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By examining blue-collar workers and their boundary management this paper addresses a significant gap in research. The data presented shows that while the boundary between work and private life during the workday is clear, but work often intrudes into non-work time. To better understand the needs and demands of potential users, we conducted standardized qualitative open-ended interviews with 45 social and blue-collar workers from different professional environments. The survey revealed that the availability management application as Smart Availability Assistant (SAA) should enable different stages of availability which can be chosen and adapted individually. Calls and text messages should be filtered by the contacting person, situation, and actual content. Further, feedback loops and compatibility with existing applications are also desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in an information society in which development occurs rapidly. Digitalization affects all aspects of society, cutting through all societal functions. Digital platforms make it possible to match demands on things and services and deliver them at a lower cost. Automatization and robotics affect demand for manual operations and workers. Moreover, working life is changing, as it increasingly utilizes an emerging complementary relationship between machines and people. Needs for more knowledge and skills also arise. This article provides a preliminary plan as to how and in what respects the issue of information security might be incorporated into university teachers' expertise. For example, in distance learning--a form of education distribution requiring computer equipment that is to be provided by the student--information security is crucial. From the educator's point of view, student identification--in connection with exams, for example--is obviously critical. Digital on-campus exams are another pertinent theme, entailing many opportunities for doing things in new or better ways in comparison with paper exams and the time-consuming administration they involve. New questions arise, however. Certain aspects of information and communication technology entail risks--such as Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks, cybercrime, and sabotage in general. This article will discuss the need for university teachers to be prepared to respond adequately and effectively to information security issues. Examples are given showing how the University of Borås approaches security considerations. A preliminary analysis of the need to include information security in the general knowledge required of all university teachers in the era of eLearning is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous industries with a disproportionate number of fatalities when compared to most other industries. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the majority of construction fatalities happen due to the following four types of construction hazards: falls, caught-in or between, struck-by, or electrocution. To reduce the risk of fatalities among construction workers due to the lack of safety training, the authors conducted research to investigate safety training needs in the construction industry in Puerto Rico. The authors developed a structured interview questionnaire that was administered to construction safety professionals and Puerto Rico OSHA specialists to identify major construction safety concerns and training deficiencies. The authors also administered a survey to construction workers to investigate their safety training and risk perception in the construction industry. Based on the results of the interviews and surveys, the authors concluded that the two hazards where the workers need to receive training more urgently are falls and excavation cave-ins. Since falls has been the priority of OSHA for a long time, there are is significantly more training material available on this topic when compared to excavation cave-ins. Therefore, the authors decided to focus the BIM-enabled training module on excavation. The main objective of the training module is to provide general knowledge so that it can be used in commercial, heavy civil and residential projects to reduce the risk of cave-in fatalities. The authors will present the module to safety experts and to a group of students at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez to make an assessment and validate the learning outcomes of the module prior to implementation with construction workers. This paper presents an overview of the results of the interviews and surveys, and focuses on the development of the safety training module that will be completed by the students and construction workers in Puerto Rico. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by increasing the understanding regarding the current construction safety training needs in Puerto Rico and the development of a training module to make the construction industry in Puerto Rico safer for construction engineering and management students who will work in the construction industry and construction workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this project paper, the authors are going to utilize and use the knowledge, techniques, and skills of the industrial engineering department courses that can be applied to design and implement an automated parcel sorting system that utilizes OCR (Optical Characteristic Recognition), ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), and robot arm. The Authors are aiming to improve the productivity and the efficiency of the sorting process and provide an economic and ergonomic system. Also, the Authors are going to improve the recognition accuracy since the OCR work very well with flat objects, but the performance decreases and the error rate increases with the parcels (due to curvature). The Authors are going to combine between the OCR and the ASR to improve the accuracy. In addition, in order to reduce the high cost of manual workers the Authors are going to utilize a robot arm, which is faster, efficient, and functional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the efforts of personal care workers to gain security through unionization and its impact on people with disabilities. I draw on a case study of the dominant model of service delivery in Ontario ? delivery by non-profit organizations contracted to the government ? using policy analysis and key informant interviews. The paper is organized into three sections. The first section describes the interpersonal and intermittent