The Changing Workplace: Implications of Quality of Work Life Developments for Vocational Education. Research and Development Series No. 249.

Based upon a review of literature and on-site interviews and observations at nine firms that are recognized leaders in the development and implementation of quality of work life (QWL) activities, this report examines implications of QWL developments for future skill requirements and their potential consequences for public vocational education policies and programs. The report is not a handbook or a guide for changing current practices but is intended to provide background information to familiarize vocational educators with QWL developments in the workplace. The report focuses on two major sets of educational implications. First, it discusses the implications of QWL developments for the content and instructional processes of vocational education. It suggests that to function effectively on high-involvement participative work settings, workers and managers not only need good basic skills and technical job skills, but they will also increasingly need improved skills and knowledge in group problem solving and in the organization and management of production. The report discusses examples of skills and knowledge in these two broad areas and examines why they are needed in business and industry. The second major focus of the report examines what new participative management techniques may do to improve the nation's schools, especially the management and organization of vocational education. The report discusses how QWL practices in industry must transfer to a better way of learning and a new high-involvement participative approach to schooling. Appendixes to the report contain a list of skills applicable in participative work settings and summaries of the site visits to the nine companies studied. (KC)