George Katona: A founding father of old behavioral economics

Assuming the division of behavioral economics into old and new, the paper begins to argue that old behavioral economics began with the works of two giants – George Katuna and Herbert Simon during the 1950s and early 1960s. The contributors of Herbert Simon are well established, thanks to the popularity of bounded rationality and satisficing, and his being award Noble Prize in economics. However, economists are much less familiar with the contributions of George Katona that can be viewed as the father of behavioral economics. Furthermore, the author argues that Katona was also misunderstood by various economists when he was attempting to create a psychologically based economics that rejected the mechanistic psychology of neoclassical economics and introducing the survey method to economic research that he had been using in his experimental psychology research previously. He also had influenced various economists during their debates in the 1950s without given the credit for. Many historians of behavioral economics limit Katona's contributions to the start of behavioral economics only to his contributions to macroeconomics. However, the paper demonstrates that Katona's behavioral economics included his contributions to macroeconomics (bringing realism to Keynesian consumption function and consumption behavior), micro-economics (business behavior, the rationality assumption, etc.), public finance and economic policy, and his introduction of the survey method. To demonstrate these contributions, the author argues that Katona attempted to bring realism to economic analysis – through psychological concepts – beginning with his early days of research in Germany which coincided with German hyper inflation- and continued whether working at New school for Social Research, Chicago University's Cowles Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center. The author also argues that Katona's contributions went through stages, depending upon what economic problem persisted at the time, what advertises he was facing, and what institution/organization he was associated with.     

Integrating feminist and sociological thought: The life and work of helena Znaniecka Lopata

This work is a biographical essay on the academic career of Helena Znaniecka Lopata, a noted sociologist in her own right and the daughter of Florian Znaniecki, a principal contributor to qualitative and humanistic sociology. Lopata’s story documents the difficulties of establishing a career in a social climate that did not place high value on women beyond their wife and mothering roles. Once she defied her cultural expectations, she also had to overcome the shadow of her father’s legacy and, finally, she had to find acceptance for doing research on women’s everyday life experiences. Lopata’s work provides important insights into the sociological study of social roles and of gender as a structural component of stratified social systems. She has published articles on the women’s movement, politics and the family, and the abortion controversy. Her book,Feminism and the Women’s Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movement Ideology and Activism, is forthcoming from Unwin Hyman. A version of this paper was presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA.     

The sacred and the profane in life science work: The case of assisted reproduction laboratories

Reproductive medicine and assisted reproduction therapies have been developed over the last decades resulting in over five million babies. The handling of human reproductive materials and patients is based on the ability to combine health care work and techno-scientific expertise in both the clinic and the laboratory setting. This study of Swedish assisted reproductive technology clinics demonstrates that the active day-to-day manipulation of human reproductive materials enact both the ‘profane’, through treating the embryos as raw materials in standardized procedures enabling economies of scale, and the ‘sacred’ through enacting a separation, the potential to human life, the patients ordeals, and seriousness. The enactment of the profane and the sacred is mostly balanced but at certain points in the work procedures, their intersecting becomes particularly salient. Such points provide opportunities for the study of the sense making of professionals in organizational grey zones, during techno-scientific activities.     

Friendships under strain: The work–personal life integration of middle managers

Middle managers in today's organisations have reported experiencing longer working hours and intensified work regimes. These increased pressures, in turn, have led to growing difficulty in addressing the integration of their work and personal lives. In an exploratory study of the daily workplace experiences of Australian middle managers and the impacts on their personal lives, one of the key themes to emerge was respondents’ concerns about the negative effects on their friendships. This paper discusses middle managers’ recognition of the value of friendships for their wellbeing, and the resultant anger and sadness reported at the strain on these relationships due to competing time demands. The significant role that friendships play in alleviating some of the stresses of work demands, while concurrently being impeded by these same demands, is an important issue for organisations to consider. These findings indicate the need for middle managers to truly have an ability to engage in activities – and friendships – which will aid them in their working lives. The study also indicates a need for further investigation into the development and maintenance of friendships for both middle managers and other groups of employees.     

Challenging stereotypes of British-Asian women's experiences of work and family life

Kalminder Kaur describes herself as ‘married, I've got 2 girls; 10 and 7 years old now, and we're Sikhs. I went to university and did my first degree in Biology and my PhD in Biology and Engineering. The job I've got at the moment is with a water company. I am a Water Treatment Specialist.’

