as a maternal identity-building project. Turning to the under-examined case of unpaid, so-called altruistic surrogate motherhood and based on an analysis of interviews with women who had been unpaid surrogate mothers in a full gestational surrogacy with a friend or relative in Canada, the United States or Australia, this article explores altruistic surrogate motherhood as relational work. It argues that this form of surrogate motherhood within close interpersonal relations can be conceptualised through the relational work involved in hosting a child for the intended parents. The article explores how relational work in this context implies an embodied, asymmetrical and far-reaching sense of responsibility that surrogate mothers describe as characteristic of their surrogacy experience. In this way, the article sheds light on feminist concerns about surrogacy as an embodied and objectifying work of women while at the same time illuminating how surrogate mothers respond to the intended parents in light of their pre-surrogacy relationship, how meanings are negotiated by them and how relationships are managed during the pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to emphasize the importance of a different dimension of social work intervention: working with groups. Working with groups in social work means a refined mix of individual approaches and methods with groups dynamics. There is no need to explain the importance of groups in any activity, since we became group members ourselves since our very first breath. The structure and norms of the society make us group components under social group dynamics, laws and processes. It is impossible to be a part of society without belonging to different groups (Toseland, Rivas, 2009, 3‑5). Working with groups presumes a two layer approach: the first one centered on the individual as member of the group and the second one with focus on group as an entity with specific processes, functions and particularities. The challenge of working with groups appears mainly from the need to offer attention and support to the assisted person as a member of the group and at the same time considering the parameters of the group as a stand‑alone entity (stages, dynamics, disturbing factors). This study will review general notions on group typology, dynamics and specific working methods with groups in social work and also group evaluation strategies. The attached case study will analyse the work relationship inside a Romanian NGO. The objective of this article is to discuss various aspects of working with groups by pointing out the main group characteristics (for a better understanding of the specifics of this intervention) and by presenting a case study with a practical group evaluation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we define the concept of 'risk work,' which aims to make visible working practices to assess or manage risk, in order to subject these practices to sociological critique. This article reviews and synthesizes existing published literature to identify components of risk work: (a) translating risk into different contexts, (b) minimizing risks in practice, and (c) caring in the context of risk. We argue that these three components of risk work raise important tensions for workers that have been inadequately explored in the literature to date. We propose that future research should additionally focus on practitioner subjectivity and identity in risk work. In addition, we argue that comparative research-across type of risk and different contexts-and methodological and theoretical diversity would enhance this emerging field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work performed under cash-for-care programmes is based on a relationship between several parties, including, at a minimum, the workers providing the services, the care recipients and the public authorities that manage and fund these programmes. Labour law studies have pointed out that the labour relations regulation is not adapted to this type of non-standard employment relationship since it has been founded on the norm of the integrated firm and bilateral employer–employee relations. Based on a case study of a cash-for-care programme in Quebec, Canada (i.e. the Service Employment Paycheque plan), our socio-legal analysis confirms the weak protection of collective labour rights provided to Service Employment Paycheque plan workers. It also describes how the application of the legal regulation of labour relations to this organizational model fails to take into account the power exercised by the public authorities and demonstrates the impact of this failure in terms of precarization of work and its gendered devaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing specialty literature (see, for example, Jakob Schrenk, 2010) we notice that attitude towards work have changed in contemporary society. Since passed ages, work was considered a natural activity, specific especially for adults, developed for producing goods for a better living (for our own person, for our family and, indirectly, for society). Today we can notice that work have become the sense of life, the main aim for life. Some people work for working, forgetting that the purpose of life is first our becoming, evolution, perfection as human being, through relations with others. Or, today, work has become to signify alienation from others, physical and spiritual, dehumanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retirement can no longer be conceptualized as disengagement, as the end of a person's career, as it is in the life-span, life-space theory. Increasingly, retirees are returning to work, in paid, and unpaid positions, in a part-time or full-time capacity, as an act of re-engagement. Vocational psychology theories are yet to adequately conceptualize the phenomenon of retirees' re-engagement in work. The research reported in this paper is the first attempt to understand re-engagement through the theoretical lens of career construction theory (CCT) and its central construct, career adaptability. The study involved intensive interviews with 22 retirees between the ages of 56 and 78 years (M D 68.24), who had retired no less than 1 year prior to the study. Participants were engaged in a discussion about their reasons for returning to the world of work. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts extracted evidence of the four career adaptability resources: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. In addition, the influence of family and making a contribution were discerned as important themes. These findings are the first evidence that the CCT and career adaptability provide a new conceptual lens to theorize and conduct research into the phenomenon of retirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to explore the differences and similarities in the utilization of high-performance work systems ( HPWS) in Chinese and Irish professional service firms ( PSFs). Using data collected from 112 Chinese and 120 Irish accounting firms, we found that Chinese PSFs demonstrate higher scores in selective recruitment and contingent remuneration, while Irish PSFs show higher scores in performance management and training. Chinese and Irish PSFs employed similar levels of information sharing and participation and had similar scores on an overall HPWS index. Consistent results were found for the positive relationship between HPWS and organizational performance in both Chinese and Irish PSFs despite their different utilization of HPWS elements. This cross-national study provides insights into the differences between eastern and western approaches in managing human resources in the professional service context and demonstrates the potential value of using HPWS to improve performance in PSFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on three case studies in each of Australia, New Zealand and Scotland, this article explores how care workers employed in the social services sector negotiate their unpaid care responsibilities in the context of lean work organization and low pay. For younger workers, the unrelenting demands of service provision and low pay made any long-term commitment to working in social services unrealistic, while many female workers experienced significant stress as they bent their unpaid care responsibilities to the demands of their paid work. However, male workers, less likely to have primary caring responsibilities, appeared less troubled by the prioritizing of paid over unpaid care work and