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Purpose: The aim of the paper is to identify the changes in the area of work content in a selected municipal enterprise in the following years: 2009, 2018 and 2023. Design/methodology/approach: The study presents the results of the analysis of the work content of jobs of the municipal company according to ALM model and job evaluation. In the observations carried out on the general population there were also used following methods: interview, document analysis and group discussion. Similar approach is commonly used in the analysis of changes in work content under the influence of technology in sectoral and economic research. However, there is little research showing the application of such an approach in relation to individual enterprises, particularly all positions in the enterprise. Findings: Potential for automation of manual jobs have been limited to the greatest extent in core activities, which may suggest that it is in this area that technical progress in work processes, especially manual jobs, is implemented first and relatively most intensively. Additionally, technological progress in work processes implemented in core and auxiliary activities limits routine manual jobs, but is associated with an increase in routine cognitive jobs. Research limitations/implications: (if applicable) The research assumed that the change in the content of work occurred as a result of technical progress, which is justified especially in the case of analysis of all organizational positions in the company. However, further research should directly investigate the impact of technological progress on changing job content especially in the cross-section of individual organizational units in the management and auxiliary areas of the enterprise. Practical implications: Identification the different specificity of the impact of technical progress on the content of work in individual areas of the company's activity. Empirical confirmation of the sequence of automating work within individual areas of the company's activities. Originality/value: While researches on changes in work content in the context of technical progress across economies and sectors are relatively common, in relation to the general population of employees in an enterprise it is rather absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working conditions during the economic crisis of the first decade of the 21st century have been the object of extensive research. This study delves into the main risks facing workers subsequent to the recession and economic crisis of 2008-2014 and prior to the unsettling times provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The choice of Spain as the study area stems from the deep effects of the economic crisis on this country and the fragmentation of its trade unions. Spain is likewise relevant as its authorities adopted two opposite strategies (respectively austerity followed by expansive investment) to cope and counter these problems over time. This qualitative study comprises in-depth interviews with 45 experts from various sectors of business. The findings suggest that factors such as persistent job insecurity and work overload profoundly affect the social environment and relationships of employees both at work and in the family generating individual coping strategies that weaken the role of trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Taiwan, over 80% of home caregivers have experienced musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in the past year. Although MSDs in health care workers have been discussed in existing literature (e.g., in nursing staff), there is limited understanding of the association between MSD and the work content of home caregivers. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the work content and MSD of home caregivers. This cross-sectional study was conducted in long-term care units in central Taiwan. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, including basic information, work content survey, and information from the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between work content and MSD. A total of 149 home caregivers with a mean age of approximately 50.97 ± 9.80 years were recruited for the study. The frequency of transfer of toilet and wheelchair was significantly associated with shoulder discomfort, upper back discomfort, and wrists/hands discomfort. In addition, the frequency of passive range of motion exercise was significantly associated with elbows discomfort. The results of this study indicated that the highest risk factor for MSD was transfer of toilet and wheelchair followed by passive range of motion exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundDespite the dramatic growth of primary care in China, little evidence showed what general practitioner (GP) do and how GP provided medical service in Beijing.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the work content of GPs in primary care in Beijing.MethodsA multi-method study was conducted in five community health service institutions using non-participant observation and critical incident technique interview. Eleven GPs was recruited by purpose sampling, with each GP recording details of 100 patient encounters. Health problems of patients and activities of GPs were observed in consultations. Then, critical incident technique interviews were conducted focusing on GPs' works out of clinics and challenge.ResultsA total of 1, 100 patients encounters and 1,897 reasons for encounter (RFEs) were recorded from 11 GPs. There were 1897 RFEs (1.72 per encounter) and 2,762 health problems (2.51 per encounter) from 1,100 encounters during our observation. GPs' work related to consultation was focus on disease diagnoses and treatment. Physical examination and investigations were performed in only 15.5 and 17.1% consultations, respectively. Procedures for chronic disease management were infrequently provided to patients (0.4–26.6%). Time spent in each work process in consultations ranged from 0.68 ± 0.27 min for reservation to 4.00 ± 2.45 min for surgical treatment. In addition to clinical work, there were tasks about health files, contracted family doctor services, health education, teaching students, and scientific research.ConclusionThis study illustrated the complexity of GPs' work and heavy workload in Beijing, China. More attention and effort are needed to develop GPs performance and release GPs' work workload in primary care.

