Time and Work–Life Balance: The Roles of ‘Temporal Customization’ and ‘Life Temporality’

This article poses a challenge to the orthodox binary, conceptualization of work–life balance only made possible by relying on the widespread ‘clock time’ worldview, which understands employment practices in terms of the basic time = money equation. In particular, it is the balance metaphor which relies on a quantification of both work and life in order to make sense and can therefore be seen to be based on an understanding of time as a measurable and value‐able unit. This article seeks to begin the exercise of examining the concept of work–life balance through a broader concept of the temporal dimension than simply limited quantitative notions. Two temporal themes are reported from a study which identified employees who had customized their working pattern to suit the various and multi‐dimensional facets of their lifestyles and thereby successfully improved their work–life balance. Participants in this study demonstrated that an improved work–life balance is more about a mind‐set that refuses to be dominated by a work temporality and is determined to create ‘me time’ rather than e.g. simply choosing a four day week or a part‐time job. It is argued that the notion of work–life balance is more usefully conceptualized within a broader notion of ‘livingscapes’ which contain both elements of work and life and that as researchers, our challenge must be to reflect the complexity of this weave within our analyses of individuals’ work–life balance.     

英汉店铺名称系统的语言特征与文化内涵

从语言学、心理学和跨文化交际的角度看,英汉店铺名称用语的语言和文化特征明显不同。由此可以看出,店铺名称不仅是一种具有识别功能的符号系统,而且是一种反映东、西方民族特征的社会文化现象。     

Control, stress, and job satisfaction in Canadian nurses

The main effects of four domains of control (task, decision, resource, physical environment) on job satisfaction and their interactions with three types of job stressors (task demands, role conflict, interpersonal conflict) were examined in a sample of 765 Canadian nurses. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the proportion of variance in job satisfaction that could be accounted for by job stressors, control, and the interaction of stressors and control in that order. The job stressors were analysed separately and as a composite job demands score, as were the four domains of control. The results indicated that the proportion of variance in job satisfaction increased with the addition of control for the composite scores and for task, resource, and physical environment control. However, decision control did not account for additional variance in job satisfaction above that for any of the job stressors. In addition, none of the stressor x control interactions were significant. The results support previous attempts to test the moderating effects of control, suggesting that perceived control is not a moderator of job stress but rather that it has a direct influence. The relevance of the different domains of control for nurses is discussed.     

Whose attitudes to which aspects of work? or Cool media for high participation

Current approaches to the assessment of job attitudes—for use in job redesign—seem to centre upon the importance of job characteristics, such as those within the Job Characteristics Model. Data collection is largely through well-founded, repeatable, formal questionnaires. It is argued that a broader, ergonomics perspective is required, stressing the importance of job holders' attitudes to the technology being used, the physical environment and workplace, and procedures in support of work, such as training. Furthermore, if we wish to promote the participation of those whose work is being redesigned, the traditional and scientifically respectable questionnaire may not be the correct instrument. Data gathered by means of informal semi-structured discussion may better reflect the concerns and priorities of the people doing the work. Perhaps, to paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, formal job attitude instruments used alone are 'hot media', in the sense of being well-filled with data but low in participation. Informal discussion methods could be seen then as a 'cool medium', high in participation or completion by the audience (McLuhan 1964, pp. 22-23).     

教师的职业倦怠与对策研究

教师的职业倦怠是指教师在体力、精力和能力上都无法应付外界的要求而产生的身心疲劳与耗竭的状态。本文着重阐述了教师职业倦怠产生的原因及职业倦怠带来的危害，并提出了相应的解决策略。     

Good Jobs,Bad Jobs?: Understanding The Quality of Aged Care Jobs,and Why It Matters

Much research on paid care work focuses on this work as care. An equally important issue is its characteristic as paid work. This paper focuses on the characteristics of jobs in Australian aged care facilities, using data from a comprehensive 2003 national survey of direct care workers in Australian aged care facilities. It shows that, on a range of characteristics including pay, aged care jobs compare quite well with other jobs held by Australians who have similar characteristics to aged care workers. Aged care jobs are certainly not unequivocally ‘bad’ jobs. Yet turnover rates amongst these workers are quite high. The paper shows that workers' expectations about remaining in the aged care sector depend largely on their experience of work, particularly their job satisfaction. Job satisfaction, in turn, is affected most by their experience of the work of caring. As in most workplaces, the ability to use their skills without hindrance is important. But care work offers distinctive rewards not captured by notions of professional identity and commitment. The paper concludes by suggesting that a focus on these distinctive rewards will be important in fully understanding paid care work as paid work.     

Nurses: Training for new job demands

This paper argues that both the present and future job demands faced by nurses are likely to exceed the resources of the training which is currently provided for them. This argument will be supported by reference to the authors' studies of stress in nursing, as well as a variety of other sources. The common themes underlying reactions to both present and future demands include first, awareness of high stress levels to be found amongst nurses, and second, an emphasis on communication as both the problem and as the proposed solution. Common responses to these two themes are outlined, including training in stress management, and communication training. Some of the problems and unexamined assumptions (for example that hospital management actually wants to lower stress levels and improve communication in nursing) are examined. Some suggestions are made for developing training in health care contexts, to deal more adequately with likely future demands.     

新形势下如何提高高校毕业生就业率

针对目前我国劳动力市场整体供大于求的供需矛盾,本文从加强就业工作队伍建设、改革教育教学机制、建立全程就业指导体系、积极开辟就业渠道 4个方面探讨了如何提高高校毕业生的就业率。它不仅关系到高校的前途命运,直接影响我国教育事业的发展,更关系到国家的长治久安。     

Dynamic Assignment of Flexible Service Resources

Resource flexibility is an important tool for firms to better match capacity with demand so as to increase revenues and improve service levels. However, in service contexts that require dynamically deciding whether to accept incoming jobs and what resource to assign to each accepted job, harnessing the benefits of flexibility requires using effective methods for making these operational decisions. Motivated by the resource deployment decisions facing a professional service firm in the workplace training industry, we address the dynamic job acceptance and resource assignment problem for systems with general resource flexibility structure, i.e., with multiple resource types that can each perform different overlapping subsets of job types. We first show that, for systems containing specialized resources for individual job types and a versatile resource type that can perform all job types, the exact policy uses a threshold rule. With more general flexibility structures, since the associated stochastic dynamic program is intractable, we develop and test three optimization‐based approximate policies. Our extensive computational tests show that one of the methods, which we call the Bottleneck Capacity Reservation policy, is remarkably effective in generating near‐optimal solutions over a wide range of problem scenarios. We also consider a model variant that requires dynamic job acceptance decisions but permits deferring resource assignment decisions until the end of the horizon. For this model, we discuss an adaptation of our approximate policy, establish the effectiveness of this policy, and assess the value of postponing assignment decisions.     

绩效考核对高校教师工作满意度的影响:职业压力的中介作用

在中国高校全面实施校内岗位津贴及配套政策的情境下,探讨绩效考核对教师工 作满意度的影响。大样本调查结果显示,绩效考核对工作满意度的影响有3条路径：绩效考核对工作满意度直接的积极影响;绩效考核通过职业压力的中介作用,间接影响工作满意度;绩效考核通过考核认知的中介作用,影响职业压力,进而影响工作满意度,其中第1条路径的影响最强,第2条路径的影响相对较弱。高校教师这一职业存在高职业满意度、低薪酬满意度并存的现象。