less likely to self-exploit for the job. At the same time, there is a widespread acceptance across different national and organizational contexts that the work/family juggle is a personal responsibility rather than a structural problem caused by the demands of underfunded and overstretched organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in the organizational behavior and management literatures toward social sustainability are leading to new theories, models, and concepts that promote employee well-being and functioning while helping organizations achieved desired ends. One concept that has yet to be imported to community psychology is thriving at work, which is the joint experience of learning and vitality, where a worker is able to grow, develop, and feel energized (Spreitzer et al., 2005). This paper will articulate a definition of thriving at work, explore current theory and modeling of the concept, and show why it is a unique concept of importance to community psychologists. Then, thriving at work will be integrated into recent scholarship on sense of community and sense of community responsibility in organizational settings (Boyd & Nowell, 2014; Nowell & Boyd, 2010; 2011), with an eye on showing how thriving at work can help community psychologists advance organizational behavior research in our field. Finally, in the epilogue of the paper, some thoughts will be advanced on how thriving at work can be incorporated with important research topics in the field of community psychology, and how it can potentially be translated to community contexts in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to identify specific, shared sources of meaning and mechanisms with which individuals attempt to make meaning, the objectives of this study were to explore the way in which secondary school teachers perceive, conceptualise and attain meaning in their work. A qualitative design with a phenomenological strategy was used with a convenience sample (n = 20) of teachers. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews with open-ended questions were used to gather data. Participants were asked to diarise related issues for five working days following the interview, in order to strengthen and validate the interviews' results. The results showed that the participants conceptualise meaning as purpose and significance, and that the main sources of meaning related to work include the transfer of knowledge, and making a positive difference in the learners' lives. Forming relationships based on trust and receiving feedback was also important. The main mechanisms identified were putting effort into preparations, while this group of participants reported that meaning leads to the experience of happiness and personal satisfaction. Although most of these findings support those in the broader literature, there are differences in the emphasis placed on some of the findings, due to the context of education in South Africa. From the results, recommendations were made to create opportunities for teachers to experience more meaning in their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role that scientific portraits play in shaping public perceptions of scientists and, by extension, the scientific enterprise. A new category of scientific portrait, termed the “scientist at work,” is introduced and discussed through the lens of Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s theories about creating value and presence for an audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the significant contributions of Lillian M. Gilbreth through the lens of critical biography to put her work in the context of her life events, her key roles, the turning points in her life and the societal context within which her contributions to management thought were made. Design/methodology/approach – Critical biography examines the interaction of a person’s life events with the social, economic and political contexts surrounding his or her life and draws inferences as to why the person made specific decisions and contributions. Findings – Key contributions to management thought made by Lillian M. Gilbreth are linked to her biographical events, including the multiple roles she played as daughter, student, wife, mother, author, engineer, psychologist, breadwinner, domestic scientist and teacher. Various turning points in her life are identified, including being allowed to go to college, taking her first psychology course, marrying Frank Gilbreth, publishing Fatigue Studies and Frank’s death. Key societal factors that influenced Gilbreth’s contributions were the growing interest in scientific management, the status of women and the increased interest in domestic science. Research limitations/implications – The qualitative technique of critical biography is demonstrated as a useful methodology for examining individual contributions to management history. The authors acknowledge the limitation of subjective interpretation. Practical implications – The reasons behind Lillian Gilbreth’s contributions, which were considered a precursor to the human relations era, are extrapolated from this research. Social implications – The influence of social context is examined, as it pertains to the life and work of Lillian Gilbreth. Originality/value – This paper provides a critical biography of Lillian M. Gilbreth and her work within the context of her life and times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of job demands and job-related resources on the experience of two dimensions of work-life conflict (WLC) in Britain. Theory suggests that higher levels of resources should reduce WLC but empirical analyses often fail to find this effect. We address the issue by examining the impact of a wide range of resources as well as their interactions with job demands. Analyses of the Working in Britain 2000 survey suggest that job resources and demands affect WLC through different processes, which differ for the two types of WLC. They fail to find evidence that job resources dampen the effects of job demands on WLC. They also document that many effects of job characteristics depend on context or vary by gender, for example, the effects of job pressure and job autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent scientific studies show that the ratio of positive emotions to negative emotions in people with a high degree of comfort and happiness is 3:1. This indicates the importance of acquiring appreciative skills to enhance positive emotional states that generate better interpersonal relationships and facilitate learning and innovation, among other benefits. This article describes the intervention at the call center of a telecommunications company with five different locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Majority World working children's voices have attained some prominence in debates over their well-being. Many have defended their right to work, challenging Minority World understandings of children's ‘best’ interests. Yet employers' voices remain sidelined, raising questions over the extent to which the discursive and material spaces of children's work have been decolonised. A postcolonial perspective on children's work challenges suggestions that Majority World adults (and societies) need western guidance on how childrenoughtto be raised. It also creates opportunities to look beyond western discourses of economic exploitation, to the potential for more-than-economic relationships between working children and their employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate employee perceptions of the influence of communication technology use outside of regular work hours on perceptions of work life conflict, burnout, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction. An online survey of 168 employees from more than 30 companies in a Midwestern city was conducted to assess relationships among these variables. The results indicated that hours of work-related communication technology use outside of regular work hours contributed to perceptions of work life conflict. However, positive attitudes toward communication technologies predicted decreased work life conflict. Controlling for worker age, perceived life stress, and attitudes toward communication technologies, work life conflict was found to predict job burnout and job satisfaction, but not turnover intentions. The authors discuss implications of the study findings for management practices, limitations of the study, and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]