This interview is the latest in a series designed to give an airing to contemporary industrial relations issues. Training of shop stewards and other activists has been a major growth area for about 10 years. The Union of Shop, Distributive, and Allied Workers has been at the forefront in developing new courses and training methods. (SSH)

The series of three lectures examine different aspects of work as manifested in changes in workers' attitudes, responses to these changes in the European context, and significant European developments in relation to worker participation. The first lecture discusses social, technological, educational, and economic changes that have affected…

This document reports the proceedings of a conference held in Brussels to take stock (on the basis of the studies conducted by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training and the analyses carried out in this field in all the European Community member states) of the work undertaken in the last few years and to present…

Since many first line managers (FLMs) have not participated in formal learning, how they make sense of their roles and the training they are doing is significant. A relationship between inadequate literacy skills and ability to do a job is assumed. Language, literacy, and numeracy must be understood in terms of social practice and creation of…

After a review of the literature, critical reflective work behavior (CRWB) was defined as: a set of connected, individual activities aimed at analyzing, optimizing, or innovating work practices on the individual, team, or organizational level. The combination of literature review and analysis of case studies led to the operationalization of CRWB…

Organization Development (OD), conceived by behavioral scientists to humanize psychological aspects of working conditions which deprive employees of opportunities to develop and utilize their inherent resources, is based on the assumption that human resources can be released if people are given other conditions for work and cooperation. There is…

The definition of work has undergone a massive transition within the last decade, and this trend has major implications for vocational education. Earlier ideas of work included that it was full-time, permanent, and for life; in addition, work provided opportunities for career development, a clearly-defined employer-worker relationship, and clear…

This book examines the rhetoric surrounding the notion of informal learning in order to expand debate about the uses of informal learning in workplaces and about attempts to "recognize" it through competency-based standards. The following topics are among those discussed in the book's eight chapters: (1) the nature of informal learning…