Clerical Occupations Research Articles

Evolution of disability in late 19th century America: Civil War pensions for Union Army veterans with musculoskeletal conditions.

This article examines the evolution of musculoskeletal (MSK) disability and its impact on mortality and work patterns in the late 19th century in America, in the context of the Civil War disability policy scheme. The study was conducted on 17,702 Union Army (UA) Civil War veterans. Of these, 10,789 were examined and diagnosed with major MSK conditions, rheumatism, sciatica, and spinal curvature, between 1862 and 1907. Analyses examine MSK (i) prevalence rates by birth cohort and age group; (ii) fatality rates as compared with other disabilities; (iii) risk rates by occupation type; and (iv) lifespan for MSK patients. MSK conditions are commonly claimed disabilities within the Civil War data set, with prevalence rates increasing with age. Regression studies show that working in clerical and professional (relative to manual labor) occupations decreases the likelihood of being examined for and diagnosed with MSK conditions. MSK patients examined at older ages tended to have longer lifespan than those examined at younger ages. The findings suggest that changes in age, environmental, and occupational conditions during the late 19th century affected MSK condition prevalence and the average lifespan of MSK patients. Implications for contemporary disability policy are discussed.

The Occupational And Skill Structure Of New Apprenticeships: A Commentary

This article critically evaluates recent research from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NC VER) on the occupational structure of apprentices and trainees. This study argues that the research is flawed by the NCVER's demand that traditional trade apprenticeships and traineeships be regarded as a unitary vocational education system, New Apprenticeships. It is argued, firstly, that such an approach obscures the occupational and skill structure of traineeships. In contrast to the NC VER research, this study finds that traineeships are highly skewed towards occupations such as labouring and elementary clerical occupations. Secondly, using New Apprenticeships as the level of analysis leads to an inadequate policy response to skill shortages and the needs of individuals disadvantaged in the labour market. Thirdly, research based on the New Apprenticeships concept incorrectly implies that the qualifications and career paths of apprentices and trainees are equivalent. Finally, a related issue is the lack of commensurability of vocational qualifications at the same AQF level, and the problems to which this gives rise for the national system of classifying vocational occupations. It is concluded that in general apprenticeships and traineeships should not he regarded apriori as offering ‘equivalent’ training and qualifications, though claims for equivalence could be made on a case-by-case basis on the weight of evidence.

Temped Out? Industry Rhetoric, Labor Regulation and Economic Restructuring in the Temporary Staffing Business

The article develops a conceptualization of the role of the temporary staffing industry (TSI) in the wider economy, with particular reference to the 'home'of temping, the USA. It is suggested that the TSI should be understood as an active agent of labor-market deregulation and restructuring, contrary to the industry's selfrepresentation as a neutral intermediator in the job market and as a mere facilitator of more efficient and flexible employment systems. The article draws attention to the active steps that the industry has taken to establish (and defend) the legally ambiguous 'triangular' employment relationship upon which its very viability depends and, more generally, to make and grow its markets in segments as diverse as light assembly and construction work, health care, accountancy, teaching and a range of clerical occupations. The article argues also for a more finely grained analysis of the ways in which the temporary staffing business has itself transformed and restructured - as an inventive and energetic vendor of labor flexibility in what has been an expanding market since the industry's take-off in the 1970s. In fact, the American TSI has experienced a series of distinctive stages of growth over the past three decades, during which time it has searched but failed to find alternatives to the established business model of narrow margins, price competition and commodification. If there are limits to this industry's growth, then, these may well prove to be internal ones.

The Billings Report and the Occupational Attainment of American Jewry, 1890

This paper is based on a survey conducted in 1890 by the Census Office of the vital statistics of over 10,600 Jewish families who as of December 31, 1889 had been in the United States for five or more years (Billings Report). The paper begins by discussing the origin and nature of the survey and two individuals involved in the project, Billings and Solomons. It then discusses the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents and compares their occupation distribution by gender with that of the white population in general. Jewish families were identified through congregation lists. The respondents were predominantly foreign born of German-Jewish ancestry. Compared by gender with the white population in the 1890 U.S. Census of Population, the Jews, especially Jewish women, were less likely to report they were engaged in an occupation. Jewish men reporting an occupation were engaged primarily in sales (57 percent) and clerical (20 percent) occupations, while the Jewish women reporting an occupation were engaged primarily in sales, clerical, craft, and teaching jobs. In contrast, the total white population was employed primarily in laborer, agricultural, operative, and servant jobs. The occupational data on Jews in the Billings Report are reproduced in an appendix.

The distribution of occupations in two populations with upper limb pain.

