EMPLOYEE HEALTH BY DESIGN: USING EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT TEAMS IN ERGONOMIC JOB REDESIGN

An innovative, team-based, ergonomic job redesign effort in a large Midwest organization is described. Joint management-labor teams composed of representatives from each department of the plant were formed and trained in team-building and ergonomic principles. These teams prioritized jobs for ergonomic redesign and developed and implemented solutions. Sources of data for this redesign process included: a physical symptom survey, OSHA logs for cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), observations, videotapes, and employee interviews about their jobs, tools, and pain experienced at work. Ergonomic changes at the plant resulted in significant reductions in the number and severity of CTDs, lost production time, and restricted duty days. Recommendations based on experiences with this ergonomic intervention are made for HRM practitioners.     

Bartky,Domination, and the Subject

Bartky's Femininity and Domination analyses the social construction of femininity and the ways that it oppresses women. Utilizing phenomenology, Bartky provides illuminating examples of the experience of oppression and how women are constructed to submit to images and models of femininity. I raise questions concerning the standpoint of normative critique from which Bartky criticizes the oppression of women, the model of agency that she utilizes, and the politics she supports to overthrow oppression and domination.     

Truth, Thinking, Testimony and Trust: Alvin Goldman on Epistemology and Education

In his recent work in social epistemology, Alvin Goldman argues that truth is the fundamental epistemic end of education, and that critical thinking is of merely instrumental value with respect to that fundamental end. He also argues that there is a central place for testimony and trust in the classroom, and an educational danger in over-emphasizing the fostering of students' critical thinking. In this paper I take issue with these claims, and argue that (1) critical thinking is a fundamental end of education, independently of its instrumental tie to truth, and (2) it is critical thinking, rather than testimony and trust, that is educationally basic.     

Exploring the Underlying Processes Between Conflict and Knowledge Sharing: A Work‐Engagement Perspective1

By integrating work‐engagement theory with conflict framework, this paper presents a model to demonstrate how 2 types of conflict (task and relationship conflict) affect employees' knowledge sharing through 3 psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced safety, experienced availability) and work engagement. Employees (N = 139) in 2 software development companies in China responded to a survey. The results show that task conflict improved 2 psychological states (experienced safety, experienced availability) and work engagement, which, in turn, increased knowledge sharing. Relationship conflict deteriorated the 3 psychological states and work engagement, which, in turn, affected knowledge sharing. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

APPROACH OR AVOIDANCE (OR BOTH?): INTEGRATING CORE SELF‐EVALUATIONS WITHIN AN APPROACH/AVOIDANCE FRAMEWORK

Core self‐evaluations (CSE) represent a new personality construct that, despite an accumulation of evidence regarding its predictive validity, provokes debate regarding the fundamental approach or avoidance nature of the construct. This set of studies sought to clarify the approach/avoidance nature of CSE by examining its relation with approach/avoidance personality traits and motivation constructs (Study 1); we subsequently examined approach/avoidance motivational mechanisms as mediators of the relation between CSE and job performance (Study 2). Overall, the studies demonstrate that CSE is best conceptualized as representing both (high) approach tendencies and (low) avoidance tendencies; implications of these findings for CSE theory are discussed.     

Impact of a College Student Academic Mentoring Program on Perceived Parental and Teacher Educational Involvement

This article examines the hypothesis that academic mentoring of college students improves perceived parental and teacher educational involvement. College students were randomly assigned to a 1‐year academic mentoring program (protégés, n = 150) or a control group (n = 167) and completed questionnaires before, during, and after the intervention. Protégés perceived greater levels of parent and teacher educational involvement than did participants from the control group. However, the impact of the mentoring program on perceived parental involvement was found only among students who reported a secure relationship with their parents. Additional analyses suggest that some of these improvements were related to quality of the working alliance between mentors and protégés and to supportive behaviors exhibited by mentors during the intervention.     

Pusey's ‘Lectures on Types and Prophecies of the Old Testament’: Implications for Eucharistic Theology

Edward Pusey's ‘Lectures on Types and Prophecies of the Old Testament’ remain unpublished and little known. Despite this they contain important insights exploring prophecy and sacramental theology based on the philosophical assumptions of moderate realism expressed through the notions of ‘type’ and ‘archetype’. This article explores Pusey's ‘Lectures’ with particular emphasis on sacramental realism. Pusey's philosophical insights concerning a moderate realist view of the Eucharist are discussed and links with eucharistic theology in the wider Anglican and other traditions are made. Links with the reflections of theologians and philosophers are also drawn out in an effort to establish that the ‘Lectures’ continue to be of value in the present and so deserving of wider appreciation and use.