Organizations are being urged to become "high performance work organizations" (HPWOs) and vocational teachers have begun considering how best to prepare workers for them. Little consensus exists as to what HPWOs are. Several common characteristics of HPWOs have been identified, and two distinct models of HPWOs are emerging in the United…

Recent graduates of College Student Personnel programs from five universities were surveyed on their job search process, reasons for choosing their current job, their experiences with institutional policies, and ethical and political situations they encountered as new professionals. The results indicated that between 26% and 44% of these new…

When properly managed, stress can serve as a key to successful job performance. This book explores the link between pressure and performance in schools. It shows how to recognize stress as both a facilitator and debilitator of effective performance. Chapter 1 serves as a personal stress checkup. Chapter 2 explores the myths of administrative…

The role that international businesses can play in local foreign language instruction is described based on experiences in teaching French at a women's college in Virginia. Personal contacts have brought French businessmen into the classroom and have provided students with an understanding of the relevance of their studies, provided an outreach…

A college instructor, already experienced as a consultant and trainer in written and oral business communication, became convinced by two students in an executive management training program that gaining an insider's perspective might be exceedingly valuable. A few years later, the instructor got such an opportunity: she became a corporate editor…

In 1988, the National Child Care Staffing Study (NCCSS) exposed the minimally adequate and deteriorating quality that characterized many of our nation's full-day child care centers and linked this poor quality to the inadequate compensation available to child care teaching staff. This report describes a follow-up study done in 1992 to provide an…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effect of school organization on teachers' attitudes toward their work environments. The study compared the attitudes of teachers who work in schools with an interdisciplinary team organization (ITO) with those of teachers who work in schools with a traditional departmental organization…

The History section of the Proceedings contains the following 18 papers: "Pioneers in the State Freedom of Information Movement" (Jeanni Atkins and James A. Lumpp); "'Censorship Liberally Administered': Press, U.S. Military Relations in the Spanish-American War" (Randall S. Sumpter); "Two Tales of One City: How Cultural…

The 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) surveyed 2,877 employees regarding the relationship between workers' lives on and off the job and changes in the nature of work. The report also provides a historical perspective by comparing data from 1997 with data from the 1992 NSCW and from the U.S. Department of Labor's 1977 Quality of…

Reliable child care services are widely viewed as pivotal to the success of welfare reform because most welfare recipients depend on child care in order to seek, gain, and maintain employment. Others of the working poor need it to avoid dependency on public assistance. As a result, current policy decisions and research efforts are largely focused…

Pertinent general and library specific stress studies are reviewed to demonstrate the importance and benefits of keeping job stress within healthy (normal) levels in libraries. Studies are cited to show the potentially adverse impact of stress on individuals and organizations, generally, and librarians and libraries, specifically. The results of a…

This study surveyed special education directors and speech language pathologists (SLPs) to identify recruitment and retention strategies currently in place in West Virginia and related problems. A 13-item questionnaire was mailed to all 55 Special Education Directors (SED) in West Virginia. A second survey instrument, consisting of 36 items, was…

A case study of on-the-job training was conducted in the stockroom of an electronics manufacturer. The focus was on education embedded in ongoing work activities, in contrast to school-based learning as an activity separate from other life activities. Throughout the study, the interplay of two activities--stockroom work and stockroom training--was…

A joint hearing was held to consider S. 600, a U.S. Senate bill designed to help educate the public about federal child labor laws and strengthen enforcement of child labor laws through an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum presided. The hearings were called because of sporadic enforcement of inadequate…

More than 58 percent of all women working in the U.S. labor force, many of them sole supports of their families, and 67 percent of women with children under age 18 are working. Therefore, more flexible work options are being made to allow a balance of work and family. Increasingly available options include work at home, compressed workweeks,…