Occupations of two geographically distinct populations of patients with upper limb pain were examined. Relative risks for being in an occupation were calculated for subjects with epicondylitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and pain syndromes in one population and nonspecific occupational overuse syndrome (OOS) in the other. Population A subjects (806 female, 154 male Auckland clinic referrals) with epicondylitis and carpal tunnel syndrome had higher rates of manual occupations compared with the Auckland employed population, consistent with previous research. Both Population A and Population B subjects (1,188 female, 499 male national notifications to the Department of Labour) with pain syndrome or nonspecific OOS had increased rates of clerical occupations. Relative risks ranged from 2.24 (95% CI 1.69,2.97) to 3.92 (3.50 ,4.40). Word processor operators, data-entry operators, and mail sorters were overrepresented in both populations. An unexplained association between nonspecific upper arm pain and being in some clerical occupations requires further research.

Dual-Earner Couples in Britain and France: Gender Divisions of Domestic Labour and Parenting Work in different Welfare States

In recent years, much cross-national research on women's work has focused on the impact of the state in creating the conditions to enable women to combine paid work and motherhood. However, when dealing with women's domestic responsibilities, this research has concentrated heavily on caring functions, whilst largely ignoring the importance of other basic household chores. Furthermore, few studies have addressed the question of how state policy concerning women, work and childcare impacts on the ways in which parenting and domestic duties are constructed and distributed between mothers, fathers and others in the everyday experiences of individuals. The present article addresses both of these questions through evidence gathered from a qualitative cross-national comparative study of the child-care strategies of two groups of women, one French and one British, working in secretarial or clerical occupations, living with a partner and with at least one child aged under twelve. Minimal differences concerning the gender division of domestic and parenting work are discovered between these two national groups. This finding is then used to question some of the theoretical perspectives regarding the relationship between women's greater participation in employment and men's greater participation in domestic and parenting work

Men, management and multiple masculinities in organisations

One of the most important shifts in the theorisation of the social construction of gender identities has been the recognition of their relational and multiple nature. In my work, on merchant banking in the city of London, I suggested that two dominant rhetorics of masculinity and gendered performances, adopted by men working in particular spaces in banks, were distinguishable. In this paper, I return to the interviews that I undertook with these men, re-reading the transcripts in order to try to demonstrate that a more nuanced understanding of the complex and contradictory ways that men interact with other men in the workplace – peers, subordinates and superiors – is possible. The focus of this paper is on the ways in which men manage other men, unpicking the dominant or hegemonic view of male managers as rational. Men, as well as women, engage in emotional labour in organisations. In my earlier work, I drew only on the interviews that I had carried out with men in professional positions, contrasting corporate financiers with dealers and traders. Here I also draw on interviews with men in back office employment, in professional and in technical and clerical occupations, contrasting the management styles of these men with those of corporate finance managers.

When does cardiovascular risk start? Past and present socioeconomic circumstances and risk factors in adulthood.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To compare associations of childhood and adult socioeconomic position with cardiovascular risk factors measured in adulthood. To estimate the effects of adult socioeconomic position after adjustment for childhood...

Political motherhood and the everyday experience of mothering: a comparison of the child care strategies of French and British working mothers

In contrast to the majority of research on the relationship between women and the state which bases its findings on nationally aggregated data and concentrates its analysis on the forces which shape national policy concerning gender, this article adopts a micro-social approach to this question. Based on the findings from an in-depth qualitative cross-national study of the child care strategies of 112 mothers working in secretarial or clerical occupations in two countries with very different configurations of ‘political motherhood’, namely, France and Britain, the article assesses the impact of these varying policy environments on the construction of mothering in the everyday lives of employed women. It finds that different configurations of political motherhood have a significant impact on the practical aspects of these women's child care strategies but less impact on their fundamental conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of mothering. It concludes by considering the significance of these findings for current debates concerning the role of the state in perpetuating or combating unequal gender relations.

EXPLORING OPTIONS FOR SUPPORTING TEST USE IN SITUATIONS PRECLUDING LOCAL VALIDATION

This paper examines some of the options available to practitioners interested in supporting the use of selection measures in an organization, including test transportability, validity generalization (VG), and synthetic validation, reviewing some of the advantages, disadvantages and requirements of each approach. Results of four unpublished, proprietary validation studies are reported which compare validity estimates provided by the job component validation (JCV; a type of synthetic validation) routine inherent in the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) with observed validity coefficients for a variety of criterion measures. We then examine the accuracy of the JCV procedure in predicting validity coefficients for 51 clerical classifications extracted from an existing PAQ job evaluation database of a large utility company. Predicted JCVs are compared to mean observed validity coefficients for five DOT clerical categories provided by Pearlman, Schmidt, and Hunter (1980). The VG and JCV methods provided highly similar and converging estimates of the validity of cognitive ability tests for predicting performance in clerical occupations. Implications for practice are discussed, particularly the need to use multiple, converging lines of evidence to support test use.

