Occupational Community Research Articles

UX as Disruption

Over the past 30 years, there has been an ongoing shift in software from a system-centered to user-centered approach. When user-centered approaches are introduced to teams and organizations, conflict often emerges. Conflict could be dismissed as idiosyncratic differences among team members. In this paper, the authors account for conflicts as a clash of worldview between occupational communities: engineers and UX designers. They define the engineering worldview as the application of science and mathematics to structure sociotechnical processes to solve concrete, pre-specified problems, from an external perspective. By contrast, the UX worldview is a human-centered exploration, through iterative cycles of design and inquiry, of the contingent and context-sensitive ways people mediate activities with technologies and systems. Interpersonal conflict in teams symbolizes a conflict between sharply contrasting ways of seeing the world. By considering the root causes, project managers can productively leverage the expertise of both communities by managing expectations, relations, and artifacts.

Psychiatry Resident Quality of Life.

The objective of this study was to evaluate psychiatry resident physician quality of life. A voluntary, anonymous, 10-min survey was e-mailed to residents from all 14 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited programs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Included in the survey was the Multi-Cultural Quality of Life Inventory (MQLI). Response rate was 112 (34.1%). Internal consistency of the MQLI was high (Cronbach's alpha 0.92), and follow-up exploratory factor analysis extracted only one underlying factor (60.1% variance among all 10 items). Average total MQLI score was 80.6. No significant difference in MQLI total was found for therapy status, sex, or race. Post-graduate year (PGY) 4 residents scored higher on total MQLI score (86.7) (F = 2.80, p = 0.04) and ranked occupational functioning and community and services support subscales significantly higher (occupation F = 2.73, p = 0.048, community F = 3.11, p = 0.030). Total MQLI score for residents over the age of 40 (n = 3) was significantly lower (F = 3.45, p = 0.019). Despite the stresses of residency training, residents from a variety of programs in one geographic area report an encouraging quality of life on the MQLI. Psychiatry resident quality of life is similar to that reported in other populations of mental health professionals.

Go Back to Texas, Gas Bastards! How a Newcomer Population of Itinerant Energy Workers Manage Dirty Work Stigma in the Marcellus Shale Region

The present study examines how itinerant energy workers in the Marcellus Shale region reject stigmatizing labels and construct a positive, work-related identity around sociopositive actions. Qualitative interviews (n = 22) with employees at one contract drilling company are the primary data collection method. Participants use several protective techniques to manage the dirty work stigma that they perceive Marcellus Shale residents ascribe to their work and project onto them. By reframing, recalibrating, and refocusing stigma onto personal and environmental safety, oil-field workers reinforce their preferred self-identities. A social weighting technique allows workers to condemn those community residents who condemn them. This study expands knowledge on how the dirty work label fosters occupational communities within natural resource-based labor, while complementing boomtown studies that focus almost exclusively on community residents.

Lived Experiences of Persons with Disabilities Living Alone in a Single Room Occupancy Community

Lived Experiences of Persons with Disabilities Living Alone in a Single Room Occupancy Community

Understanding video game developers as an occupational community

The video game industry has rapidly expanded over the last four decades; yet there is limited research about the workers who make video games. In examining these workers, this article responds to calls for renewed attention to the role of the occupation in understanding project-based workers in boundaryless careers. Specifically, this article uses secondary analysis of online sources to demonstrate that video game developers can be understood as a unique social group called an occupational community (OC). Once this classification has been made, the concept of OC can be used in future research to understand video game workers in terms of identity formation, competency development, career advancement and support, collective action, as well as adherence to and deviance from organizational and industry norms.