nature of personal care work, and the two vulnerable groups engaged in care work: racialized women and men as workers and people with disabilities as clients/consumers. Section two outlines the difficulties of organizing personal care workers under an industrial labour relations regime, including the need to establish than an organization, rather than an individual, is the employer and structural problems due to the fact that collective bargaining legislation is based on the norm of a direct and continuous, employment relationship with one employer where the work is performed at a single, formal worksite. Moving to the case study, section three focuses on how part-time, shift and on-call workers have won fair wages, extended benefits and the ability to enforce fair labour standards by joining Local 40 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) yet highlights how the industrial labor relations regime does not fit well with the demands of people with disabilities for a more flexible delivery of services. This case illustrates the need for a new labour relations regime that can bring security with flexibility to both workers and clients/consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basis for safety management is the assumption that safe conditions as well as safe behaviour at work do not arise spontaneously, but must be worked out according to a pre-approved program. It is known that preventive actions have a much greater importance and sense than the removing of a damage resulting from accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures aimed at improving the working conditions, equipment and conduct of employees hired in the mine. The presented article is an attempt at a practical approach to the subject of OHS training. The paper presents empirical studies illustrating the employees' assessment of occupational health and safety training conducted in the mine. The assessment of the trainings conducted in the mine was made on the basis of a questionnaire and direct interviews. In the conducted research, employees commented on various aspects of the training. The survey consisted of 20 closed questions. Of the several answers listed for each question, the employees were to indicate one, the most appropriate answer to them. Questions related to such problems as: the need for periodic health and safety training, the impact of training on improving safety, employees' opinions on the trainings themselves. They also discussed the issues covered during the training and elements of effective health and safety training in the employees' assessment. Employees were able to comment on the reasons for not using the knowledge gained during the training and problems of the most interesting employees during OHS training. After analysing the research results, a number of practical recommendations and conclusions were drawn. Attention was paid to what the employees themselves expect. The benefits of training are also presented. It was shown that the training carries a signal for employees that the mine cares for them and takes their development and security needs seriously. This has a big impact on shaping the motivation of employees for safe work, which in turn could cause a genuine improvement of working conditions. On the basis of empirical research, it was also found that the benefits of training for the mine are not limited only to enriching the knowledge and skills of employees. Trained employees can more easily meet the requirements related to a given job, it is a very important benefit of training - employees know what, when and how to do, which translates into improved efficiency. The training leads to increased efficiency in the performance of tasks, and this reduces the need to control subordinates from the management. Training can have an impact on reducing employee fluctuations, as it can help prevent departures, which will reduce the costs of dismissals and recruitment, by facilitating work and preparing for new duties. The training should make the employee realizes that it depends on them whether the work is safe or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As women continue to move into blue-collar occupations, it proves essential to revisit the gender identity literature. Women within these jobs are placed into a difficult situation as they are "inappropriate" socially in terms of their biological category. This paper documents the need to look at the construction and presentation of gender identity at work. By melding the two seminal works, West and Zimmerman's (1987) Doing Gender and Goffman's (1977) Presentation of Self, I urge the development of Situational Identity Management. The essence of SIM is that gender identity is presented in various ways to maximize benefits and minimize stigma from all social situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive work hours can be detrimental to workers and their families, thus it is important to understand how long work hours are generated within a variety of contexts. Recent studies focus on professional and managerial employees. In contrast, this paper explores the meanings of overtime among a blue-collar, manufacturing workforce at an auto parts plant in the U.S. manufacturing Midwest. Maximizing income is a powerful incentive for workers at the plant to accept and seek overtime work. Yet, we argue that interests in income maximization present only one cultural "face" of overtime. In addition, working overtime is embedded within meaningful social relations in the plant and offers workers an opportunity to transgress the status order outside of the factory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tomato is a nutritious fruit, grown in Vietnam for more than 100 years, and has high export value. Classification of tomatoes after harvest is still manual by workers. This paper will be applied the innovative method to design a classifier based on color. From the main function of classifying tomatoes, there are 4 sub-functions to be decomposed: feeding, transporting, processing, classifying. Each sub-function will be subdivided into more specific functions that make up the functional map. Many ideas will be given by brainstorming and creativity method for each sub-function. After that, a selection matrix will be used to select and decide the design ideas. The final results of the paper are dynamic diagrams and structural drawings of the equipment that have been designed for future manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected all industries in all over the World. Although some