The epidemiology of chronic fatigue in San Francisco

Despite considerable research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and conditions associated with unexplained chronic fatigue (CF), little is known about their prevalence and demographic distribution in the population. The present study describes the epidemiology and characteristics of self-reported CF and related conditions in a diverse urban community. The study used a cross-sectional telephone screening survey of households in San Francisco, followed by interviews with fatigued and nonfatigued residents. Respondents who appeared to meet case definition criteria for CFS, based on self-reported fatigue characteristics, symptoms, and medical history, were classified as CFS-like cases. Subjects who reported idiopathic chronic fatigue (ICF) that did not meet CFS criteria were classified as ICF-like cases. Screening interviews were completed for 8,004 households, providing fatigue and demographic information for 16,970 residents. Unexplained CF was extremely rare among household residents <18 years of age, but was reported by 2% of adult respondents. A total of 33 adults (0.2% of the study population) were classified as CFS-like cases and 259 (1.8%) as ICF-like cases. Neither condition clustered within households. CFS- and ICF-like illnesses were most prevalent among women and persons with annual household incomes below $40,000, and least prevalent among Asians. The prevalence of CFS-like illness was elevated among African Americans, Native Americans, and persons engaged in clerical occupations. Although CFS-like cases were more severely ill than those with ICF-like illness, a similar symptom pattern was observed in both groups. In conclusion, conditions associated with unexplained CF occur in all sociodemographic groups but appear to be most prevalent among women, persons with lower income, and some racial minorities.

Employment outcomes following spinal cord injury.

A study of 83 Australian adults with spinal cord injuries found that at least 56% had worked at some time post-injury and those who were working when surveyed had done so for an average of close to 10 years. Clerical, office, and administrative occupations proved to be the most suitable. Language: en

Revisiting Occupational Crowding in the United States: A Preliminary Study

In her study of occupational segregation in the United States using the 1960 Census, Barbara R. Bergmann found black males with low levels of education more concentrated in low-skill service and laborer occupations than white males and virtually excluded from higher status occupations. Utilizing a crowding index which, similar to Bergmann's, controls for the education level of the worker, this paper presents an analysis of the employment patterns of black males and females in fifty-nine occupations in Wayne County (Detroit, Michigan) and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in 1990. Within blue-collar and service employment, males are under-represented in the craft occupations and concentrated in low-skill operative, laborer, and service occupations. Females are under-represented in both craft and operative occupations and concentrated in low-skill service occupations. Within white-collar employment, both males and females are largely excluded from high-skill private sector managerial occupations. Black representation in public sector managerial and private sector professional occupations is better in Detroit than Pittsburgh. The decline in manufacturing employment in both counties has left black males with fewer occupational options and black females over-represented in low status clerical and service occupations.

Personal and family backgrounds of first-year veterinary science students at the University of Queensland.

To provide information on changes in the social and educational backgrounds of veterinary students over a 10 year period in an effort to determine the extent to which they are representative of the community. Questionnaires were completed by first-year veterinary students at The University of Queensland in 1985 and 1986 (152 students), and 1995 and 1996 (154), and the data were analysed using the SAS System for Windows. The gender ratio of first-year veterinary students was 50:50 (male:female) in 1985 and 1986 but 10 years later it had changed to 38:62. In 1985 and 1986 77% had come directly from school, with 43% of the total coming from government schools, 17% from Catholic schools and 34% from other private (independent) schools. A decade later the percentage coming directly from school had decreased to 40%, that from Independent schools increased to 45% and that from cities increased from 53% to 64%. The educational backgrounds of parents varied widely though a high percentage had university degrees; mothers had received less formal education than fathers, and the educational attainments of both parents were higher at the beginning than at the end of the study. More than half (57% initially; 67% 10 years later) the fathers were in professional or managerial occupations, and a similar number (50% initially; 48% 10 years later) of mothers were teachers, nurses or clerks. The number of males from country areas decreased from 26 to 16 over this period. These veterinary students differed from the community generally in that progressively more were female, more were from Independent schools, their parents had more formal education and more of their parents were in professional, managerial or clerical occupations.

African American women in the workplace: relationships between job conditions, racial bias at work, and perceived job quality.

Although studies have described work processes among employed African American women, few have examined the influence of these processes on job outcomes. This study examined relationships between African American women's exposure to a range of occupational stressors, including two types of racial bias--institutional discrimination and interpersonal prejudice--and their evaluations of job quality. Findings indicated that institutional discrimination and interpersonal prejudice were more important predictors of job quality among these women than were other occupational stressors such as low task variety and decision authority, heavy workloads, and poor supervision. Racial bias in the workplace was most likely to be reported by workers in predominantly white work settings. In addition, Black women who worked in service, semiskilled, and unskilled occupations reported significantly more institutional discrimination, but not more interpersonal prejudice, than did women in professional, managerial, and technical occupations or those in sales and clerical occupations.

