Changes in the workplace such as mergers, acquisitions, reengineering, and downsizing are forcing individuals to recognize the temporary nature of all jobs and develop what has been termed "career resilience.""Career resilience" differs from "career self-reliance" in that the former refers to individual career…

The changing workplace has altered workers' roles and forced them to assume primary responsibility for their own career development. Continued employment is increasingly being tied to lifelong learning and ongoing skill development. Just as workers are recognizing the need to ensure their marketability to employers, so too are employers facing…

Adversarial collective bargaining often leads to lingering resentments. Collaborative bargaining, conversely, is a problem-solving approach to contract negotiations based on common interests and mutual respect. It is estimated that at least 500 school districts nationwide incorporate major elements of the collaborative approach in their collective…

In a high performance work organization (HPWO), employee basic skills are just one of many components. HPWOs feature the following: they have flatter organizational structures, have work done by teams of highly skilled workers, and have a focus on quality, customer service, and continuous improvement. The collaborative approach to workplace…

Intended for employers, human resource staff, and adult educators, this digest addresses the purposes of career development programs in the workplace and describes the components of such programs. In the first section, the term career development is defined and labeled as just one component of organizations' human resource management. Eight…

Quality Circles (QC's) consist of small groups of people who perform the same work and who voluntarily meet on a regular basis to discuss problems, seek solutions, and cooperate with management in the implementation of those solutions. QC's operate on the premise that employee participation in decision making and problem solving improves the…

Studies have shown that employers have traditionally agreed on the behaviors and attitudes they expect from employees and on the security and benefits that they are willing to provide in return. Various factors, including rapid technological advancement and increased foreign competition, have changed this. Today's workers generally have less job…

The 21st century may become known as the era of lifelong learning and lifelong working. Retirement, the end stage of a linear working life, may be replaced with a learning, working, leisure, working, learning life cycle. Forced retirements and early retirement incentives have contributed to the decline of expertise in the workplace. Inflation,…

Options for flexible work schedules such as job sharing, compressed work weeks, reduced hours, work at home, and flextime have provided employees with the means to realize a better balance between work and family and engage simultaneously in more than one endeavor (for example, school and work or two careers). The same options can also lead to…

Many older workers in Canada today are perplexed and dismayed by the swift and dramatic changes occurring in the workplace. Plant closures, downsizings, restructuring, new technologies, international trade agreements, ecological concerns, and changing demographics have affected the Canadian workforce, particularly workers in their forties and…

Although employment can be an exciting challenge, it can also induce stress. This digest examines some of the characteristics of job-related stress. Three concepts characterize the association of work, mental health, and physical health. (1) Stress is an interaction between individuals and any source of environmental demand. (2) A stressor is an…

Globalization of the economy and rapid technological innovation challenge today's work force to prepare for continuous change. In response to a strong mandate from their membership, labor unions have formed partnerships to deliver the necessary worker education. Because they are in daily contact with workers and have a holistic knowledge of…

The gold-collar worker has problem-solving abilities, creativity, talent, and intelligence; performs non-repetitive and complex work difficult to evaluate; and prefers self management. Gold-collar information technology workers learn continually from experience; recognize the synergy of teams; can demonstrate leadership; and are strategic thinkers…