The "quiet crisis" in federal service is due to absence of dominant political condition or consensus regarding model on which public administration should be based. Extensive changes will bring about fundamental alterations in federal service even in absence of agreement on whether and how to rebuild. The public administration community can play a…

Analysis of census data on local government departments investigated the effects of association-style unionism on union membership. Found that in all local government services, the presence of an association in 1977 was a strong predictor of the formation of a bargaining unit by 1982--holding constant other important determinants of public…

New priorities on user involvement and consumerism in British public service agencies raise some issues: significance of process and technique, recognition of consultation fatigue, importance of an interagency approach, engaging employees and users, clarifying boundaries, and moral dilemmas. (SK)

Employees often want training in areas that are irrelevant to their jobs or inconsistent with organizational objectives. A well-designed questionnaire can weed out training wants to uncover an employee's true training needs. (Author)

Describes five stages of deciding on purchase or job: recognition of employment need; career information search; evaluation of career alternatives; identification and acceptance of employment; and postchoice evaluation. Evaluated importance of freedom/significance, growth, and variety in career decisions of 362 college students. Concludes…

Examined relationship between ethnicity and supervisors' Employee Assistance Program referrals in Black (n=64) and White (n=116) employees. Results indicated Blacks and Whites differed in beliefs about behavioral characteristics of troubled employees. Managers were more aware of behavior of impaired workers than were the workers. (ABL)

Reviews impact of labor relations on employee disability and subsequent work disruptions. Model disability management programs illustrating joint support by labor and management are reviewed. Key features of these cooperative industry-based programs are presented, with implications for rehabilitation practice in disability management service…

Developed a construct of sexual issues/sexual harassment in the workplace based on survey responses of 101 participants in a training program on sexual harassment before the training and 111 participants after the training. Results show a progression of attitudes toward behaviors from safe to most dangerous. (SLD)

Examines inequalities in availability of employer-based health insurance due to differences in formal educational attainment, using a sample of 7762 fully employed adult respondents in the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey. Fully employed individuals with higher formal education levels are more likely to have insurance. Ameliorative…

Appreciative Inquiry is a technique for organizational change that focuses on discovering what works well and why and determining how success can be extended throughout the organization. Its application to local government in Hampton, Virginia, revitalized the city work force. (SK)

Highlights the issue of states dipping into public employee pension funds and the long-term problems this may generate. (MLF)

Female accountants (330 of 650) in local, state, or federal agencies responded to general attitude statements and added narrative comments indicating that sexual harassment is a serious problem in the government accounting workplace. Many feel that their agencies have not addressed the issue adequately. (SK)

Examined occupational differences in social influences supporting smoking cessation and their relationships to intentions and self-efficacy to quit and to quitting. Data collected from smokers at 44 worksites indicated that differing social environments contributed to differences by occupational category in smoking prevalence and smoking…

Describes the phenomenon of working while black, which suggests that forms of racial profiling exist in the workplace and calls attention to predictable terms and conditions of employment that function to set black workers apart, thereby signifying degrees of marginalization, exclusion, and subordination in the workplace. Ten recommendations for…

The focus of this paper is on developing an understanding, and benchmarking, human resource management HRM issues in small and medium enterprises SMEs in South-Eastern Europe. The importance of SMEs in helping transition-based economies develop is critical, but at the same time the research indicates that the movement toward westernized business…