factories stopped their production activities due to the precautions, the most of privately owned Turkish carpet manufacturers have continued their production continuously. We have arranged several meetings with two credible carpet manufactures to ask for absenteeism rates of blue-collar workers. We have collected the data and analyzed it by comparing prepandemic conditions. We have seen that absenteeism rates have significantly changed. In addition, we surveyed 1258 employees from 2 carpet manufacturer and found that %81.31 of them have at least 1-day sick absence during the pandemic due to a real Covid 19 or being a suspect of being Covid19 (has a contact with a Covid 19 positive person). It can be stated that at least for these two carpet manufacturers, absenteeism rates were relatively higher when compared to condition before pandemic. We have already seen some of the effects of absenteeism on the production quantities and some other effects are expected to be realized soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The placement of the middle class above the working class in conceptions of the social class hierarchy does not reflect a working class viewpoint. Interviews with blue-collar men working in construction or in factories revealed a consensus that blue-collar work is preferred over white-collar work for a number of reasons. These men all agreed that accepting white-collar jobs would mean giving up meaningful, intrinsically rewarding work that is a source of pride. Informants recognize that the general standing that their job has, using the words of the NORC survey upon which occupational prestige rankings are based, is low relative to white-collar work, but they disagree with that determination. Middle class disdain for blue-collar work, they argue, is based in ignorance. The design of this research allowed for the inclusion of a variety of job categories across two vastly different occupations, it allowed workmen to describe their occupational experience in their own words to an interviewer that shared their class identity, and it did not assume blue-collar work to be positive or negative. These qualities are reflected in conclusions that are not consistent with dominant conceptions of the social order. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the relatively high-paying, traditionally unionized blue-collar jobs are being de-industrialized out of existence; more working class people are finding themselves in the service sector whose policies often make it extremely difficult for them to find the time and resources to care for their families. A grounded theory approach was undertaken in order to provide a theoretical framework for a proposed larger study. The goal of this study was to better understand how working families are adjusting to recent economic, social and political changes, affecting their lives. Six in-depth, face-to-face interviews were undertaken with participants residing in a small working-class suburb of Metropolitan Detroit (three women, ages 33- 60; three men, ages 35-49). This research supports the previous notion that economic interests and experiences of the working class are set apart from more highly educated and affluent citizens. These families find it harder to accomplish their hopes and dreams in the midst of recent economic changes, and they are having constant difficulty supporting and preserving family life. These working class families are finding themselves in a different world than their parents and grandparents, and implementing new policies that support them economically and socially will require organized constituencies advocating for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on workplace inequality between men and women. It has been widely seen the women are unable to climb the ladder of success as quickly as men do. And this goes with both blue collar as well as white collar profession. In this regard two theories have been focused: human capital theory and gender role socialization. The former theory assumes that labor market works in a neutral manner. It pays its workers according to their skills, experience, and productivity irrespective of the gender. The latter theory analyses factors like the family, schools, and the media and behavior of the gender.

This study examined underground iron ore miners' occupational narratives to uncover how these stories socialized miners into blue-collar careers and reinforced their work identities. We identified occupational narratives and themes by using Brown's (1990) and Owen's (1984) criteria. Through the root theme of sisu (Finnish for inner determination), miners constructed meaning in their work, markers for career success, and value in relationships. Their discourse provided alternatives to white-collar conceptualizations and practices of careers and success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of stressors is recognized as critical for human resource development and management issues where it can have an impact on occupational stress and performance blue-collar employees in the pharma manufacturer division. The employees themselves developing various kinds of stress factors that may interfere with the implementation of the work. According to these conditions, the role of an organizational change related to work pattern hours, shift handover and workdays is an unavoidable policy of management change. This study was conducted to determine the effect of several stress factors, especially for the policy of management change on occupational stress and performance blue-collar employees in the production division. The outcomes of Smart PLS 3.2.9 path model revealed findings for blue-collar employees (360 respondents) role in the organization significantly correlated with employee's stress (T = 3.305; p-value = 0.001) and also significantly correlated with performance (T = 3.268; p-value = 0.001). The indicator that has the highest factor loading value of the role of the organization is the work pattern hours. A negative relationship was established between stress to performance of blue-collar employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a research model specifically contextualised to explain and substantiate the enablers and inhibitors of automotive blue-collar workers’ AI usage intentions. The identified factors therein stem from a multiple case study approach including interviews with 24 workers from three different German car manufacturers at four different production sites. The model includes 15 different behaviour-affecting expectations, three of