The Impact of Occupational Community on the Quality of Internal Control

Senior executives in major corporations have drawn attention in recent years for a range of unethical activities. Despite a rise in measures to protect against such lapses, executives still make decisions whether or not to comply with reporting standards, best practices, industry norms and legislation. The prior literature in this area addresses individual characteristics of decision makers and social networks between executives and boards of directors, but to this point has largely overlooked group dynamics of the executive team. Our study addresses this gap and examines the relationship between an occupational community of top executives and the quality of internal control. We construct a unique measure for the executive occupational community based on CEO and CFO’s joint tenure. Our findings show that the number of years of CEO/CFO’s joint tenure is significantly and negatively associated with internal control weakness, suggesting that the longer the executive relationship, the lower the likelihood of internal control weakness. Our study indicates that the presence of an occupational community contributes to better internal control.

A Question of Equilibrium: Cruise Employees at Sea

This research article investigates the effect that extended social interactions, found among the crew on board cruise ships, has on workplace engagement. Extended social interactions relate to the relatively lengthy contracts that are experienced by seafarers and the resultant implications of working and socializing in close proximity with colleagues. The project reflected on the limited context-specific literature that focused on job satisfaction, engagement, and occupational communities and more generic theory relating to managing employment relations, employee engagement, and employee commitment. An online survey was used to identify crewmembers' perceptions of the extended social interaction. The research concluded that the extended social interactions found on board cruise ships had a largely favorable impact on workplace engagement. Furthermore, respondents were overwhelmingly positive when considering the effect that their working relationships had on the professional setting.

OSHwiki goes live – a new web platform to connect the occupational safety and health community

OSHwiki goes live – a new web platform to connect the occupational safety and health community

A phenomenological approach to hospitality management research: Chefs’ occupational commitment

This paper showcases the development of a mixed methods study empathetic with the interpretivist paradigm and deploying a phenomenological approach designed to investigate a perennial hospitality industry human resource management issue – organisational and occupational commitment. In so doing this paper builds onto a body of work which hallmarks the developmental maturity of hospitality scholarship. Specifically, the paper proposes that the judicial selection of various conceptual and operational research tools in the development of a methodology, including research strategy and design, facilitates commensurability and insights into research problems not otherwise necessarily illuminated by ‘aparadigmatic’ studies. The study finds that chefs, cookery being a core hospitality occupation, employ a range of rhetorical devices to reveal the meanings and understandings of shared values and beliefs integral to their occupational community; including creativity, which if unrequited, the research concludes, compromise organisational and occupational commitment.

Strategies for Assessing Human Health Impacts of Crude Oil Releases

ABSTRACTOil spills create unique challenges in regards to the assessment of potential exposures to response workers and members of the public, and in assessing the potential environmental impacts of the release. This presentation discusses the use of breathing zone air samples taken above or in the direct vicinity of freshly released product for the establishment of air (personal and ambient) monitoring strategies. Air samples collected directly in the vicinity of freshly released and weathered product can provide critical information regarding the potential for work-site and off-site community exposure monitoring. The relative levels in air of volatile organics emitted from fresh product can be used to focus analytical sampling efforts on those constituents with the greatest potential for exceeding occupational exposure levels and community exposure guidelines, and which have the potential for impacts on human health. Finally, analytical methods for evaluation of air samples should include reporting of tentatively identified compounds (TICs), as the primary constituents of crude oil are often not included as target analytes in commonly-employed analytical methods and will likely vary based on the type of crude oil released.

Erosion and Renewal of Professional Powers in Public Sector Employment: The Role of Occupational Community

This paper describes a case study of a particular form of knowledge worker; lawyers, and their efforts to achieve collective bargaining. Within self-regulated professions like law, the professional regulatory body controls much of the labour process and defines the body of professional knowledge. Apprenticeships, such as clinical locums in medicine and articles in law, play an important role in the transfer of labour process norms. However, more and more professionals seek employment in large organizations where the autonomy historically enjoyed by the self-employed worker and crafted in the confines of mentorships is increasingly subject to bureaucratic and administrative controls. In large employment settings rules and policies may interfere with workers’ exercise of professional discretion and full utilization of their knowledge. The result of the erosion of traditional labour process power under bureaucratic forms of organization leads professionals to seek alternate forms of control. Many turn to collective bargaining as a mean to wrest back control over the application of discretionary judgment from large, often public sector, employers. In the case of the legal profession in Canada, a great many lawyers are employed in the public sector. The subspecialty of criminal prosecution was broadly framed as a service private sector lawyers once provided on a fee-for-service basis, but until relatively recently it was not a distinct area of practice to which one dedicated a career. The regularization of prosecution in the public sector results in a strong sense of occupational community among public prosecutors. The forces of bureaucratic control and occupational community act together to support collective bargaining among professionals who otherwise have been opposed to this strategy, claiming it is “unprofessional”.

