When drafting or reviewing a personnel handbook, university administrators should be sure the handbook conforms to legal and constitutional requirements, and they should also make clear the parts of the handbook that actually constitute a contract between the employee and the university, as well as indicate the means by which the handbook can be…

Describes Purdue University's School of Liberal Arts Sexual Harassment Advisors' Network, an autonomous and informal program composed of volunteers who act as advisors for victims of sexual harassment. Describes operating procedures and relations with other campus offices, and discusses some of the unresolved issues that have emerged since 1992.…

A survey of 123 fire department employees found that years of service influenced overall job satisfaction and satisfaction with supervision, job content, departmental relations, and training. Those most satisfied were in the earliest years of service. Satisfaction with departmental relations received the lowest ratings. (SK)

Looks at the link between government needs for language capacity and the availability of languages in formal education. Suggests that despite previous links between education and defense and the availability of federal funding to subsidize languages in schools, the predominant pattern of language enrollment appears to be in response to domestic…

Suggests that human resources development professionals need to change their performance improvement focus and philosophy to embrace the importance of building on strengths and managing weaknesses. Identifies five characteristics indicative of employees' strengths. Describes seven strategies to help employees minimize their weaknesses while…

Examined the cardiovascular health profiles of hospital employees participating in an incentive screening program for 4 years. The program involved cardiovascular screenings, results counseling, and encouragement to participate in education and behavioral support programs. Cardiovascular health improvements related to long-term program…

An emerging concept from the field of business is to manage organizations by wandering around and engaging staff and consumers in informal interactions. The author extends these ideas to settings serving children and youth. In the best seller, In Search of Excellence, Peters and Waterman (1982) introduced Management by Walking Around (MBWA) as an…

Support of family is paramount to reducing the impact of highly stressful work on firefighters. Yet the degree of stress encountered by the family members, particularly spouses, resulting from ongoing job demands and exposure to traumatic situations is unclear. This qualitative study examined the effects of emergency service work on spouses of…

This study was an exploratory investigation of the development of a multirater instrument to measure employee problem-solving skill. The instrument consisted of two parallel forms: an employee self-assessment and a supervisory assessment. For the self-assessment, twenty employees rated the degree to which they engage in activities commonly…

This study investigated relationships among factors hypothesized as related to job loss grief. A summary grief score correlated positively with time since job loss and number of dependents, and negatively with length of notice. Perceived reemployment prospects and income loss related positively to some grief index subscales, as did the condition…

Understanding the influences upon curriculum formation is an ongoing challenge for adult educators. This discussion describes one approach to curriculum analysis--the aspirational myth--based on the notion that instructors and learners co-construct an idealized identity representing the end point of learning. The aspirational myth is described…

The purpose of this article is to provide employment counselors an overview of the growth in the number of older workers in the U.S. Various demographic, employment, and career development trends are presented. Specific suggestions for counseling older workers are offered. Readers are directed to a number of high-quality online resources for older…

This study investigates whether the type of job (i.e., information job versus noninformation job) had an effect on employee work attitudes as rated by their supervisors. In this study, the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI), a self-reporting type instrument, was used to record supervisors' responses on the work attitudes of information and…

The broad aims of this study are to gain insight into employees' on-the-job learning activities to help them improve their on-the-job learning. The authors define on-the-job learning styles and operationalize the concept to include both mental and overt learning styles and both interpersonal and intrapersonal learning styles. Organizations and…

Two methods of assessing preference for stimuli (i.e., potential reinforcers) were compared for adult administrative assistant employees. During Phase 1, a survey method and a verbal choice method of assessing preference for 6 stimuli were administered. During Phase 2, a coupon system was used to determine which categories of stimuli actually…