The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive review of research on employee absenteeism conducted on both educational and noneducational personnel. Although the report focuses primarily on the absences of educational employees, comparatively little research has been reported on this topic in the published educational literature.…

In the spring of 2005, the author, the retiring president of EDUCAUSE, was asked to be the keynote speaker at the EDUCAUSE Western Regional Conference. The conference theme was "Winds of Change: Charting the Course for Technology in Challenging Times." What that brought to his mind was the era of the great sailing ships of the eighteenth and…

Organizations, with the help of human resource development (HRD) staff, must reexamine their objectives for future operations and the work force. Organizations with a focus on organizational development (OD) can provide meaningful work to employees and the organization itself. The OD framework consists of three units that must coexist as the major…

In all forms of workplaces administrators have been exhorted to introduce what are perceived to be the "best practices" operating in the more successful economies. The education "industry" in Australia appears to be no different in this regard from other industries. Invariably, the "best practices" proposed for the…

One of the goals of the Office Systems Research Association (OSRA) is to ascertain the competencies needed by an information systems professional charged with organizational and personal performance technologies. This model curriculum, a major update of OSRA's 1986 Model Curriculum, emphasizes the technical aspects of multimedia desktop…

This book explores how people look at workplaces and the consequences for one's understanding of work. Chapter 1 discusses the rhetoric of skill requirements. Chapter 2 follows the attempt of Kramden Computers to provide training to reduce problems in workmanship and the program's failure due to the inadequacy of the skill concept. Chapter 3…

Listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of adult second language learners. Listening is a demanding process, because of both the process itself and factors that characterize the listener, speaker, message content, and any accompanying visual support. The speaker's use of colloquial language and reduced forms,…

Five curriculum modules for Momentum, Inc., a San Francisco (California) outerwear design and contract manufacturer, are presented. Momentum was one of four small businesses involved in Project EXCEL, a workplace literacy project that focused on literacy and basic skills training for limited-English-proficient (LEP) workers. The modules are as…

A study of the general working conditions, financial status, performance opportunities, funding, and work practices of choreographers in New York City, Chicago (Illinois), San Francisco (California), and Washington, D.C. was conducted in order to develop benchmark statistics. These statistics focus on the national choreographer population and…

The library is a relatively safe work place, but no place is completely free from hazards. This paper examines the major health and safety concerns of staff and patrons of academic and public libraries, based on a literature review of approximately 60 articles. According to this literature, general safety hazards are not considered a major problem…

This is primarily a collection of abstracts for training workshops for professionals in the field of multicultural education. The abstracts are: (1) "An Exploration of the Unspoken: A Group Relations Approach to Multicultural Dialogue" (Zachary G. Green); (2) "Exploring Our Cultural Assumptions" (Daniel Rivera); (3)…

This document highlights farmworkers' testimonies concerning farmworker health taken during three hearings. Six consistent themes emerged from farmworker accounts: (1) health and health care; (2) work conditions; (3) pesticide exposure; (4) housing; (5) women; and (6) children and youth. Farmworkers frequently mentioned injuries, eye problems, and…

This report details a situation analysis of children working in football stitching around Sialkot, Pakistan. The analysis (1) examined the reasons that children work and the probable impact of eradicating children's involvement and phasing out home-based production and (2) determined a baseline for monitoring changes in children's and families'…

This study was conducted to compare a 1990 sample of beginning teachers with a 1985 sample of beginning teachers who had graduated from the same university. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the 1990 sample, which had experienced greater emphasis on field experiences and structured beginning teacher induction programs, would…

This bulletin describes the changing nature of work and summarizes research that has sought to identify the skills that all high school graduates and adult learners should have. It challenges several common assumptions about what preparation is needed for the workplace and how effectively schools are delivering the necessary skills. It cites the…