Interviews with 13 women who had worked in temporary clerical positions identified ways in which they are alienated from work, from others, and from themselves; the ways they actively resist alienation; and constraints on resistance. Results revealed a concern that temporary workers are disproportionately those already marginalized, such as women…

Analysis of a sample of 306 workers shows that neither the gender nor racial composition of the workplace is associated with productivity. An alternative explanation for lower wages of women and minorities is social closure--the monopolizing of desirable positions by advantaged workers. (SK)

Interviews with 50 public service employees with disabilities show that employers are reluctant to modify work because of their need to contain costs and maintain control. They often discourage requests for reasonable accommodation and deny one in three. (SK)

A study of the United Packinghouse Workers of America compared the postwar years and the Reagan era. Using event-structure analysis, the development of new corporate strategies (new technologies, production reorganization, cheap nonunion labor) fundamentally transformed the capital-labor relationship and led to the collapse of industrial unionism…

A hidden participant/observer working in a Japanese auto plant in the United States discovered worker resistance to Japanese management practices in the form of sabotage, protest, agitation, and confrontation. Results questioned assumptions that participatory techniques increase worker control and decentralized authority increases worker autonomy.…

A case study of the impact of video technology on surgical work identified technological foundations of two structures in decentralized work units. Unilateral control by a dominant actor in a team works best with segmented tasks and face-to-face context. Teams with group-based coordination work best when team actions involve complex…

Analyses of national survey data on workplace democracy found both managers and workers support worker participation in manager selection and worker control of production processes. Experience of class-related practices strongly predicts attitudes; location in the class hierarchy does not. Once workers gain some control, they seek to broaden it to…

Interviews and other data collected from a high-tech firm found that organizational instability raises workers' inclination to quit, independent of whether their job security is threatened. Instability undermines trust and impairs the usefulness of incentives intended to increase commitment. (SK)

Describes an empirical method to identify work-similar occupations using selected measures from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Examines male-female earnings differences within a group of work-similar occupations and finds that discrimination against females is extensive. (Author/CH)

An examination of turn-of-the-century maximum hours laws shows that in certain circumstances they increased women's share of employment but did not affect occupational sex segregation. These results support two theories: that such laws protect employers' class interests and that they protect both their gendered and their class interests. (SK)

Data from over 15,000 college coaching and administrative positions are analyzed. Results suggest that, consistent with Title IX, positions in women's athletics have increased. But, contrary to equal employment opportunity regulations, the probability of filling a vacancy is not equal across the sexes. (Author/SK)

This study investigated the existence of race and sex discrimination in the evaluation of job applicant resumes sent to personnel directors of 200 corporations across the United States. The results show that identification of race generated more replies but fewer numbers of positive responses than when race was not identified. (Author/CT)

Analysis of data from the North Carolina Employment and Health Survey examined organizational characteristics that affect gender inequality: organizational resources, regional culture, market sector, organization size, and employment relations. Gender earnings inequality ranged from 51% to parity, were higher where organizational resources are…

Analysis of data from 804 African Americans and 2,101 Whites supported the particularistic mobility thesis. African Americans' promotion to managerial-administrative or professional-technical occupations was restricted by particularistic employment practices to those who acquire significant human capital credentials and experience. These practices…