In this article, we examine a case of task segregation—when a group of workers is disproportionately allocated, relative to other groups, to spend more time on specific tasks in a given job—and argue that such segregation is a potential mechanism for generating within-job inequality in the quality of a job. When performing those tasks is undesirable, this allocation has unfavorable implications for that group’s experienced job quality. We articulate the processes by which task segregation can lead to workplace inequality in job quality through an inductive, interview-based case study of airport security-screening workers in a unit of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at a large urban airport. Female workers were disproportionately allocated to the pat-down task, the manual screening of travelers for prohibited items. Our findings suggest that this segregation led to overall poorer job quality outcomes for women. Task segregation overexposed female workers to processes of physical exertion, emotional labor, and relational strain, giving rise to work intensity, emotional exhaustion, and lack of coping resources. Task segregation also seemed to disproportionately expose female workers to managerial sanctions for taking recuperative time off and a narrowing of their skill set that may have contributed to worse promotion chances, pay, satisfaction, and turnover rates for women. We conclude with a theoretical model of how task segregation can act as a mechanism for generating within-job inequality in job quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to identify the importance and scope of work process automation. As part of the defined in this way intention, the concept of automation has been explained, referring in this regard to terms corresponding to the concept of automation. An increase in the number of publications on automation, robotisation and mechanisation has been shown based on the bibliometric study. On the basis of the review of the literature on the subject, phenomena describing the impact of technical progress on the content of work have been identified. In particular, the requirements imposed on employees in work processes and so the essence of three effects have been presented, including unskill-biased technical change, skill-biased technical change and talent-biased technical change. Next, the approaches enabling the estimation of the potential scope of automation of work processes and the risk of automation of individual professions have been indicated. These approaches may constitute a starting point for the development of a diagnostic tool enabling estimation of the potential scope of work subject to automation and identification of factors and job variables constituting barriers to automation of work processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong, 6-day construction cycle always being used for constructing one typical floor of concrete building superstructure in a week. Work-zones are defined in the working platform for better allocation of limited resources. Once the work-zones are defined, the resources (labour, plant, materials) will be allocated to a specific zone to deliver the works on a particular day of the 6-day construction cycle. In practice, the definition of work-zone is dependent on the experience of project manager. Yet, there is no past research studied the evaluation of work-zone definition schemes. As such, in this research study, three heuristic rules are proposed for choosing better scheme of work-zone. The heuristic rules are based on (i) lengths of work-zone dividing line, (ii) fluctuations of daily duration, and (iii) utilisation rates of resource. To illustrate the steps of evaluating the scheme, an illustrative example is given. To illustrate the method application of the rules, a practical case study of constructing a 40-storey housing is given. The proposed rules were verified based on sensitivity analysis and expert validation. Conclusions are drawn by expressing the contributions and limitations of the proposed rules, followed by suggesting future research works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing shortage of active nurses in industrialized countries throughout the world, it is of utmost importance to protect their health, satisfaction, and commitment so that they can continue working in their healthcare institution. Building upon the proposed pattern of specific relationships developed by Houkes et al. (2003), we investigated a model of relationships among working conditions (quantitative, emotional, and physical demands), labor relations (quality of interpersonal relations and psychological support), work content (meaning of work, influence at work), and employment conditions (opportunities for development) on the one hand, and health, job satisfaction, and institutional affective commitment on the other hand, for younger versus older nurses. We used data of 3,399 nurses from the Netherlands and 3,636 nurses from Poland from the larger European Nurses’ Early Exit Study (NEXT) and performed longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analyses. The results showed that the proposed pattern of relationships generally holds, but that the nurses’ level of commitment is more determined by meaning of work than by opportunities for development and that psychological support is associated with job satisfaction (and not only with burnout as hypothesized, in both the Netherlands and Poland). Comparing younger (

Aim: To develop the Nurse Managers' Work Content Questionnaire (NMWCQ) and to describe nurse managers' work content. Background: Restructuring within health care has expanded the nurse manager's role to include organisational, patient and staff demands. Methods: The pilot study employed a cross‐sectional study design. Based on a literature review, the NMWCQ with 102 items was developed and pretested for this study. Data were collected in 2017 from three Finnish acute care central hospitals that provide specialised health care. A total of 61 nurse managers participated, which represents a response rate of 59%. Principal component analysis was used to test the construct validity of the instrument. Cronbach's alpha values were used to analyse the internal consistency of the instrument. In addition, descriptive and nonparametric analysis was used. Results: Ultimately, 13 components with 87 items were identified in the questionnaire. The construct validity and internal consistency of the questionnaire were at acceptable levels. Cronbach's alpha rates of the components were 0.554 ‐ 0.890. The most frequently performed daily work of nurse managers was in the component of organising, and the most infrequently performed daily work was in the component of clinical nursing. Conclusions: The study shows that the Nurse Managers' Work Content Questionnaire (NMWCQ) is suitable for measuring the current content of nurse managers' work. However, the questionnaire is new and needs additional testing such as confirmatory factor analysis with larger amounts of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing shortage of active nurses in industrialized countries throughout the world, it is of utmost importance to protect their health, satisfaction, and commitment so that they can continue working in their healthcare institution. Building upon the proposed pattern of specific relationships developed by Houkes et al. (2003), we investigated a model of