Kalminder was talking to researcher Baljit Kaur Rana about British-Asian women's experiences of the work-family interface. What Kalminder has to say raises many questions about stereotypical images of British-Asian women, their working lives and related community issues. This article seeks to highlight the significance of changes that have recently started to become more commonplace in the organisation of Asian family life in Britain. It is evident that increased awareness about these changes is of considerable significance to employers, as well as in relation to other families and the wider community. Debate continues about how women juggle work and family commitments, and Kalminder's account draws attention to the ways in which cultural background can blur the boundaries further. In practice however, many families respond effectively to very complex demands.     

Marriage and family therapy faculty members' balance of work and personal life

A sense of imbalance is common among both professors and therapists, though few studies have been published examining the work and personal life balance of those who work in both professions simultaneously. Using in-depth telephone interviews, this study examined the work and personal life balance of 16 marriage and family therapy (MFT) faculty members. Results showed that six were satisfied with their balance, six were dissatisfied, and four were "middle of the road." Men, older participants, and those who were in their career longer were more likely to report feeling satisfied with their balance. Internal indicators of their balance included family and workplace messages, health indicators, feelings of contentment, and congruence with personal values. Child and relationship status, tenure status, and gender issues also impacted their sense of balance. Specific balance enhancers and reducers were highlighted, and participants discussed coping strategies and recommendations for other MFT faculty members. Clinical, training, and career implications are discussed.     

The behavioral economics of George Akerloff and Harvey Leibenstein

Behavioral economics is now receiving greater acceptance in the economics profession. One illustration of this acceptance is the Nobel Prize awarded to George Akerloff in 2001.Akerloff’s work included issues of rationality, work norms, and asymmetric information in both more and less developed countries. Leibenstein was one of the first economists in recent decades to explore behavioral economics. This was accomplished through his development of X-efficiency theory, but not exclusively through X-efficiency theory. This paper will show similarities in the work done by Akerloff and Leibenstein, and cite examples of how Akerloff extended some of Leibenstein’s work, leading to Akerloff’s much deserved Nobel Prize.     

Juggling three life spheres: reconciling work,family and politics

In the field of work–life balance, most research focuses on the reconciliation of role-related expectations that derive from the work and family spheres. This article aims to identify coping strategies that reconcile life spheres in situations that go beyond the classic two-sphere framework. We analyze the actual coping behavior of individuals juggling three life spheres by studying local Flemish politicians. The strategies that were found in this study were communication with family, recognizing priorities within the political sphere, consciously creating time for family moments, downsizing and segregating the life spheres. The results suggest that women usually remain the manager of the household, which reinforces traditional gender roles.     

Women at work: Commitment and behavior over the life course

Women at every stage of the family cycle are increasing their labor force participation but few maintain the continuous, full-time attachment characteristic of employed men. What does this mean in terms of women's subjective work commitment? Using data from six waves of the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics this study investigates the relationship between the pattern of employment over a five-year period and employed women's psychological commitment to work; findings suggest congruence as well as incongruence between labor force attitudes and behavior at different stages of the life course. Commitment to work in 1976 is also incorporated in a model estimating 1977 employment status. Results reveal that the greatest congruence between subjective commitment and labor force attachment is found in young women who have not yet begun their child bearing. On the other hand, employed mothers of preschoolers emerge as the group most likely to evidence discrepancies between labor force behavior and psychological commitment to the work role. Subjective commitment to work is shown to have a slight positive effect in estimating labor force activity the subsequent year, but the greatest predictor is women's work pattern over the previous five years.     

Attitudes and knowledge of social work students towards sexuality in later life

Background: Sexuality in later life may be compromised by restrictive attitudes, and lack of knowledge among professionals. This study examined social work students’ attitudes and knowledge towards sexuality and sexual expression in later life and investigated associated factors.

Method: Undergraduate social work students from Israel (n = 375) completed the Attitudes and Knowledge towards Older Adult’s Sexuality Scale and questionnaires regarding contacts and exposure to older adults, prior sexual education and sociodemographic.

Results: Attitudes and knowledge were correlated. First year students were the most conservative and demonstrated the least knowledge. No differences were found between men and women regarding attitude. However, men and married students had greater knowledge regarding older adults’ sexuality than women or non-married students did. Increased religious observance predicted more conservative attitudes. Age predicted more permissive attitudes and greater knowledge about sexuality in later life. A mediating process examined, suggested knowledge is a mediator variable between age and attitudes towards older adults’ sexuality.

