A first step toward thinking about job design issues involves consideration of three questions. They are (1) what kinds of changes occur when electronic tools are adopted in the workplace?, (2) whose jobs change and how?, and (3) who plays a role in job design? Answers can be drawn from data and observations from two Rand Corporation studies…

A certain amount of paper work is necessary in school systems, but it must be handled in a rational, planned, and controlled manner. Most problems begin and end with the lack of training for paper work and management systems. To avoid this problem, an operating procedures manual was developed for the Special Education Instructional Materials…

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has ranked 130 jobs in terms of the level of stress they engender. According to this ranking, clerical and service workers are in occupations which engender very high levels of stress. This study examined the relative contribution of a variety of occupational and nonoccupational sources of…

Predictors of occupational choices and of on-the-job effectiveness for graduates of secondary school stenographic training programs were investigated. Prior to graduation, 192 stenographic students were tested in measures of attitude, personality, and stenographic achievement. These students were then classified according to occupational choices…

Goal-setting has been accepted as an effective motivational tool. Whether goals should be participatively set or assigned was examined by holding goal difficulty constant in an investigation based on previous results which suggested that participants in goal-setting set more difficult goals than those for whom goals are assigned. Results suggest…

The concept of comparable worth is criticized for possible problems it could cause in the assessment of comparable values of different occupational categories, the cost to taxpayers, and the chaos it could cause in the economic system. (MD)

A study was conducted to answer the following research questions: (1) to what extent is there consensus in the organizational culture on basic rules for an effective performance; (2) to what extent are there variations in rule consensus for an effective performance appraisal interview among groups within the organization; and (3) to what extent do…

Rather than ask whether multiple roles, such as employee, wife, and mother, have a protective or harmful effect on women's psychological well being, this study examined the combination of stressors and supports associated with work and family roles. Female clerical workers (N=44) who were married and/or had a child living at home completed…

An ethnographic study of five clerk-typists and five applications clerks in a large federal agency included observations, interviews, and a 3-week job literacy program. Both in their performance on job tasks and in the tests and exercises in the literacy program, the clerks demonstrated a number of strategies by which they quickly locate…

The way in which Hispanic-American women adapt and cope with the organizational conditions within California colleges was studied. The 30 respondents (8 in the professorial ranks and 22 in the support services) were administered a questionnaire to determine their position, training and experience, and the respondents' views on the position and…

The employed woman often finds herself struggling to maintain multiple roles as wife, mother, and worker. Programs serving employed women's needs are a limited commodity in the United States, particularly in rural areas with a relative absence of human services. One approach to program planning in this area is through the examination of the…

A two-phase project was initiated to establish a research base of needed information technology skills. Phase 1 identified and verified the technical, human, and conceptual skills needed by clerical, managerial, and professional personnel to use information technology effectively. Phase 2 was the national validation of such skills through…

The pilot project described in this report was undertaken by the College of DuPage (CD) to increase the clerical efficiency of seven administrative offices through the installation of a computerized word processing and data transmission system. The first section of the report provides background information detailing: the history of computer…

This paper outlines the design and use of two linear models as decision-making tools in a school district. The problem to be solved was the allocation of resources for both clerical and custodial personnel. A solution was desired that could be quantified and documented and objectively serve the needs of the district. A clerical support model was…

The relationship between departmental activities and the need for nonacademic staff and operating funds was analyzed using regression analysis. Support costs were broken into task categories and related to certain basic variables describing the composition and activity of the unit (e.g., number of staff and teaching load). The results were linked…