relationships among working conditions (quantitative, emotional, and physical demands), labor relations (quality of interpersonal relations and psychological support), work content (meaning of work, influence at work), and employment conditions (opportunities for development) on the one hand, and health, job satisfaction, and institutional affective commitment on the other hand, for younger versus older nurses. We used data of 3,399 nurses from the Netherlands and 3,636 nurses from Poland from the larger European Nurses' Early Exit Study (NEXT) and performed longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analyses. The results showed that the proposed pattern of relationships generally holds, but that the nurses' level of commitment is more determined by meaning of work than by opportunities for development and that psychological support is associated with job satisfaction (and not only with burnout as hypothesized, in both the Netherlands and Poland). Comparing younger (<40 years) versus older (≥40 years) nurses, we found ample support for differences in the proposed model relationships across age category, some being in line with and some being contradictory to our expectations. We argue that a non-normative, tailor-made approach to aging at work might help us to protect the nurses' career sustainability across the life span. This study provides evidence-based practical recommendations on how to enhance the health, job satisfaction, and commitment of nurses throughout their working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical perspective on the debate surrounding autonomy at work for a specific category of non‐standard workers: independent professionals. The increasing numbers now working this way as well as their spread into all sectors, industries and occupations, mean that their work arrangements can no longer be dismissed as non‐standard or atypical. Defining them by what they are not is quite simply no longer an option. Our paper examines the various components intertwined behind the taken‐for‐granted concept of autonomy. Drawing on debates from the legal through to the sociological and HR literatures, we identify three underlying dimensions to autonomy. When combined, they provide the basis for an analytical matrix that may assist policy makers, practitioners and individual workers to understand the challenges and opportunities linked to new ways of working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to explore how a group of managers construct their reality, more specifically what it means to work as a manager in a municipal organization. The empirical data for the study were obtained from a Swedish medium-sized municipality and the study takes as its research approach grounded theory, as developed by Glaser and Strauss. Consequently, the empirical data formed the basis for the research, which takes a multi-methodical and theory-generating approach. The methods used in the study include the use of a questionnaire study, interviews in focus groups, observations, reflective work diaries, and the creation of feedback sessions. The result shows that the managers work in an organization where conflicting and competing value systems act together. These can be interpreted as environmental factors and external bounds on a structural societal level, which cannot be influenced. A point of analysis is that these factors and external bounds to a high degree permeate the manager’s workday and can therefore be seen as a plausible explanation for the boundless nature of the managerial task. For most of the managers of the study, this was expressed as uncertainty as to how to define and interpret goals and as to what the managerial role includes with regard to areas of responsibility. It is interesting to ask, however, whether these conditions are not characteristic of the role of managers and work life in general. The results also show that the substantive theory of the study was not judged to be valid for the municipal companies. These managers do not express as ambivalent an approach to competing value systems as the managers in other sections of the municipality do. Nor do they appear to question their professional knowledge, the work content or managership. Another empirical important finding is that the managers believe that the organizational conditions limit ability to carry out the manager task, but that, despite this, they indicate, paradoxically, that they like their work and the social work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remaining in the same job or with the same employer for a long time, or even an entire career, is not viewed favorably in the dominant managerial discourse. Yet this is the reality for many employees in Europe. What are the mechanisms used by employees to assume this stability in the face of career norms that favor mobility? What is new in this research, with regard to the existing literature, is that it explains the career stability of employees in terms of identification mechanisms, in particular identification with the content of their work. Several results were obtained using the coding method to process the data collected in an association operating in the social sector. We began by distinguishing between four modalities of work content identification: normative, cognitive, emotive and performative. We went on to highlight two effects of work identification: the free will of agents, made possible by the argumentative resources they provide, and dependence on their work through the integration of structural constraints. Three types of arguments (factual, existential and normative) are identified which enable employees to adopt unique positions in relation to their career in the face of today's mobility norms: distantiation, conciliation and conformity. The process-based model proposed contributes to a dialectical reading of careers--between structural and agentic effects--emphasizing the social mechanisms used by employees to "cope" with pressure to embrace career mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To analyse the presence of work-related stress in the nursing bureau of a University General Hospital taking as reference Karasek's demand-control-support model. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study. The sample included 38 nursing professionals from the nursing bureau of a University General Hospital. Assessment tools: the Job Content Questionnaire (JQC), translated and validated for hospital nursing, was used to know the perception of nursing professionals concernins their work, and to determine the presence of any work-related stressors. Results: The participation rate was 90.47% (N=38). The average for the social support dimension was 2.59±0.47, for the psychological demands of 3.26±0.47, and for control over their own work of 2.87±0.40. Data analysis pointed to a moderate level of stress, reflecting a deficit in the social support provided by superiors, particulary in the group of professionals assigned to nursery management (2.89 vs 2.49; p<0.05). None of the three dimensions showed a link of any kind with socio-occupational variables of gender, age, shift, assignment or type of connection to the hospital. Conclusion: Improvement is needed in this area on the part of human resources management in order to lessen the effect of work-related stress, psychological demands and lack of control over these. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]