Anthropological Fieldwork among the Commercial Fishermen of Port Dover, Ontario, 1977-1978: Chronicling the Cultural Traditions of an Occupational Community in a Lake Erie Commercial Fishing Port

Anthropological Fieldwork among the Commercial Fishermen of Port Dover, Ontario, 1977-1978: Chronicling the Cultural Traditions of an Occupational Community in a Lake Erie Commercial Fishing Port

Beyond Boundaries. Reconceptualizing Exchanges between Management Scholars and Practitioners

This paper challenges orthodox understandings about the existence of a theory-practice gap in organization science and points out the limitations of, and uncertainties behind, seeing management academics and practitioners as two separate communities with different systems of expertise (i.e., theoretical and practical expertise). Based on an ethnographic study of two groups of academics and practitioners in an executive master’s program, the research articulates a process view of how academics and practitioners, in particular, and individuals belonging to different occupational communities, in general, exchange expertise across boundaries. Findings suggest that academics and practitioners can resourcefully deal with exchanges that are pervaded by information shortage, differences and misunderstandings, thanks to their exceptional ability to develop provisional relations: temporary, open-ended and malleable relations that draw on the broader systems of relations in which they are entangled elsewhere. Accordingly, theories and practices are not exclusive systems of expertise but common resources for instrumental exchanges; when called to interact, academics are easily able to pass from theory to practical theorizing, as practitioners can switch from an involved practical mode to a quasi-theoretical one. These findings contribute to boundary spanning literature by discussing the issues of exchange multiplicity, hybrid systems of expertise, and continuous transformation through relationality

Respiratory Sensitization & Sickness from Welding/Burning Isocyanate Containing Paints

The purpose of this paper is to make the environmental and occupational health community aware of a serious health risk associated with the common practice of burning industrial paint off of metal surfaces during or prior to welding. On four occasions bystanders and welder/burner personnel have experienced illness as a result of being exposed to the combustion products of isocyanate paints that were being burned off metal surfaces. In each case, the burning and the exposed people were outside in an open environment where the health risk was thought to be minimal due to the open environment with nominal wind movement through the work area. In one case, the person (a burner) developed permanent sensitization to phthalic anhydride as a result of the exposure. Phthalic anhydride was determined to be decomposition product of burned isocyanate paint. In the other three cases (which involved very short exposures), between two and six people became ill but did not develop sensitization. Their symptoms included dizziness, nausea, headache, and breathing difficulty the severity of which varied from very uncomfortable to temporarily incapacitating. This paper discusses the circumstances associated with each event, the approach used to determine that phthalic anhydride was a decomposition product, and some practical things that can be done to avoid having employees become victims of exposure.

The Company We Keep: Occupational Community in the High-Tech Network Society

The Company We Keep: Occupational Community in the High-Tech Network Society

Student Internships with Unions and Workers: Building the Occupational Health and Safety Movement

One of the most successful programs to recruit young professionals to the occupational safety and health field was launched more than 35 years ago, in 1976. Created by the Montefiore Medical Center's Department of Social Medicine collaborating with Tony Mazzocchi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), it placed medical, nursing, and public health students in summer internships with local unions to identify and solve health and safety problems in the workplace. The experience of working with and learning from workers about the complex interactions of political, economic, and scientific-technological issues surrounding workplace conditions inspired many students to enter and stay in our field. Many former interns went on to make important medical and scientific contributions directly linked to their union-based projects. Former interns are now among the leaders within the occupational health and safety community, holding key positions in leading academic institutions and governmental agencies.