which have never been mentioned in the literature before and can thus be regarded as completely new in that context. The proposed model addresses research gaps in both the individual-level technology adoption research literature and the literature on the application of AI in the automotive environment. It helps to pave the way towards a lean and user-centric development of AI-based systems in the future which do not fail at the threshold of individual-level user acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital Human Modeling (DHM), the process of CAD representation of human body form, is an emerging tool used to simulate workplaces in order to provide solutions for ergonomics related problems. Digital humans/manikins are being incorporated in the software, can be manipulated easily and assessed for work related discomfort, injuries and workplace design. Manual workers in small scale industries are often exposed to work related discomfort and pain while performing work. These exposures may lead to development of work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) and low back pain (LBP), affecting the efficiency of workers and productivity of the industry. The main objective of current study is to analyze the working postures of manual workers in small scale industries by using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) assessment in CATIA V5R20 software. The workers in stone cutting and polishing industry were selected, and found to be working in awkward postures involving heavy manual lifting, bending, twisting and turning of the trunk. Most of the postures indicated a high risk score of 7, indicating changes in the posture to be done immediately. Ergonomic interventions were suggested and the improved posture was evaluated using RULA and the posture indicated a score of 3, indicating low risk. The manual lifting task was also assessed using NIOSH lifting equation at the origin and destination of lift, using CATIA V5R20. The ergonomic interventions reduced the value of lifting index from 1.79 to 0.98, indicating safe limit. The results indicate that awkward working posture risks can be minimized by effectively using ergonomic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on labor relations in the South Korean shipbuilding industry have emphasized that employers and managers fostered cooperation with manual workers, achieving industrial peace. What these scholars have often neglected to note is the extraordinary growth of lower-paid non-regular workers and the wage inequality between regular and non-regular workers. Given that the large-scale shipyards have historically been an epicenter of labor unrest and a stronghold of democratic labor unions in South Korea, both the enduring dualism and the relative lack of solidarity between regular and non-regular workers are especially puzzling. Through an in-depth case study of the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), one of the world's largest ship manufacturers as well as a birthplace of militant labor unionism in South Korea, this article develops a relational account of dualism and inequality in the workplace. The author maintains that employers at HHI, in an attempt to reduce labor costs and improve export competitiveness, installed and perpetuated the dualism and inequality beginning in the early 1990s. The author also highlights the changing pattern of interaction between regular and non-regular workers from solidarity to fragmentation which contributed to increasing the workforce dualism and wage inequality at HHI. By investigating the dynamic interactions between regular/formal and non-regular/informal workers as well as the changing laborcapital relations, this article can enhance our understanding of how relational processes of exploitation, opportunity hoarding, and claim-making played key roles in strengthening or weakening the dualism and inequality in the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic purpose of this study is to find out various labour welfare measures provided to employees by the manufacturing industries. The study reveals impact of inadequate welfare measures on employee absenteeism and attrition. The study is carried out for the blue collar employees of the company by using descriptive research design. The workforce is divided into two categories viz white collar & blue collar workers. In total 113 samples size is taken to collect relevant information from the employees. Stratified random sampling method with structured questionnaires is chosen for the study. After analyzing the entire data it is found that an inadequate welfare measure does not make an impact on employee absenteeism and attrition. But it is also found that health problem, stress and family problem are the major causes of absenteeism. As far as employees' attrition is concerned non availability or inadequacy of First Aid and Medical facilities lead to blue collar employee's attrition whereas non availability of Canteen and Medical facilities causes white collar employee's attrition. The Industrial worker is indeed a soldier safeguarding the social and economic factors of the industrial economy. Therefore, there is need to take care of the workers, to provide both statutory and non-statutory facilities to them, which has direct influence on the social and economic development of the organization as well as the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This proposed research questions the assumption that strategic performance measurement systems (SPMS) define strategic goals at the individual job level, reducing role ambiguity and ensuring desired employee outcomes. Through qualitative research of both white-collar and blue-collar jobs, we seek to determine the types of jobs most amenable to SPMS guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explicitly links processes of organizational socialization to social mobility and reproduction. Specifically, it is an examination of the socializing messages exchanged between blue-collar parents and their children (n=66) during a period of heavy deindustrialization. The results demonstrate that family-based messages about work and career do not occur in straightforward, unambiguous messages. Instead, communication about these issues--and ultimately communication about social class mobility and reproduction--emerges and comes to be understood through relational dialectics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report describes the ascension of a small group of working men at a large grain elevator. They gained immense organizational power as the result of a careless restructuring during the "farm crisis" of the 1980s, a process that typically spelled disaster for workmen. I refer to classical contingency theory and to the concept of induction to explain what happened and detail the language among the men involved. