The Usery decision invalidated an act of Congress as exceeding the commerce power--extension of minimum wage and maximum hour provisions to virtually all employees of states and their political subdivisions. The ruling is a salutary one if it heralds the Supreme Court's recognition that a significant degree of political and economic autonomy for…

The American Association of University Professors believes its removal of six colleges from its censure list, the largest since 1975, illustrates the strength and power of its sanction. All of the institutions revised their policies to comply with association standards on dismissals, tenure, and other issues of academic freedom. (MSE)

Changed trial group employees from a 5/40 to a 4/40 work schedule for four months then returned to a 5/40 schedule. In a second study, changed trial group employees from 5/40 to flextime. Organizational effectiveness was selectively enhanced. The most powerful effect was on worker attitudes. A mild positive effect was evident for several general…

Results of a national survey concerning medical school policies for employing nontenured clinician-educator faculty, the titles given to faculty members in these tracks, and special features of employment are presented. (MSE)

Gold mining brought a forced labor system to Witwatersrand, South Africa, in the 1880s as African laborers were rounded up from the hinterland and delivered to the mines. The system produced low wages, high mortality, and the loss of chances for upward mobility. Forced labor persists today in South African mines. (VM)

Considers the changes that have taken place in two-year college personnel policies concerning transfer, promotion, termination, hiring, outplacement, and exit interviews. Discusses the need to formalize these policies. (DMM)

Presents suggestions for superintendents and central office executives to provide support for principals. Principals can be helped in the following ways: hire the best principals; look within the system for principal candidates; provide training in instructional leadership; inform principals about legal matters; and visit principals often. (CJH)

From a sample of 368 work organizations, organizational characteristics are explored that favor proliferation of detailed job titles to describe work roles. Proliferation is linked to administrative imperatives, internal labor task struggles, and institutional environmental influence on personnel practices. Titles' fragmentation imposes status…

Pettigrew and Martin overstate the causal priority of structure over social psychology in maintaining barriers to equal employment and downplay the importance of the research they review. Braddock and McPartland present a plausible case for the existence of institutional barriers to equal employment, but their research is not conclusive. (PS)

Without an increase in five years, minimum wage workers, 60 percent of whom are women, have experienced a sharp decline in real earnings. Over seventeen million Americans fall outside the federal provision and rely on inadequate state standards. Overtime and tipping laws are discussed. Social costs of maintaining the "working poor" outweigh…

Provides a list of questions for obtaining, organizing, and comparing attributes and liabilities across several institutions or universities. Topics include: demographics; faculty/administration; duties; labs/equipment; programs; research; professional development; promotion; and benefits. These questions would also be useful to students selecting…

Provides an overview of controversies over the legality of employment quotas. Asserts that the realities of human relationships (which form a metaphorical "web") cannot always be recognized and considered by the courts (which operate as a metaphorical "ladder"). (KH)

The implications for the careers of junior faculty members of the trend toward creating tenure-track appointments that are tenure-track in name only, without any real security, are examined. (MSE)

A study of the educational background, extent, and origins of overseas training and academic inbreeding of education faculty in Australian universities found substantial overseas training (primarily in English-speaking countries and varying in origin by degree level) and a moderate proportion of faculty with degrees from their own institutions.…

Analyzes the legislative and judicial background of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)'s 1978 Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures. Argues that the guidelines' apparent objectives are at odds with those of the legislators who created the EEOC in the 1960s: the guidelines force employers to discriminate by race.…