Conclusion: As the population in Israel and in Western countries ages, it is important to examine the knowledge and attitudes of social work students regarding older adults’ sexuality and to develop educational and interventional programs aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge, and positive attitudes in this area.     

Improving the quality of working life through job redesign: work humanization or work rationalization?

Deux des principaux types de programmes relatifs à la 'qualité de la vie au travail' sont la participation à la gestion et la redefinition de la tache. On interprète habituellement ces programmes comme étant des réponses de la direction à l'agitation des travailleurs, qui visent à augmenter la motivation de la main d'oeuvre. Cet article s'attache aux programmes de redéfinition de la tache, et soutient que ces programmes (a) ne sont pas principalement des réponses à l'insatisfaction des travailleurs, et (b) atteignent les buts de la direction non par une alteration de la conscience des travailleurs, mais par une rationalisation du procès de travail. Les conditions économiques et technologiques qui fondent les décisions des patrons sont illustrées et débattues. De plus, une évaluation critique est presentée, de la thése selon laquelle les programmes de redefinition de la tache profitent autant aux travailleurs qu'à la direction.
Two major types of QWL programs - participative management and job redesign - typically are understood as corporate responses to worker unrest intended to develop a highly motivated workforce. This paper concentrates on job redesign and argues that it 1/ is not primarily a response to employee discontent and 2/ achieves corporate goals not by altering workers' consciousness but by rationalizing the labour process. Economic and technological conditions which underlie corporate decisions to modify the division of labour are discussed and illustrated. The claim of QWL proponents that job redesign equally benefits labour and capital is also critically assessed.     

Employee benefits, retirement patterns, and implications for increased work life

This Issue Brief examines why policymakers are concerned about the trend toward early retirement and how it relates to Social Security, Medicare, and employee health and retirement benefits. It reviews the rationale for the effects of economic incentives on early retirement decisions and includes a summary of empirical literature on the retirement process. It presents data on how employee benefits influence workers' expected retirement patterns. Finally, it examines the implications of public policies to reverse early-retirement trends and raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare. An employee Benefit Research Institute/Gallup survey indicates that there is a direct link between a worker's decision to retire early and the availability of retiree health benefits. In 1993, 61 percent of workers reported that they would not retire before becoming eligible for Medicare if their employer did not provide retiree health benefits. Participation in a pension plan can be an important determinant of retirement. Twenty-one percent of pension plan participants planned to stop working before age 65, compared with 12 percent among nonparticipants. Workers whose primary pension plan was a defined benefit plan were more likely to expect to stop working before age 65 (23 percent) than workers whose primary plan was a defined contribution plan (18 percent). Expected income replacement rates effect retirement patterns, indicating that as the expected replacement increases, the probability of expecting to stop working before age 65 increases. Twenty-two percent of workers with an expected income replacement rate below 60 percent expected to stop working before age 65, compared with 29 percent for those in the 60-69 percent replacement range, and 30 percent for those in the 70-79 percent replacement range. Workers expecting to receive retiree health insurance are more likely to expect to stop working before age 65 than workers who do not expect to have retiree health insurance. Twenty-one percent of workers with retiree health insurance expected to stop working before age 65, compared with 12 percent of workers not expecting to receive retiree health insurance. The Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program depends on obtaining sufficient revenue from active workers' payroll taxes to fund the benefits received by retired beneficiaries. Funding the program in the past was in large part effortless because of the relatively large number of workers per retiree. Today, funding the program is a greater challenge because the ratio of workers to retirees has fallen. Policymakers have been able to agree that reform of the program is necessary for its survival; however, the debate over options to reform the program is just beginning, and it is likely to be a long time before a consensus emerges.     

The disconnection between policy practices and women's lived experiences: combining work and life in the UK and the Netherlands

Combining work and family life is central to women's participation in the labour market. Work–life balance has been a key objective of UK and Dutch policy since the 1990s, but policies created at the national level do not always connect with the day to day experiences of women juggling caring and domestic responsibilities with paid work. Using qualitative data from a European Social Fund Objective 3 project the paper explores women's lived realities of combining work and family life in the UK in comparison to the Netherlands as a possible ‘best practices’ model. We argue that women in both countries experience work–life balance as an ongoing process, continually negotiating the boundaries of work and family, and that there needs to be a more sophisticated appreciation of the differing needs of working parents. Whilst policy initiatives can be effective in helping women to reconcile dual roles, many women in both the UK and the Netherlands still resolve these issues at the individual or personal level and feel that policy has not impacted on their lives in any tangible way.     

