This issue of "The Progress of Education Reform" highlights data and research on why teachers leave, how attrition affects teacher shortages across the nation and the importance of working conditions for student performance. It focuses on: (1) reasons for teacher turnover; (2) elements of working conditions related to teacher retention…

Context: Few studies have systematically examined the experience of rural practice from the physician's perspective or included physicians from an array of specialties, particularly non-primary care. Purpose: To better understand differences between rural and urban physicians in perceptions of their practice environment. Methods: In 2001-2002,…

This article discusses the need to address issues emerging from racial differences in the workplace under the heading of leadership development. Traditionally leadership development centers on creating models of leadership, describing what constitutes effective leadership, and identifying skills and competencies that will improve the capacity to…

Organizations recognize the importance of creative employees and constantly explore ways to enhance their employees' creative behavior. Creativity research has directed substantial efforts to understanding how work environment fosters creativity. Yet, this research has paid little attention to the importance of specific characteristics of the work…

The current study examined whether women scientists' perceptions of voice moderate the impact of poor workplace climates on job satisfaction and whether effective leadership and mentoring promote women's voice. Survey data were collected from 135 faculty women in the natural sciences. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that…

Purpose: This article reports the results of a randomized, controlled evaluation of Partners in Caregiving in a Special Care Environment, an intervention designed to improve communication and cooperation between staff and families of residents in nursing home dementia programs. Design and Methods: Participants included 388 family members and 384…

The ideological shift by nation-states to "a knowledge-based economy" (also referred to as "knowledge-based society") is causing changes in the workplace. Brought about by the forces of globalisation and technological innovation, the ideologies of the "knowledge-based economy" are not limited to influencing the…

Solar power (also known as solar energy) is solar radiation emitted from the sun. Large panels that absorb the sun's energy as the sun beats down on them gather solar power. The energy in the rays can be used for heat (solar thermal energy) or converted to electricity (photovoltaic energy). Each solar energy project, from conception to…

A review of the literature on work and family as it pertains to administrative careers of women in higher education was conducted. The review revealed a continuing increase since 1900 in the number and proportion of women faculty. However, women are not moving up in the academic ranks and therefore are not likely to be considered for…

The purpose of this study was to examine a model for investigating employee mental health in industrial environments and, more particularly, to determine the extent to which a worker's perceptionss of the environment covaried with mental health criteria. (Author)

High stress levels experienced by child protection workers have been well documented. This study examined the effectiveness of a stress management program in a child protection agency. Subjects were case workers, immediate supervisors, and clerical staff; 320 subjects participated in pretesting and 279 subjects participated in posttesting.…

Distributive justice deals with the fairness of outcomes or rewards while procedural justice deals with the fairness of the rules and processes involved in the distribution of rewards. Two studies were conducted to examine the influence of different social contexts on the effects of procedural (PF) and distributive (DF) fairness. College students…

The findings from a study of 42 administrators in a large metropolitan school district supported the hypothesis that the use of privacy regulation mechanisms is deliberate and dynamic. The researchers considered the age and sex of the administrators, the length of time they'd held their current jobs, their tendencies toward Type A or Type B…

The career development of librarians requires working conditions to foster this growth. Employee needs for development are summarized and a possible variety of developmental activities are reviewed. Problems in providing or encouraging growth opportunities are discussed. An outline is then provided for desirable general institutional goals and…

A model for explaining structural variations between work units within the complex organization is presented. Based upon an analysis of the impact of task difficulty and task variability on intraorganizational structure, a taxonomy of alternative work-unit structures is derived. The taxonomy suggests that work units within a complex organization…