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese system of school-work has been widely admired for the strong communication and recruitment relationships that exist between high schools and employers. Building on theoretical literature on employment systems and educational institutions, we develop a framework for understanding the macro-level conditions that fostered the effectiveness of Japan's high school-work system up until the early 1990s. These conditions included a stratified educational system, a large supply of high-quality high school graduates, and firm-internal labor markets for blue-collar workers in large firms. We use original data from a sample of urban high schools to analyze how employers' recruitment patterns changed in the 1990s and beyond. The results of that analysis and a counterfactual analysis suggest that recent changes in Japanese employment institutions have had a significant impact on weakening school-employer relationships. We suggest implications of the Japanese case for school-work processes in other postindustrial societies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social theories of blue-collar work and, by association/definition, the working class, define working class jobs in negative ways. Our theoretical conceptions of blue-collar work, and those that do it, are remarkably similar to those advocated by F. W. Taylor as he promoted "Scientific Management" in the early twentieth century. The negative images of the working class, advocated by both social science and Taylor, justify the deskilling and control of workers by industrial management. While theories of class and work support negative images of blue-collar workers, data presented here from interviews with men working in blue-collar jobs in construction or in factories reveal that workers retain much control over, and knowledge of, the production process. Because of incorrect or incomplete directives from white-collar managers, workers must frequently use their knowledge and skill to overcome inadequacies of management and to properly perform their jobs. These findings challenge our theoretical perception of blue-collar work as subordinate, controlled, simplistic, and mindless. The negative theoretical conceptions of blue-collar work shape the findings of social researchers. If devalued theoretical assumptions are redressed, the conclusions of past research may require revision. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of its arguable limitations, Goldthorpe's class scheme seems to allow a more fine-grained way of measuring social class. However, only a few sociologists have undertaken an investigation of empirical validation of this class schema. This study attempts to assess the validity of the Goldthorpe class scheme in South Korean context, following Evans (1992) and Evans and Mills (1998)'s studies. After pre-examining a multi-cross table by class indicators, this study analyzes latent class models, and examines to what extent the latent class structure matches the types of occupational classes identified on theoretical grounds by Goldthorpe. The author finds that Goldthorpe class scheme is roughly applicable to class structure in South Korea in that there is a clear distinction between employment relations: service relationship versus labor contract. Definitely, a four-class latent model that this study used clearly shows the existence of manual workers regulated by labor contract in a similar way with Goldthorpe class schema. However, this does not mean that Goldthorpe class schema is clearly valid. There are a lot of inconsistencies that should be investigated in further study. In order more clearly to understand class structure in Korea and to assess Goldthorpe class schema, there needs the more accumulation of studies investigating this issue. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional markers of adulthood - leaving home, completing school, establishing financial independence, marriage, and childbearing - have become strikingly delayed or foregone in the latter half of the twentieth century, particularly for the working class. While existing literature focuses on the disappearance of these markers, this study investigates the processes through which working-class men and women project meaning, coherence, and biographical continuity onto their dislocated experiences of coming of age. Drawing upon 100 interviews with working-class men and women in their mid-twenties to early thirties, I ask: in an era of increasing uncertainty and insecurity, where self-evident markers of adulthood have disappeared, what kinds of cultural codes and resources do working-class young people employ to validate their self-growth? And, what are the implications of their new visions of adulthood for the reproduction of inequality? In the absence of institutionalized rites of passage, I find that respondents are faced with the challenge of creating narratives of adulthood on their own. Specifically, over three fourths of respondents rely on a model of therapeutic selfhood - that of an inner-directed self preoccupied with its own emotional and psychic repair - to cope with the disappearance of traditional forms of identity. However, respondents often lack the economic and social resources to realize their new visions of competent adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was undertaken to examine empirically the proposition that specialization in jobs negatively affects the organizational commitment of industrial blue-collar workers. The field work for this study was done among 550 production workers in 6 companies in Vancouver, British Columbia. Of the 550 workers who were given the "Organizational Commitment Questionnaire," 68 per cent (377) returned usable questionnaires. The analysis of the data indicated clearly that workers in highly specialized jobs tended to be less committed to their employing organization than workers working on less specialized jobs. It was also found that task repetition and task simplification were, respectively, inversely related to workers' willingness to exert effort for the success of the employing organization and to workers' desire to remain in the employing organization for an indefinite period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]