Job Motivations of Professional and Technical Contingent Workers: Are They Different From Permanent Workers?

In the United States and Europe, the fastest growing segments of the temporary or contingent workforce have been In professional and technical fields. Yet little is known of the motivations of these workers. Accordingly, the authors administered the Hackman and Oldham (1980) Job Diagnostic Survey to professional and technical contingent and permanent employees of a major U.S. telecommunications company. Contingent workers had higher motivation potential scores, scored significantly higher in task identity and feedback from the job, and scored higher In combined need strength than did the permanent workers. The findings suggest that contingents can be a rich source of motivated workers.     

Facilitating Performance with Cued Wording: An Examination of Reasoning in the Tax Context

Researchers have consistently found increased accuracy for reasoning tasks that involve permission and obligation situations; however, little is known about the task characteristics that aid the reasoning processes in these situations. This study investigates the ability of cued wording (i.e., ‘is permitted’ or ‘is required’) to increase the accuracy of subjects' reasoning. Specifically, two experiments were conducted using versions of the Wason selection task to present tax rules involving permission and obligation situations. Results of both experiments generally support the use of cued wording to increase reasoning accuracy, especially for those subjects with no experience with the rule. These results have implications for rule-driven fields like taxation, where taxpayers must comply with numerous provisions containing permission and obligation situations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Kings,Professors, and Ploughboys: On the Accessibility of Scripture

Under the heading of ‘the accessibility of Scripture’ I investigate accounts of the conditions – skills, knowledge or status – necessary to extracting meaning from the text adequately. I suggest that modern theological scholarship has a visibly different account from classical Reformation and post‐Reformation dogmatics, insisting on the need for historical and linguistic expertise, which used to be denied, and refusing any account of the need for the aid of the Holy Spirit, which used to be insisted upon. I suggest that, because of the constructed nature of the ‘Bible’, theological accounts of Bible reading must be responsible to lived practices of engagement with the text to be academically coherent, and on this basis argue for the superiority of the older tradition.     

Education and How Not to Corrupt the Young

ABSTRACT The paper has three parts. The first specifies a, notion of philosophy as both a critical discipline and a process of theoria independent of utilitarian or ideological commitment. The second part shows how philosophical paradigms can be ideologically exploited, often unwittingly, by the teacher in a way that sacrifices truth and clarity to utility. Three examples are given, viz. over-simplification in science-teaching of the Lockean primary/secondary qualities distinction, misuse of Wittgenstein's nuanced theories to inculcate relativism in the social sciences, and use of the ethical fact/value paradigm to promote a simplistic liberalism in moral teaching. The third part distinguishes teaching a skill and communicating an insight. It is claimed that the theoretical capacities of the learner are routinely subordinated to the practical needs of the teacher.