The Growth of Temporary Services Work

Temporary services employment grew rapidly over the past several decades and now accounts for a sizable fraction of aggregate employment. The authors use Current Population Survey data to examine the changing nature of temporary work and discuss explanations for its growth. Temps are no longer overwhelmingly female or limited to clerical occupations. They have less labor market security than permanent workers, being prone to more unemployment and more underemployment. Few, however, are in temp positions a year later and the majority transition to permanent employment. Temp wages are approximately 20 percent below permanent workers, but individual and job characteristics explain approximately two-thirds of the gap.

WHO GETS MATERNITY LEAVE?: THE CASE OF MALAYSIA

This paper evaluates a maternity leave policy designed to reduce gender inequality in the labor market. It examines the extent to which Malaysia's paid maternity leave policy provides working women with leave as a condition of their employment. Since all women are not the same, a policy may benefit some women and not others. Using data from the Second Malaysian Family Life Survey, the paper estimates the likelihood of a woman's receiving maternity leave as a function of demographic, employment, and occupational variables. The results show that being Indian, having higher education, holding jobs that are full‐time and all‐year, holding jobs with higher earnings at the start, and holding professional and clerical occupations increase the likelihood that a woman will receive maternity leave. These results imply that Malaysia's maternity leave policy does not provide broad coverage to working women—that is, only some women under some conditions in some occupations tend to receive leave. The evidence suggests that women in the primary sector of the labor market receive leave while women in the secondary sector do not.

Upper limb repetitive strain injuries in Manitoba.

A review of workers' compensation board (WCB) claims in Manitoba, Canada identified an estimated 382 upper limb repetitive strain injury (RSI) claims or 9.3% of all upper limb WCB claims accepted in 1991. Tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) were the most frequent diagnoses (27.5% and 19.3%, respectively). Rates of RSI were not significantly different by gender and age. RSI claimants had been experiencing symptoms for an average of 8 months prior to filing a compensation claim. While clerical occupations accounted for 13.6% of all upper limb RSI claims, the rates for RSIs in these occupations were low (0.67/1,000 workers), in contrast to occupations with the highest RSI rates: food, beverage, and related processing occupations (14.68/1,000 workers) and fabricating, assembling, and repairing of metal products (9.32/1,000). The highest risk industries were meat and poultry processing-related (23.48/1,000) and the manufacturing of airplanes (9.06/1,000). RSI claims were significantly more costly (+5,569 vs. +2,480, p < 0.0001) and required more time loss (71.4 vs. 33.6 d, p < 0.0001) than similar musculoskeletal non-RSI claims. Similarly, RSI claimants were less likely to return to the same job (67.3% vs. 81.0%, p < 0.0001) than non-RSI claimants. It was concluded that the cost and severity of RSI claims militate for intensified preventive measures.

Structural Changes in the Receiving Country and Future Labor Migration –The Case of Kuwait

Structural changes in the labor force of the receiving country can provide some important clues to the speed and nature of replacement of migrant workers by indigenous ones. This article analyzes changes in the national labor force with regard to volume, age and sex composition, retention in the labor force, productivity, type of occupation, and sector of activity. Changes in the above features during the last two decades indicate that the median age of the national male labor force remains low, its concentration in the public sector has increased, and its participation in production and manual work has declined further. The labor force participation of females has increased substantially, and they comprised 31 percent of the national labor force in 1993. Kuwaiti females participate mainly in the professional or technical and clerical occupations. The number of non-Kuwaiti females in the labor force has increased, with domestic servants as a major category. The above structural changes suggest that the national labor force is growing in a manner that implies a continued long-term dependence on foreign workers. Dependence on expatriates is likely to be greatest for occupations involving maintenance of infrastructures and personal services.

Women in the public sector: cancer mortality.

Very few mortality occupational studies of female workers have been published, even though the number of women in the workforce has increased dramatically to reach more than 45%. Public sector employees comprise 12% of the female workforce. This article reports the findings of a retrospective cohort mortality study of 1371 full-time female employees of the city of Buffalo, New York, who were employed between January 1, 1950, and October 1, 1979, and have worked a minimum of 5 years. The majority of women were hired in the 1940s and early 1950s and began employment after age 30. This predominantly white-collar, service-oriented female cohort demonstrated significantly lower all-cause mortality than that expected based on US mortality rates for white females. The highest observed numbers of cancer deaths were for breast, digestive, and respiratory cancers. The majority of person-years were accrued in clerical and service occupations. Higher-than-expected mortality was shown for reproductive and respiratory cancers among professional employees; digestive cancers, diseases of the nervous system, and pneumonia among clerical workers; and cancers of the lung and brain and diseases of the digestive system, especially ulcers, among service employees. Because these results are based on few observed cases, they must be interpreted cautiously.