The nostalgia for permanence at work? The end of work and its commentators

This article examines a contemporary trend in the sociology of work that is labelled here the ‘end of work’ debate after Jeremy Rifkin's book of the same name. It explores this trend, suggesting that marked similarities exist between a range of authors in Europe and North America who propose that work regimes and the meaning derived from them are changing fundamentally. This literature is then placed in the context of an older canon on decline in work and employment. Using the insights of newer qualitative studies that have emerged over the last decade it is suggested that much of the ‘end of work’ type of writing over‐generalises a complex situation, suggesting that sociology needs to incorporate macro theorisation with detailed empirical research if it is to properly understand changes in the contemporary world of work.     

Young workers in the construction industry and initial OSH-training when entering work life

Studies have found that young workers are at risk for injuries. The risk for accidents is high within construction, indicating that young workers may be especially vulnerable in this industry. In Norway, it is possible to enter the construction industry as a full time worker at the age of 18. The aim of this paper was to explore how young construction workers are received at their workplace with regards to OHS-training. The study was designed as a qualitative case study. Each case consisted of a young worker or apprentice (< 25 years), a colleague, the immediate superior, the OHS manager, and a safety representative in the company. The interviews were recorded and analyzed through content analysis. The results showed that there were differences between large and small companies, where large companies had more formalized routines and systems for receiving and training young workers. These routines were however more dependent on requirements set by legislators and contractors more than by company size, since the legislation has different requirements with impact on OHS.     

Post‐Fordist reconfigurations of gender,work and life: theory and practice

Based on an in‐depth study with 56 informants (25 women and 31 men), across the ICT (information and communication technology), creative and academic sectors in one city/regional hub in Ireland, this article investigates the so‐called revolution in work/life practices associated with the post‐Fordist labour processes of the Knowledge Economy from the perspectives of workers themselves. Recent theorizations of post‐Fordist work patterns emphasize a rearranging of work and life place boundaries; a reconfiguring of work and life time boundaries; and a dissolving of the gendered boundaries of work and life (production and social reproduction) (Adkins and Dever 2014 ; Morini and Fumagalli 2010 ; Gill and Pratt 2008 ; Weeks 2007 ; Hardt and Negri 2004 ). Our findings suggest that, instead of dissolving boundaries, workers constantly struggle to draw boundaries between what counts as work and as life, and that this varies primarily in relation to gender and stage in a gendered life trajectory. Work extensification is compensated for via a perceived freedom to shape one's own life, which is articulated in terms of individualized boundary‐drawing. While younger men embraced ‘always on’ work, they also articulated anxieties about how these work habits might interfere with family aspirations. This was also true for younger women who also struggled to make time for life in the present. For mothers, boundary drawing was articulated as a necessity but was framed more in terms of personal choice by fathers. Although all participants distinguished between paid work and life as distinct sites of value, boundaries were individually drawn and resist any easy mapping of masculinity and femininity onto the domains of work and life. Instead, we argue that it is the process of boundary drawing that reveals gendered patterns. The personalized struggles of these relatively privileged middle‐class workers centre on improving the quality of their lives, but raise important questions about the political possibilities within and beyond the world of post‐Fordist labour.     

The effects of exercise reminder software program on office workers' perceived pain level, work performance and quality of life

In direct proportion to current technological developments, both the computer usage in the workplaces is increased and requirement of leaving the desk for an office worker in order to photocopy a document, send or receive an e-mail is decreased. Therefore, office workers stay in the same postures accompanied by long periods of keyboard usage. In recent years, with intent to reduce the incidence of work related musculoskeletal disorders several exercise reminder software programs have been developed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the exercise reminder software program on office workers' perceived pain level, work performance and quality of life. 39 healthy office workers accepted to attend the study. Participants were randomly split in to two groups, control group (n = 19) and intervention group (n = 20). Visual Analogue Scale to evaluate the perceived pain was administered all of the participants in the beginning and at the end of the study. The intervention group used the program for 10 weeks. Findings showed that the control group VAS scores remained the same, but the intervention group VAS scores decreased in a statistically significant way (p < 0.01). Results support that such exercise reminder software programs may help to reduce perceived pain among office workers. Further long term studies with more subjects are needed to describe the effects of these programs and the mechanism under these effects.