Occupational Therapy Community Practice and Home Assessments: Use of the Home Safety Self-Assessment Tool (HSSAT) to Support Aging in Place

ABSTRACTMore than 70 million Americans are expected to be 65 years or older by 2030, with 8.7 million 85 or older. Occupational therapists can provide client and population-centered interventions to promote home safety, functional abilities, and quality of life to support older adults’ desires for independence and to age in place. This includes the use of assistive technology, home modifications, and rehabilitation principles, to design real life solutions to support the needs of older adults. Using case study methodology this paper focuses on the development and pilot-testing of the Home Safety Self-Assessment Tool (HSSAT), a new home assessment, designed for use by older individuals to promote home safety and aging in place. The results suggest the tool may assist older adults in identifying environmental factors that are related to falls and facilitate their ability to age in place.

Occupational transitions in three coastal villages in Central Java, Indonesia, in the context of sea level rise: a case study

The transition from one system to another as a mechanism of adaptation to an external disturbance is widely discussed in terms of ‘regime shifts’ in resilience research. But occupational transitions by communities due to coastal hazards such as coastal erosion and strong waves have not been studied in depth from a systems perspective. Such a perspective can contribute towards a better understanding of the process and pattern behind transformation among coastal societies. The present case study of coastal occupational communities in Central Java province, Indonesia, includes fishers, brackish pond farmers and labourers. It investigates the historical occupational transitions and the factors that drive them. The study draws on Participatory Rural Appraisal exercises such as historical timeline analysis and participatory discussions along with a socio-economic survey to study the factors and processes that led these communities to transitional pathways. Historical narratives of the community reveal the significance and influence of livelihood capitals such as social, human, financial, physical and natural capital in the transitions. Through the ‘Marble and Cup’ conceptual framework of the systems transitions, the irreversibility of occupational transitions due to the destruction of natural assets is outlined. This depicts a multi-locale and one-dimensional transition to a singular occupational mode (essentially labourers) in the face of a disturbance like sea level rise, necessitating transformation and building of the livelihood capitals across geographical scales.

The Need for Industry and Occupation Standards in Hospital Discharge Data

Occupational injuries and illnesses affect the productivity of the U.S. workforce, yet public health surveillance in the United States does not adequately track and report these incidents. Adding industry and occupation standards to US hospital data collection would enable physicians, researchers, and payors to accurately account for occupational injuries and illnesses as well as support prevention initiatives. The authors petitioned for the inclusion of standards for industry and occupation within hospital data; however, additional support from the occupational and environmental health community is needed to move the petition to adoption. This article discusses the policy implications and benefits to occupational medicine and public health provided by collecting industry and occupation in hospital discharge data, as well as the process of initiating a data change request with the National Uniform Billing Committee.

Independent living centre occupational therapy (OT) versus routine community OT

Aim To determine whether the occupational therapy service from an independent living centre (ILC) was more or less effective than the routine community occupational therapy service. Methods This study is a pragmatic, pilot RCT, following a parallel group design where we randomized the participants to receive either occupational therapy (OT) services from the ILC (intervention) or routine community OT services (control). An automated randomization system allocated participants into one of the two groups. Intervention group participants usually received the intervention during a one-off visit to the centre of approximately 1.5 hours. Community OT assessments varied in length between 0.5 to 2 hours. The same researcher performed outcome assessments at 3 and 12 months after randomization, with one follow-up telephone contact and a further letter, if required. The primary outcome used to assess dependency was the Community Dependence Index (CDI). Secondary outcomes included a measure of quality of life, the EQ-5D. Results On average, the CDI increased (improved) at 3 months, for both the intervention group and control group, by two to three units on the CDI measure. This implies a small change in dependence were it to have been a real effect. Conclusion Our results found no difference between the two forms of care, but should be treated with caution due to the small sample size.